Austin Adventures

Have you ever gotten really, really excited about something, and then for a brief moment were absolutely sure that some unexpected catastrophe was going to prevent it from happening, but then the catastrophe was averted and the awesome thing ended up being just as exciting as you expected and totally worth it?

Because that was my trip to Austin.

The unexpected catastrophe was my plane leaving late - very late - out of DC, and me (and six other hapless passengers) missing the connection to Austin, and US Airways telling me I was stranded in Charlotte, NC overnight and that they couldn’t get me to Austin until 4pm on Saturday afternoon, which would have made me COMPLETELY miss any rugby!

The “catastrophe averted” part occurred when US Airways reluctantly agreed that yes, maybe they could get me to some other part of Texas, like Houston, and my Fury ground troops in Austin (Rebecca, Jess, and Dilley) contacted the Houston team’s captain, Brandy, aka My Hero, who volunteered to pick me up at the Houston airport at midnight, let me sleep on her couch, and make sure I made it to the Austin Valkyrie’s pitch with the rest of the Houston team in time to play some rugby. Huge, HUGE thanks to everyone for making sure I eventually made it to Austin!!

The awesome part, of course, was everything else.

DC only managed to bring ten Furies down to Austin, but we were well supplemented with subs from local college teams and the Houston women. After watching the match between Houston and Austin B, the ten of us and our Furies-for-a-day warmed up and got ready to take the pitch.

I’ll admit, between our low numbers, hodgepodge of subs, and the Austin heat (85 and humid, as compared to 40 and raining at our last DC practice), I was a little worried we wouldn’t be able to deliver a challenging match to Austin. However, I’m happy to report that we definitely proved to be decent competition. Austin had us on our own try line several times, but we didn’t give up and pushed them back every time, leaving them to score their three tries on breakaways. DC answered with a penalty kick in the first half by Brenna and a try in the second, scored by Houston’s Brandy (not just Pink’s hero anymore!) and converted by Brenna. The final score was I believe, a highly symbolic 15-10 in Austin’s favor. I've been corrected - seems like the final score was 22-10. Ah, well, so much for symbolism!

After this match, the Houston and DC coaches decided that the second game would be replaced with a Houston/DC boat race. I am embarrassed to admit that DC was the hands-down loser in this matchup, but in the end, with beer and burgers and vegetables and cookies and other social-y goodness, everyone won.

The social also brought my first experience with a rugby kangaroo court, as the Valkyries placed offenders under “oaf” and brought charges of many heinous crimes against their players – and the ten of us! The Furies were charged and convicted of the truly heinous crime of bringing only ten players to a game of fifteens rugby; for our punishment, we performed an inspiring interpretive dance to the US National Anthem. However, in recognition of the fact that the real offenders were the other 45 rostered Furies who stayed home, we were also given the responsibility of enforcing – and recording! – the same punishment for the rest of our team.

Eventually, however, the social wound to a close, and we all headed back to our respective hosts’ homes to shower. For dinner, some of us then headed to a native Austin establishment called Freebird for burritos. Freebirds are kind of like Chipotles, except exponentially awesomer – the decorations were flying electric guitars, Lady Liberty on a motorcycle, and tin foil art.

For Round 2, we started with a gay cowboy bar called the Rusty Spur. This was definitely the highlight of my trip, especially when Pattie (my Valkyrie host) taught me how to two-step – the most Texas moment of my first trip to the Lone Star State! Later, Dilley and I attempted our own version of the two-step, which made up for in enthusiasm what it lacked in skill. I also met Heidi, who’d once played in Japan with some of my teammates from when I was in Kyoto – I love how interconnected the rugby world is!

Around 1:30am, some of us finally headed home, taking a pedi-cab back to the car. I got less than 4 hours of sleep before I had to wake up to get to the airport by 6 am, but luckily this time all my flights left on time and I made my connection.

Definitely a great Saturday, and worth all the trouble! Shout-outs to Brandy and the Houston team, for rescuing me and for helping us out with subs; and to Austin, for giving us a great game and being amazing hosts. It was my first time visiting Texas, and thanks to you all, I’m already looking forward to my next visit!

ETA: links to Wendy's video and Shalay's photos in the comments!

