The Mid-Atlantic Rugby Football Union Championships will begin tomorrow, as the Penn State men's rugby team will head to Virginia to test its luck.

They are scheduled to play Virginia Tech in the first game and then take on the winner of the Navy vs. Kutztown game.

Navy is ranked number one, although Penn State beat them in the fall. The number one ranking came from point differential criteria. Virginia Tech took the second ranking and Penn State took third.

The winners of the first game tomorrow will play for first place and the losing teams will play for third. The fourth place team after the end of the tournament will not qualify for the Sweet Sixteens.

Penn State realizes the challenge it has in facing Virginia Tech.

"Virginia Tech has very good backs and they handle the ball really well," Penn State coach Terry Ryland said. "They have excellent speed across the back line. Their fly half and center are the focus of their attack. If we scrummage well, it's going to be a draw there, but we need to stay up on our game."

"It's going to be our toughest game of the year," senior John Grace said.

Team president Kirk Neubauer said, "the game with Virginia Tech will be a very good, close game."

In practice this week, the Ruggers have been working on scrumming.

"We need to tighten that up," Ryland said. "We made great strides against Princeton."

Grace said that it was a tough week at practice because of a lot of players having exams that conflicted with practice times. He said that although the Ruggers dominated in scrums against Princeton, Virginia Tech has a much tougher pack.

Ryland will be counting on the strong play of Grace to lead his team in this weekend's games.

"John Grace has really been playing well," he said. "He seems to have a focus. Matt Wyatt at prop, because of lagging injury, we did not play him until this past weekend, which made a difference in our scrums. Both Matt and John are two-time all-Americans."

The Ruggers are hoping to cut down on penalties and play a more disciplined game against Virginia Tech.

"Our penalties have been aggressive and not from silly mistakes, which is good," Ryland said. "If we cut down on those, though, we will be in good shape."

"I think we have to cut down on them," Grace said. "I know everyone realizes that to get to the final four is going to a tougher road if we lose on Saturday. We know that penalties have been a problem even though we have been beating teams by large margins. If we cut down on them we can score even more points. Everyone sees the potential that we can have without making penalties."

When asked if he thought they would play a more disciplined game tomorrow, Neubauer replied, " I hope so. We need to. It's always bad in a championship game to give up penalties because that leads to points. We will do our best at cutting down penalties. The coaches have really addressed that and I hope we listen to what they are saying."

The coaches are also saying that defense will be the key in these games.

"If you play good defense, you can steal possession from them, which gives you opportunities," Ryland said.

He is confident, however, that his team is physically fit and mentally prepared for Virginia Tech. Penn State expects to play Navy in the second game, and although academy teams tend to be more fit, the Ruggers believe they will do just fine against them.

"I think we are going to go 2-0," Grace said. "And take the MARFU title and go first seed into the Sweet Sixteen."