AU vs. Mary Washington, 2007

When we played Mary Washington last year, we didn't exactly get our asses kicked but we didn't exactly do particularly well, either.

This year, on the other hand, we were the ones kicking ass. Not that Mary Washington wasn't playing really well - they're a good team and fun to play against (except that they looooove mauling and are quite good at it). But we just played so well. It feels like we're two months into the season instead of two weeks - mistakes are still being made, of course, but everyone played with their heads in the game, kept the communication up, hit the rucks, made their tackles, made smart decisions in the mauls, and our scrums are looking beautiful - despite the 85 degree heat and humidity.

The other looking fantastic? Our rookies. I think pretty much everyone on the team was impressed by how well our baby rooks performed out on that pitch. For sure, there were still plenty of the normal rookie mistakes - some playing the ball on the ground, a lot of standing lost in the holy zone, and a few deer-in-the-headlights instances of "oh GOD I have the ball what do I do now?!" But it didn't feel like playing with rookies at all - they're all picking up the game really quick, and are developing some field awareness already. One rookie, Perri, even picked up her first try!

For me personally, it's also feeling pretty good. I weak-side flanked for the first half of A-side and locked for the first half of B-side. I wasn't happy with my stamina - I was VERY happy to come out at both those halves - but I think it was more the heat than anything. Overall, though, my tackling form is improving (NO high tackle warnings), I finally feel like I know what to do with my body in the scrum (that scrum clinic last Sunday was AMAZING), my field awareness is slowly but steadily improving - and I scored another try!! In all honesty, it was basically Fill's try - I just took her pass and stepped it over the try line. But after 3 seasons of not scoring, making two tries in two weeks feels pretty good!

Don't remember the final scores exactly, but I believe A-side was 6 tries (plus conversions) to 3 tries (no conversions?), and B-side was 25-5 (?).