Photographic evidence

CJ, the Furies forwards coach, has a really nice high-powered camera that she takes wonderful game photos with. Because she is awesome, she sent me these two photos, one of me running and one of me SCORING MY TRY in the game against Lancaster (click to embiggen):








To be honest, this was not the best try ever – we had a five meter scrum, and I should’ve waited until my scrummies pushed a little closer before taking the eight-man pick. You can see the green scrumhalf tackled me, and I really had to stretch to get the ball into the try zone. But – I did get it there, and a try is a try!


The other great thing about CJ taking photos is that she takes LOTS. And posts (at least some of) them online. So a nerdy little rugger like me can take the time to go through, say, almost 500 photos (from a single 40 minute half) and look at my body position in rucks, where I’m standing in the defensive and offensive lines, etc., and figure out what I’m doing well and where I need improvement. It’s SO helpful!


And I am realizing while posting this that I never did a write-up of last Saturday's games. So here's a quick run-down, for posterity: Furies had three sides, and each one played a different team. The A-side game vs. Philly went to the Furies with a score of 28-21, the B-side game vs. Chesapeake was a close, close match with a final score of 3-5, and the C-side game versus Lancaster was a Fury win with a bunch of tries (including the one above!) to not so many. After each game, everyone voted for their "Player of the Match", and during the social, our captain announced the winners: for A-side, Beth (my vet buddy!); for C-side, Di; and for B-side, ME!! I've never been prouder to receive a congratulatory cup of beer.

Overall, it was a really fun day of well-played rugby. The Furies competed with a lot of synergy, especially awesome since it was the first weekend of the season, but also identified some areas to work on over the season. I can't wait!

MARFU U23 Tournament, 2008

There is nothing like waking up two hours before the sunrise to start a rugby weekend.

Our game versus the VRU team had been moved up out of concern for the weather, so departure times had to be moved up as well. It was still dark all the way through DC and Baltimore as I drove to pick up teammates, but even when the sun did rise we couldn’t see it through the clouds and rain.

However, by the time we made it to Edgely Field, conditions had cleared up. The pitch was pretty water-logged, but there were no standing puddles and the sun actually came out a little. As we warmed up, the wind began to pick up, but the weather stayed clear.

Finally, we kit up into our white-and-red jerseys and shorts and took the field. It was my third year wearing the number 8 to represent the PRU, and I was nervous and excited. We played a hard match in the first half, but still let the VRU get four tries through. After the half and some substitutions, however, the PRU really pulled together and held the scoring even. Supporting from the sidelines, I was excited and proud by how well the team played – it was a clear improvement over past years.

At the end of the match, the Philadelphia Women’s Club awarded lock Laura Miller the Player of the Match award – well deserved for a great player!

Next we all stripped out of our no-longer-white uniforms and piled into cars for an adventurous caravan back to the hotel. After snacks and showers, a group of us took our sore bodies downstairs to take advantage of the hotel’s pool and hot tub (!!) before heading to a delicious pasta dinner.

Post-dinner, we had a brief team meeting to go over strategy and talk about strengths and weaknesses of our performance on Saturday. We then split into forwards and backs to talk about what to focus on for our match against the MARFU U19 squad on Sunday. Sadly, we didn’t get to watch a copy of the game tape as planned (I was really looking forward to this, as I’ve never gotten to observe myself play!) but Coach Kenny Pope and assistant coaches Tosan Tutse-Tonwe and Deanna Church had some great insights despite our lack of technology.

KP also announced that the time of our Sunday match had been pushed back and that the pitch had been moved to New Jersey. In light of our later kick-off time, everyone was free to stay up late, hanging out and getting to know each other and generally enjoying the concentrated awesome that occurs anytime a big group of ruggers get together. But we did, after all, have another game on Sunday, so eventually everyone headed to bed.



Sunday morning, after taking advantage of the complimentary breakfast buffet as only rugby girls can, everyone packed back into cars to follow a circuitous route (more so for some than others!) to our pitch in South Jersey. As we arrived one by one, it became very clear to us that this would be a COLD match – the temperature had dropped and the wind was blowing hard. But we were warmed up and ready when the whistle finally blew.

It was clear from the start that this would be a very close match. The U19 players were tough and ran hard, but we fought for the ball and made it clear that we wanted to win. The score stayed close the whole first half as the wind pushed kicks and line-out throws completely off-target. Towards the end of the half, however, the PRU pulled ahead with a full-team try, slowly but surely punching the ball forward meter by meter, calmly making the gain line every phase until finally the ball crossed the line to be grounded by team forward effort.

