The Penn State men's rugby team has a smile on its face and it isn't because spring has arrived.

The Ruggers hope to continue smiling when they head to Washington D.C. this weekend for the Cherry Blossom Tournament.

Unlike most of its other tournaments this season, the Cherry Blossom Tournament will be its toughest.

Some of the top rugby teams that will compete in the tournament include Ohio State, Army, Navy, Virginia Tech and Chico State (Ca.).

Last weekend, in the Mid-Atlantic Rugby Football Union (MARFU) tournament at Princeton, the Ruggers went up against Virginia Tech and rugby powerhouse Navy.

In the first half of the game against the Hokies, the Ruggers played what Penn State men's rugby coach Terry Ryland called "the best technical performance by a Penn State team he has ever seen."

This performance resulted in a convincing 48-19 victory for the Ruggers.

In the game against Navy, the storyline wasn't the same as Navy scored first and dominated the first half by using its size advantage to force two turnovers by the Ruggers, which led to two scores for Navy.

The second half was different as the Ruggers regrouped and showed that they could play the brute force kind of game that the "big boys" are used to.

"I think this (last) weekend we learned that we can play a real tough game," Penn State men's rugby coach Terry Ryland said. Ryland also called the game against Navy a "confidence builder" for the Ruggers as Navy, who won the MARFU tournament, is one of the toughest opponents the Ruggers will face during the season.

Practice this week for the Ruggers was focused mainly on the decision-making process during a game, which was something that wasn't up to par at the MARFU tournament.

Another focus for the Ruggers was its fitness. Although the Ruggers are a team that may be fit enough to run marathons, its lack of size might sometimes be a disadvantage.

Therefore, improvements in their fitness level would be a plus for the Ruggers as they would be the first to the rucks and mauls. This also increases the number of players who will arrive at a breakdown to overpower the opponents.

"Our style of play is a wide open running one," Ryland said. "So you have to be there (rucks and mauls) quickly."

Although there is no guarantee that the Ruggers' level of play will carry over to the Cherry Blossom Tournament, there is something that it will be sure of.

Navy will be there, as the No. 2 ranked team in the nation and a team that has reached the final four three out of the last four years.

"We are definitely motivated to play them again," No. 8 Jason Fisher. "Everybody last week felt that we could have beat them."

The coaches echo that confidence.

"I'm convinced we should have won that game," Ryland said.

With a team that he feels is better than last year's because of the balance of the forwards and backs, this tournament might just be the setting to even the score.