The exquisiteness of a well-wheeled scrum

*sniffs* This ... it's just... so beautiful! I think I might cry. Rugby tears of joy.


PS Still climbing Mt. Fuji tomorrow!!! Send lots of no altitude sickness and no cloud cover thoughts my way; I want to see the sunrise from 12,388 feet!

It's a small rugby world after all

So I've been poking around the blog Saturday's a Rugby Day, which is about women's rugby... and kept running into things that reminded me that this is my world. Not just one I look into or enjoy, but a place I play in, live in.

First off was the article about Division I national championships. For the third year in a row the final match has been between Penn State and Stanford; this year, Penn State won.

Cool, right? But what's even better - Penn State is one of the three teams in PRU Division I. The other two are Navy - and American. And last time we played Penn State? We held our own. We didn't kick ass (even if it felt like it) but we did damn good for a club side team with barely a grand of financial support a year from our university.

Then I read an update on the MARFU U23 team at Ruggerfest. Not only does it specifically pick out one of my teammates for comment (and why not? 'Cause Sheri seriously rocks), but I've played with at least 3 other girls on the MARFU team (PRU what!) and have met one of the other women mentioned in the article.

It doesn't hurt that today was an especially awesome rugby day here in Kyoto - our original ground was rather small and full of baseball players, so we ended up holding a rather abbreviated practice in the tryzone of a lovely turf field (with no baseballs flying through the air to endanger us). But then we just chilled and watched the men's games going on - it was a serious of short matches versus alumni sides of Hanazono High School, celebrating the school's 50th anniversary (or so I surmise). I got teased by my teammates when a touch judge missed a lineout because he was too busy hitting on me, learned one of the girls can breakdance (and boy was she was excited when I told her about AUWRFC danceoffs), and just had a generally good few hours watching some rugby.

That day back at the beginning of sophomore year when I decided maybe rugby could replace martial arts as my "get beat up for fitness" activity? I made one of the best decisions of my life.

Last Thursday's rugby practice, there weren't very many people there, so instead of splitting into back/forwards we did just forward stuff. That is to say, scrumming! So not only did I get to scrum but I got to prop!!!

With five small, Japanese girls who mostly play as a back... but still.