The second half began as the day faded into twilight. The U19 team scored another try to bring the score near even, but the PRU team answered with a try of our own, putting us back in the lead. Still, it was by no means a sure thing, with the U19s forcing us back into our own 22. However, we successfully defended our turf (“PROTECT THIS HOUSE!!” as Dominique reminded us), and before the final whistle, we pushed another hard-won forward try into the try zone to finish with a 22-12 win.

By the time the game was over, the sun had nearly set and everyone was frozen numb, but we were ecstatic. We’d worked hard and played hard and had a great weekend. We got together one last time for a team photo and for Philly to name Lyndsey “Nips” Gibson (the AU captain) Player of the Match, then bundled up to finally head home, cold and exhausted but happy.

Photos on my Facebook

Congratulations to all my teammates for a match well-played, and I look forward to playing with and against every one of you!

2008 PRU U23

Sarah Brown (American U.)
Sarah Buhlman (Chesapeake)
Dominique Bunai (MD Exiles)
Julie Butner (DC Furies)
Loretta Charles (George Washington U.)
Sarah Childers (MD Stingers)
Jane Dewire (Georgetown U.)
Jessie Garth (MD Stingers)
Lyndsey Gibson (American U.)
Sara Gimmy (DC Furies)
Tanya Gouws (MD Exiles)
Krysi Hermes (American U.)
Liz Hilliard (American U.)
Alysia Holsey (U. Maryland)
Sarah Holzman (NOVA)
Bridget Kapinus (Georgetown U.)
Maura McGraw (George Washington U.)
Laura Miller (St. Mary's C.M.)
Lindsay Nugent (American U.)
Anne Paschke (MD Stingers)
Olivia Payne (U. Maryland)
Caitlin Webster (U. Maryland)
Mary Emma Young (DC Furies)

Coach Kenny Pope
Assistant Coaches: Tosan Tutse-Tonwe and Deanna Church

Philadelphia vs. Maryland

Philly is, by all accounts, a difficult team to scrum against.

To be a lock on the smaller side of locks, against a pack on the large side of packs, is especially difficult.

And when I ended up being the larger of Maryland's locks?

Let's just say that those scrums were very inspirational, in the sense that I am now extremely motivated to head to a gym. Because my lack of gym-going recently was very, very unhelpful on Saturday.

On losing

There was recently an interesting article in the New York Times called Lessons Learned in the Losing. The author's basic point is that, in a winning-obsessed culture, there's still plenty of good to be found in a loss.

It's a particularly appropriate article considering how the past two weekends have gone for Maryland.

Two Saturdays ago, we played a heart-breaker against Raleigh in skin-melting heat and humidity. Despite the weather, it sure felt like we were winning - we kept up a strong defense, forcing turnovers, and kept possession well while moving the ball up the pitch - but when it was all said and done, we couldn't finish it. Though we spent a good chunk of time inside Raleigh's 22, we only managed to get the ball across the try line once. Added to a brief breakdown in our defensive line which Raleigh quickly took advantage of to turn the corner and run in a try, and we ended up on the losing end of a 5-7 scoreboard. It was an incredibly frustrating loss.

This weekend felt much, much different. We met the DC Furies on the PAC pitch across from the Washington Monument - the weather was beautiful, and we should've been ready for a great day of rugby, but everyone started out off. Our warm-up was messy and full of dropped balls; not surprisingly, the beginning of the game wasn't much better. As we missed our tackles, sat on our heels in defense, and got dominated in our own scrums, DC ran in try after try.

We were losing, no question about it. Standing in our own try zone as the Furies kicked yet another conversion, we weren't talking about winning anymore - just about how we were going to play.

And we pulled it together. First in the scrum - we stopped losing our own scrums and controlled a few defensive scrums well enough to wheel. Then out on the pitch, we got lower and hit harder on the tackles, keeping DC out of our 22 for the majority of the half. Alas, we never scored our own try, but even with a losing score of a lot to nothing, knowing we could pull ourselves together in a bad situation felt pretty good.

Two different losses, neither of which felt like winning. The first was a solid, well-played game where our performance didn't translate to the score board; the second showed how much passion we have for the game. Now our task is to hold onto our strengths and improve our weaknesses to play a coherent game that puts points on the board and a W on our record.

And rugby's officially back in session

If this Saturday was any indication of how my rookie season with the Stingers is going to be, you can expect me to be quite the happy Pink for the next few months.

