Rugby in Bermuda

Spring vacation in Bermuda has its attractions: the climate is just right, the beaches are wide, the swimming excellent, the calypso music fine, the rugby matches entertaining and, only incidentally, the girls outnumber the boys by better than two to one.

Last year, Don Saunders '57 made out well with this "real ratio." He saw Betsy ("She's very blonde!") almost as soon as he stepped off the plane; a friend introduced them and a week's time did it: they will be married in August. Betsy, now a secretary in Boston, is chained to her desk; so this year in Bermuda it's all rugby for Don - within limits.

As both captain and coach of the Dartmouth rugby team, Don will be well occupied. He leads a 21-man squad that has been working out for weeks in the field house. The team is not at all just a bunch of fellows who want to have a good time in Bermuda: they play the game seriously and train hard. "We're mostly frustrated football players," Don says, "who enjoy contact sport and who like to keep in shape."

This spring the squad will be augmented by men who were standouts on the gridiron last fall: Wayne Kakela, Dave Moss, Jim Riffle and John Donnelly, to name a few.

Don played football, basketball and baseball at the Hackley School in Tarrytown, New York, where he was president of the school in his senior year. His father commutes from their Bronxville, New York, home to work in New York City for the Compton Advertising Agency. Don's brother, Ashley '53, talked Dartmouth so much that there wasn't a question about choosing a college when Don finished Hackley. He played freshman football and baseball at Dartmouth and then, in the fall of his sophomore year, he went out for rugby and stuck with it. Don started out as an Economics major and is now in first-year Tuck.

Rugby is not a DCAC sport, although it is very active. This year, about 75 men went out for the team. The College purchased uniforms and Red and Mrs. Rolfe will put up with Bermuda's hardships to accompany the boys.

The team has shown a lot of resourcefulness in assuring that the very best players will make the trip. There is an aid program for the fellows who couldn't save enough or hit up dad for the fare. The airline gives one free ticket for every fifteen sold and so the squad became a sales force and earned five free rides.

The boys will live in WW I British Army barracks while on the island and, although they are not traditionally anti-social, the coach will impose a curfew 24 hours before each game. "If you're not in condition," Don says, "you're sorry. The 'no substitution' rule catches up with you. We have won some tough games only because of our condition. We took one from Yale a few years ago when they had only eleven men on the field at the end of the game." (Fact for the uninitiated: there are 15 men on a rugby team.)

The Dartmouth rugby team will be aiming for a second leg on the Bermuda Cup this year. Don, as team captain, is supremely confident about the outcome. He points out that, because of conflicting vacation schedules, only Harvard and Cornell will represent the Ivy League. (A Bermuda team and a Canadian team will also compete.) Last year Dartmouth beat Harvard 23-0 and Cornell is not expected to be strong. "The chances are good that we will take both of them."

Don, the coach, has his eye on the cup but tempers such optimism. "We have the boys and we will play hard, he says. But one thing is sure: when the sands are warm and the ratio is real, both coach and captain will be all rugby - within limits.

Donald D. Saunders '57