With a strong performance in the Washington Irish Rugby Club tournament behind it, the rugby team will open its home schedule at 1 tomorrow afternoon against South Pittsburgh.

The team lost its first game of the tournament last Saturday, 14-0, to a team from Wilmington, Del., but advanced to the consolation finals after victories over the Mid-Hudson Club from Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and Cornell University.

In the final game the team battled to a 0-0 tie at the end of regulation with a team from Morris County, N.J., before Mike Norton of Penn State booted a free kick through the uprights in an overtime kick-off to give the team a 3-0 victory.

"I was very happy overall with the comeback," Coach Bruce Hale said. "I assumed that the problems in the first match were caused by a lack of practice time."

The team hasn't had the usual amount of time for outdoor practices because of the weather, but playing four games in two days gave Hale a chance to see how much rust his team accumulated over the winter.

"It's just a matter of continuing the improvement in other, smaller parts of the game, like the finesse aspects," Hale said. "We have to work with the forwards, have the backs work on getting their timing down and their passing down. We're still behind on fitness, we have a lot of work to do there, but I was happy to see about 25 guys contribute to the team."

And Hale will be looking for a similar effort tomorrow against South Pittsburgh, a club team of experienced players which should provide Penn State with a stiff early-season test.

"It's hard to say what they have this year, but they're a pretty good club," Hale said about tomorrow's opponent. "Most of them have played in college, they're a little older than us, and maybe a little bigger than us. We have the better athletes, and we probably do more finesse things than they do.

"I would say we're still favored, but at this point in the season it's hard to say that. Based on the lack of good practices we've had, and were still trying to get our team finalized I would say we're favored but it should be a very close match."

Because of the wet weather, tomorrow's game will be played on the fields across from the Intramural Building and Beaver Stadium rather than the team's usual field near the flower gardens. The bad weather has been more than an inconvenience, because many of the team's players are still learning how to play the game.

"It's a big concern, and it's probably the biggest reason why we started slowly last weekend," Hale said. "You can't do a lot of teaching when people are standing out in the cold. I'd say we're a few weeks behind right now."