The Penn State men's rugby team has a challenging week ahead, which could determine how it fares during the rest of the season.

In preparation for the upcoming Mid-Atlantic Rugby Football Union (MARFU) playoffs, the Ruggers will travel to the United Kingdom for a series of matches against three teams from England and Wales. The team hopes that the talent from its opposition will bring the Ruggers to a higher level of play back in the States.

"We're hoping that playing over there will sharpen our team play, and help with our cohesion," All-American Auggie Manelick said. "We want to work everything out so that we can function as a team for MARFUs."

The Ruggers stumble into their spring break schedule, coming off a four-month layoff to narrowly defeat Kutztown, 30-15, last week. Penn State head coach Don Ferrell realizes that the team has a lot to work on before MARFUs begin on March 24 against Temple.

"There's not much time after the break for us to prepare, so we'll need to take full advantage of our experiences over there," Ferrell said.

The schedule facing Penn State is challenging, according to the players and coaches. The Ruggers play Berkshire, a representative team made up of some of the best players in the region, on March 11; Cardiff University on March 14 and Bracknell RFC on March 17.

Since these are all exhibition matches against teams that play at a higher level of competition, Penn State is concerned less with its record at the end of the week than compared to how well the team plays together.

"It's going to do us a lot of good," fullback Luke Roberts said. "The teams over there are a lot better than many of the ones here, and we expect to be challenged."

Just because the level of play is better across the pond, does not mean that the Ruggers plan to go there and only work on the team dynamic -- some wins would help, too. However, the team knows that there will be a change of pace from what it has experienced.

"How well we do really depends on how well we adjust," Manelick said. "It's a totally different pattern of play over there."

Overall, the Ruggers want to see how they do against the raised level of play in order to fix their flaws exposed in their last match against Kutztown, when a slow start and sloppy play nearly led to an upset win by the Golden Bears. If Penn State plays as a team and executes its game plan properly, the players believe that it will be ready for MARFUs.

"This could help to set the tone for the rest of the season," Manelick said. "It's really going to be a learning experience for all of us."