Harvard invades Dartmouth's Brophy Field tomorrow in a battle of unbeatens likely to decide the Ivy Conference title.
The Big Green are favorites to claim an 9th consecutive crown, judging by comparing scores against 3d- and 4th-placed Cornell and Brown.
Only a few years ago, the Ancient Eight were urged to move to springtime in the interests of a unified national season. But winning a full slate of Ivy matches is more rewarding than capturing a weekend tournament, and in the Northeast a fall calendar is necessary for a 7-game schedule.
Beyond the championship's intrinsic value, the matchup serves to remind team competition is a primary measure of player development -- not the other way around. Many if not most Ivy players remain neophytes, and as rosters turn over every four or five years, match play indicates whether the schools are refining individual athletes and shaping them to contribute to the XV's performance.
In this respect, Dartmouth and Harvard are foremost among New Englanders, if not more broadly.
Dartmouth, the smallest of the Ivies, is an anchor Varsity Cup team and twice a Collegiate Rugby Championship 7s champion. From the viewpoint of a teenager, few if any high school programs are more advanced than the St. Mary's of the East.
But the converse is true of senior teams. Though the athletes may be stronger and more skillful, most do not cultivate players' talents so well -- especially if progress is measured on a four-year trajectory.
Like Hanover, Cambridge is a place where Olympic hopefuls walk the campus. And so it is 7s has reshaped the worldview of the student-administered club. Harvard now puts more energy into springtime 7s, in hopes of returning to the CRC.
Perhaps this has redounded to the benefit of the 15s side. After a losing 2014 season, Harvard renewed its approach to fitness, trained longer, and consequently sees itself as capable of playing more aggressively.
Harvard's 2007 edition was the last to wrest honors from Hanover. Senior flyhalf Will Collins leads the Crimson, while eightman Jack Braun captains the hosts.
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