Exhausted.

But happy.

Our first game was an A-side match versus Chesapeake, played at the so-called Holocaust Field located next to the Smithsonian Holocaust Museum, across the street from the Washington National Monument. I haven't played on the mall since Cherry Blossom sophomore year, so that was quite a treat.

Apparently, the last time the Stingers played Chesapeake, the results were not so good, and everyone was determined to come out and show them who the better team was. I'm proud to say that we did, with gusto. The Stingers kicked ass 39-0, scoring six tries by six different people, with Heather kicking three conversions and one penalty. We worked at the early-season kinks as we played, improving the further into the game we got - at the half when the score stood at 12-0, Maddy insisted on another 30 points, and we did our best by adding 27 to the score board.

As for myself, I went in at lock in the second half, and ended up coming out a bit early when I hurt my shoulder [nothing serious, fine with a good stretching]. However, in the thirty minutes I was in, I managed a pretty decent showing - one of those six tries was mine. My first game, too! It was a "support" try; a few of my teammates had a good breakaway, and all I did was keep up with them in time to pick the ball out of the back of the ruck and dive the few meters into the tryzone.

Following the main event was a two-thirds Pax River/one-third Stingers side playing the Furies B. Pax River is a small side that has trouble getting a full side out to games (thus the Stinger supplements), but played a pretty decent game, though our motley didn't score any tries. I played the first twenty of this match as strong side flanker.


After the match finished up and we all slapped off most of the dust from the pitch, we headed to the Bottom Line for pasta and beer. With representatives from all four teams - Stingers, Chesapeake, Pax River, and Furies - it was a pretty busy time. I got to know my own teammates better, sat down and chatted with players I'd never met before, and reconnected with acquaintances I rarely see off the pitch.

Post-social I ended up heading straight to Baltimore for a teammate's bachelorette barcrawl - rugby-themed, so no need to stop home to grab clean clothes! It was a diverse collection of friends, from rugby, work, and school, and all of us did our best to give her a proper send-off before she heads into the wilds of matrimony.

All in all, a good Saturday to start the season.

I get a little excited by rugby, okay?

OH MAN RUGBY IS MY FAVORITE THING EVER EVER EVER IN LIFE.

First game(s) today. We played Georgetown and Catholic on the most ghetto-ass pitch ever - that is, it was to one side of a REAL pitch (because that wasn't open until NEXT weekend), and instead of like, touch lines and all that OFFICIAL stuff we had... cones. And flags.

And okay, so both the team and I did decently but need to work on continuity - Georgetown (which is D2 to our D1) beat us in the 3x20minutes we played, but we beat Catholic HARDXCORE in the 3x20 minutes WE played.

BUT OF COURSE - the most awesome part was fo' sho the social. Since we played Georgetown first, they left, but we did social with Catholic, which is absolutely my most favorite thing in my life. It was everything a social should be.

And, of course, I reconnected with the 5 or 6 Catholic girls I already know (from PRUs or from the last time I socialed with them) and they were all "YES! AU and Catholic should see each other more often! Catholic should see YOU more often what is your phone number." I mean, basically I adore these girls and would most definitely hang with them again HURRAH.

And SERIOUSLY - does life get any better than this? Does it?!

NO. No way :D

Feeling good

So life is pretty damn good right now. So what if I didn't get any of the work done today that I planned on; it was just working ahead anyways. So what if I was working ahead because I have a rugby game (OUR LAST GAME AND ONLY HOME GAME!!!!!) and PRU tryouts this weekend, and a 10-page paper due Monday. So what if I have another 10-page paper due the Monday after that, the Monday after I may be in Virginia all weekend playing rugby if I make the U23 team. So what if this is the fifth sentence in a row I began with "so".

I'm feeling good.

I'm feeling good about rugby. We had fitness testing Tuesday, and even though I'm only average on most of it (sit-ups, push-ups, other tests that Deanna pulls from lord knows where), I beat everyone in the beep test. Didn't do as well as when I took it this time last year, but that could be a number of things (it was fucking cold, it's a little awkward to keep running with the whole team watching you and no one to run against). I realized a few weeks ago that I was kind of mentally standing on my heels and not putting as much into my playing as I could be, so I stepped it up, and I think that showed at Navy on Sunday.

