A win is a win, no matter the score.

It does not matter whether you win by five or fifty points, the most important thing is that you won.

This was exactly what the Penn State men's rugby team got when they went up against the Barbarians, a local club team, last Saturday at the Flower Gardens near the East Campus.

The game started with the Babas dominating the Ruggers, applying pressure and using their size to their advantage.

But the Ruggers weathered the storm and scored two tries within a 10-minute period that gave them the momentum.

They ended up winning the game 48-31.

"I thought we showed a lot of character," Penn State men's rugby coach Terry Ryland said.

"We could have folded under the pressure but instead we turned it around and got a turnover, which turned the game in our favor."

The first try was scored by acting captain Jason Fisher with a very determined run.

The Ruggers' conditioning, something that the team has been working on since the start of season practice, was a key weapon in a physical game, in which they were once again out-sized physically.

"They had 30 to 40 pounds over us," Fisher said, "but we were able to use our conditioning to tire them out."

To counter their opponents' size, the Ruggers knew that they would have to play as a team.

Before the game, Fisher told the team to look among themselves because these were the guys they would be playing with and that they should not let each other down.

And that was what showed.

"It was very physical," assistant coach Don Ferrell said.

"We utilized the speed in our backs and the forwards were retaining possession of the ball."

The Penn State forwards were their usual selves, giving good balls to the backs, dominating in open play like rucking and mauling as they usually arrived there before the Babas forwards could.

In the back line, there was crisp passing among the backs and they were very creative in the open field.

The drop balls and miscommunication of last season were a thing of the past.

Freshman players that stood out for the Riggers were scrumhalf Justin Hindley and prop Alex Johnson.

Others like flyhalf Tim Ryland and inside center Brian Sherland, who were both playing at new positions, showed no signs of that miscommunication.

Ryland praised the play of new conversion kicker Dom Mora, taking over at the position after the graduation of last year's kicker.

The Ruggers said last week that they wanted to improve their aggressiveness especially on defense.

They knew that they would often be going up against physically larger opponents.

In the game, the Ruggers were guilty of being too aggressive on defense and this was one of the reasons that led to the game being a high-scoring one.

"The high score was due more to missed tackles than bad defense," Ferrell said. "We need to work on our tackling because we missed some tackles."

The reason for the missed tackles was that the Ruggers were tackling their opponents too high.

This meant that they had to drag their bigger opponents to the ground instead of hitting them low and knocking them to the ground.

Ryland said that the high tackling was a problem that the Ruggers had last year and it was something that they would have to make changes to make sure it does not come up again.

He also added that the team would have to get better at rucking the ball.

Another reason for the high score was the teams' knowledge of one another.

"It was the offensive thrust of each team that was good," Ryland said.

"Also we have practiced with each other before and we know each others' weaknesses."

After the game Ryland said that he was very pleased with the Ruggers performance.

He thought that the team is in good shape thus far in the 2002 season.

Team members also felt the same.

They said that the game gave them something on which they can build and make improvements for their next game.

The Ruggers will return to action next Saturday, when they host Penn at the Flower Gardens.