And I'm feeling good about Navy. We lost 0-75 but you would not have known it. We played hard and well. We came up hard on defense and it showed in the number of scrums we got for Navy knocking on the ball. We dominated in the scrum - which showed in two brilliant 5m scrums that we pushed into the try zone (no try off of it, but Coach Amy called it "the best tactical rugby I've ever seen this team play", and man was it beautiful to see those tough Navy girls bent up double and helpless as we pushed them back). And we hit hard enough that Navy got whiny and slow in the end of the second half, calling for minutes and switching players in and out. Total catharsis for last year's mess.

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 (?).

And Saturday is a rugby day once again

Today started with a phone call from Jacqui at ten minutes past meet time, wondering where I was with the large blue minivan (retrieved from Sketchy Dave's Vans the night before, prior to an "I don't want to talk about it" adventure through DC) that drove like a baby arthritic elephant. The phone call made me realize 1) I was late, 2) I'd never turned on the alarm I'd so carefully set for an hour before I needed to get anywhere, and 3) I was late.

Two and a half hours of driving later, we made it to Salisbury for our first contact of the season - six twenty minute periods of scrimmaging rugby! (That's two hours, or a game and a half). I played two twenties locking, one at flanker, one at eight, on off, and then another at eight - where I scored my first try!!!! It was just a case of doing what I was supposed to do and being where I was supposed to be, but I guess that's still pretty good, right?

The team played really well, considering it was our first match. We got a little frantic at times, but calmed it down. Overall, we have to work on organization, making our tackles, and hitting rucks - but even those things got better while we played. Deanna also cycled in a number of rookies who looked quite nice out there on the field. I think good things are coming this season.

The rest of the night was another "I don't want to talk about it" situation. Sketchy Dave has no love.

Rugby 10s tournament in a typhoon!

Well, perhaps it wasn't quite a tournament: two men's teams played a game, and then we played, and that was it.

And though a typhoon was certainly making its way up the island of Japan, it didn't feel much like one on the DoCoMo* sponsored field in Osaka - there was a pleasant light rain, but no torrential downpour or bone-chilling winds.

Despite that lack of excitement, last Saturday's 10s game was still totally fantastic.

I'd never played tens before; the main differences are the lack of players (scrums are the tight five with no back row, and the back line is comprised of only one center and no fullback), and the time difference (three 10-minute thirds, instead of two 40-minute halves). Additionally, our Kyoto team was playing with several girls from another team - I played wing with an unfamiliar scrumhalf, flyhalf (called "standoff" here), and center.

Since we had no fullback, I spent any time on the weak side running back around to stand in at full back position. Because there were so many fewer people, it was MUCH easier for me to get into trouble as a wing than in 15s - I had several nice tackles, including two or three throw-downs where I didn't even lose my feet, and got into quite a few rucks. On the other hand, I missed a number of open-field tackles,** lost a ball much earlier than I had to in a breakaway to the try zone,*** and got a penalty for holding on to the ball on the ground.****

We were playing the Hyogo Ladies, who (as in our previous game) had excellent communication, fast tackles, good ball-handling, and space awareness, so we lost 25-0. But Kyoto (et. al.) still played the best I've seen them - no one hung back from rucks or tackles, we were aggressive to get the ball, and we didn't stand around surprised whenever the other team got the ball.

Afterwards, we had a sort of "social" with a bucket of beer, lots of meat, and some sad salad for me. (Although I also had the spaghetti and pretended the small chunks of beef were either not there or tofu. :( I was hungry.) We also had our team meeting, and I was interrupted out of my usual reverie (our main coach talks very fast and imprecisely, so I don't catch much) by my name. As I looked up confusedly, the other coach translated for me - "You are... MVP?"

Duuuuuuuuudes! Kickass.



*DoCoMo is one of the big phone companies here, like Verizon or Cingular.

**I have this tendency to try and tackle people with my arms. This works well for me for close quarters because I'm pretty mean and decently strong, but when someone's running full speed towards the try zone, my scrawy little forearm doesn't do much to stop them. I know I have to get my shoulder in there, but I'm so in the habit of tackling with my arms that that's all I do.

***What I should have done: run straight on, fixed the defender, juked her at the last minute and eaten up that huge empty space between me and the try zone. What I did: ran in a big predictable curve, allowing the defender plenty of time to fix me and meet me, and didn't even try to juke or stiff-arm her.

****Heat of the moment. Slash stupidity.




After the game, most of us went to an izakaya (food and drinks place) in a train station mall in Osaka (the mall was named "Whity's"... oh, Engrish). Having slept about an hour the night before and played an intense (if short) 30 minutes of rugby, during which of course I hit my head at least once, I was feeling really tired and headachey and like I really wanted to be in a hot shower and then bed, rather than perched on a high chair in a izakaya with entirely too many mirrors.

But I'm still really glad I was there. My teammates were awesome at ordering me food - I missed most of the ordering from being in the bathroom, but when the food started coming I found it didn't matter. There was a ton of vegetarian stuff: tomatoes and tofu, tasty egg things, fried stuff on sticks, french fries, and salad. And in the typical Japanese manner (which I love love LOVE), we kept ordering more and more - someone would ask for the menu, point something out to me and ask if I'd tried it, and then order it. The only one of these I remember was chakome (cha-something, anyways) - "tea" over rice topped with dried seaweed, with tsukimono (pickles, more or less) and big chunk of wasabi on the side. The end result was, of course, me feeling ridiculously full and happy.

During dinner, we talked about a lot of things. The ones I both understood and remember (tired! fooded! beered!) were the game we'd just played (of course), where I was traveling after school, the design and price of polos Eri had decided to make, and the details of my farewell party.

Yes, apparently I get a farewell party. Awesome! And, even more surprising than that (or at least, it surprised me that they were outright discussing it with me right there - cultural differences?) I get presents. From everyone.

Dude. I just... this team keeps getting awesomer and awesomer, y'know? I mean, it'll be cool to get a big pile of Japan souveneirs, but it's more incredible to know that a bunch of people care enough about me, having just seen me once or twice a week at rugby practice, to go pick out things for me to remember them by.

However, I also have to think of things to get for all of them. Keeping in mind that I have no idea how many people I'm getting gifts for. That a few people I want to write personal notes to (Shima, Eri, Nabe, Aki, Yuka) but others I have nothing particular to say to or don't even know their names (like... what the hell is my main coach named?!) That I will feel really awkward trying to figure out when and how it is most appropriate to give gifts to people at my own goodbye party. Not to mention, what about my teammates who don't come?

These are the problems I like to have. :D

AU vs. VCU/Nova

This Saturday's rugby schedule was an A-side vs. VCU and a B-side vs. Nova (a very good women's team... better than our A-side and definitely better than our B-side. We'd understood the B-side game would be VCU/Nova motley). We kicked ass A-side 44-5. We lost B-side, but played well. One of the best things about both of our games so far is to see which mistakes we are and aren't making - we're still a little scattered and discombobulated, but we're supporting each other so well and making our tackles (our tackle rate against the huge Nova girls women was really good) that we're playing a very good game.

Personally, I'm at about the same place. I feel really good about my 8ing, and less good about my locking (I kept going to my knees in the scrum - very not good). My tackling continues to be good in the sense that I nearly always get my woman down, but I'm improving in the ability to do that with good form so I don't hurt myself. However, during Saturday's game I brought some girl down on her shoulder and injured her... oops.

After the game, we hung out and ate pizza with Nova (VCU had gone home), then headed over to the 42nd Street house for some socialling slash pregaming the social at the men's house. The night ended up being long, ridiculous, and fun - typical rugby Satruday!

In which I am a turncoat wing

Today was our game versus UMBC on our home field. It was good. I played 8 during our Aside and, as UMBC needed a few extra players for their Bside, I got to play WING again! Admittedly in a black jersey that clashed horribly with my navy shorts, but it was fun. Even if I do have to admit that being a forward is tons more fun.

It was a good last game - the weather was nice, fans come, and we played quite well. We won, but I don't know by how much. My parents were there, too - quite exciting! Especially since they gave me time to go to the social and nap after the game before taking me out to dinner, then went home early enough that I had time to go to Kellie's birthday party.

But Sunday is apparently a rugby day too (practice for the PRU U23s, some place in Virginia?), so I've got to get to bed. Which is boring, but a healing place.

And here comes the end...

Tomorrow is Saturday!

Tomorrow is OUR HOME GAME THAT IS ACTUALLY AT HOME!!!

We're playing on the Mass Ave field (a block down from Katzen, across from the seminary) against UMBC at 11:00. Basically, if you consider yourself my friend and don't have a pretty important serious engagement... you should be there.

Also, my parents are coming. Which is cool... except it means I can't go to the social. And I have to find three restaurants for us to eat at! (One for dinner tonight, one for dinner tomorrow night, and one for breakfast on Sunday before I go to practice for the PRU U23 team).

The AUWRFC season will be over with our game tomorrow, which makes me VERY sad. However, I get to play rugby for another week (SCORE!!!) because of PRUs - practice this Sunday, and games vs. the VRU and EPRU Saturday and Sunday next weekend, up in Baltimore. HURRAH!

While it'll be nice to see what my knees look like without bruises, I will miss rugby. Also, I will miss seeing my ruggers 3, 4, 5, 6 or sometimes even 7 days a week. What do people do without rugby?!

Oh, right. The fitness game.

AU vs. Mary Washington

Despite starting off rainy and cold (I HATE HAVING TO WALK A MILE TO GET TO CAMPUS AT UNGODLY HOURS OF THE MORNING, AND RAIN JUST MAKES IT 10x WORSE), the day ended up being PERFECT for rugby, at least down in Fredericksburg where we played. 60 degrees and sunny, and really soft ground from the obnoxious amounts of rain we'd had (and puddles!). It was a bit windy, but not too bad.

We lost our Aside, won our Bside - I think the scores were 0-3tries, and 2tries-0. It was one of those days where we started off lazy and gradually got better as the day went on. Mary Washington mauled all the goddamned day, which was tiring and involved me getting my feet stepped on a lot. We got wet and dirty. It was FUN.

I played ALL of Aside and ALL of Bside (two 40s and two running 25s = 130 minutes of rugby) at 8man, which I haven't played a whole bunch before, but which I enjoyed. Bside, Deanna had me as on-field captain and I was calling lineouts. When she told me this, I almost fell over. Me?! Doing something important?!

After the game, we went to a ridiculously nice townhouse to social. I spent the time crashed out on the nice white carpet*, deciding not to drink because of PRUs Sunday and because I was EXHAUSTED.

Getting home, I showered and took a three hour nap before putting in a brief appearance at a Halloween party, then coming back home and going back to bed.


*Correction: nice white carpet, currently with one or two not-totally-inconspicuous pink spots on it... sorry, Mary Washington!

AU vs. PSU hells yeah!

So today was our Big Game against Penn State - and we rocked it. We played so. damn. well.

Now, understand that Penn State is the #2 team in the country. That previously, they've swept us away with points solidly in the triple digits.

Today? 0-64. And we started hard, finished hard, and went hard nearly the whole time inbetween. When we realized there was a problem, we fixed it. They're getting a run off the kickoff and scoring a try? Fixed. They're getting breakaways leaving the fullback alone? Well, not fixed, but it damn well got better. We played hard and we played fast and we never gave up. When we got discouraged, we brought each other back up. It took them 13 minutes to score their first try. PSU probably expected nothing out of us - and that is NOT what they got.

Before the game, Kellie and Colleen (our captains) gave us Lucky Charms (for luck) and ribbons with our names that said "15 together never loses - AUWRFC Fall 2006." It was 15 as one out there - we weren't 15 ruggers, we were a team. It was amazing.

I know for me personally it was the most I've ever put into a rugby game. I played all 80 minutes of the A-side, and I took everything I had and left it on the pitch - and then kept playing. By the end of the game, I was so worn out I was dizzy and shaking, but I was still sprinting to get to the ball and support, and I've never been prouder. It was my second game flanking, but this time I knew what I was doing. PSU's flyhalf wasn't scared enough of me by the end of the game, but I was aggressive and loud at calling the ball out. Bean and I worked up some excellent teamwork in killing whoever caught the ball off the kickoff. It wasn't the best I've ever played, but it was the hardest.

B-side was less exciting (for me, at least). I was pretty out of it between games, but I had a 20g protein bar and drank a liter of gatorade and got back in it (seriously, I was gone after that first game. I need to work on my fitness). For the second half of B-side, I went in at 8man, which was fun, but not too long into the half I tackled someone, hit my head, and spent 5 or 10 seconds figuring out which way was up again. I probably could've kept playing, but I didn't want to take any chances, so that was the end of the day for me.

Nonetheless, it's the best day of rugby I think I've ever played.

I'm a FLANKER!!!!

I woke up this morning, and could barely move.

That's how you know Saturday was a good day.


When I woke up Satuday, the downpour of the day before had stopped. When we were on the field warming up, however, it started to really pour. We'd jogged around the pitch, charting puddles (two or three, only one of them particularly deep), but as the rain bucketed down the pitch turned into a near-river. My hair (newly cut and enpinkified on Thursday, with a little help from Germany) bled down my face and neck and onto my jacket - the "Pink" embroidered on my jacket is now actually pink.

By the time we started playing, the rain had stopped, but the field was a swamp. We were SOAKED, and covered in mud. I'm not just talking mudstains - you could've planted a garden in my shorts. It was pretty cold and wet and miserable. It worked out, though, because you got numb and didn't feel how much you were getting knocked around.

But, moving on to the actual playing. As I alluded to in previous entries, I was playing FLANKER - a forward position, considerably different from the back positions (wing, sometimes full back) I've played before. Instead of staying out of every ruck I could, I was supposed to be in every other ruck (and was usually in more); instead of standing around in the middle of the field during scrums and lineouts, I was IN scrums and lineouts!

I wasn't sure how well I did - I played two games of the round robin, the A-side against GWU and the game against Catholic (which only had one side). I was pretty disappointed because I never got to tackle Catholic's flyhalf (my job as a flanker), but I think I was making the GWU flyhalf pretty nervous by the end of that game. And even if I was kind of confused, I had FUN. I got into so many rucks and went in support of a whole bunch of runs.

And I hear I did okay. Well enough that Deanna told me I was permanently a flanker. Which is exciting, but I will be sad if I never get to play in the back triangle again. But - FLANKING!!!!!! IS SO MUCH FUN! I get to scrum!! And get lifted in line-outs! (I didn't get to do a whole lot of that, but hopefully more once I get some practice!)



Injury report:

- Lots of cuts and bruises. Heurich field is FULL of rocks, so my knees are covered in stylized shooting star patterns in a nice blood red. However, between the cold and the mud, I didn't realize I'd broken the skin at all until I showered. (HA!)

- Lost my contact. During the first game, some girl stuck her finger in my eye. I attributed the blurry vision then to the mud that was certainly in my eye, and for the rest of the day figured my funny vision was from: mud and rain; weariness; alcohol; drunkeness and weariness. Then when I tried to take my contact out at 3am, it wasn't there. And boy, was I confused.

- Face chafing. At first I was really confused about how I got sunburnt just on the far sides of my face (forehead to cheekbone, outside of my eyes), until I remembered that in the scrum, I had those places on my face pressed up against props' shorts - shorts covered in thick, rough mud. Mmmmmm. Even have a tiny abraision under my left eye, probably from a pebble. (I mentioned it this morning at the carwash, and Krysi nodded knowingly and called it "scrumface.")

Obligatory weekend rugby roundup

This Saturday was very similar to last Saturday: we drove two hours away to play a team that beat us pretty soundly. Except this weekend it was University of Delaware, and though we didn't even score a try in the Bside game, we kept them to much fewer tries and generally did much better - more coming up hard, keeping a defensive line instead of getting sucked in, everyone tackled, etc. I played all 80 minutes of the A-side game at wing, and after the games, I got a chocolate bar for being the best returner back of the day!!!!

After the games, we split up - half the team went back to campus, but the rest of us stayed to watch a little bit of the boy's game and then go social.

Then today (because I'm masochistic, apparently) I got up and went to the four hour long PRU development camp. There weren't as many people there as I'd expected - any female rugby player under 23 in the DC metro area was eligible to attend, but there were only 16 girls there, 9 of them from AU. It wasn't as exciting as I expected - the majority of things we went over was basic stuff that we do in practice anyways. However, it was good to get more practice (even on the basics), and some of the drills we did were new and interesting.

But now, I'm super tired. And sore (but no injuries besides bruises). And want to go to bed right now, except I realize I'd probably wake up at like 2am and my sleep schedule would be messed up. Sigh.

RUGBY SEASON IS BEGUN!!

Yesterday was our first rugby game of the season, HURRAH!

We played JMU (James Madison), which was 2 hours way out in Virginia. They're a pretty good team, plus we got to use a relatively nice field (there were bleachers! And the main building was unlocked so we got to use actual bathrooms!)

It was SO AMAZINGLY GOOD to play again. We've done a few ruck-and-runs at practice, but no REAL rugby. I played the first half of the A-side game at wing, and the first half of the B-side game at fullback, and had SUCH a good time! I did pretty well too - got some lovely tackles in at wing (and made them, too - I don't know if I missed a tackle! Okay, maybe one or two) and had a handful of runs at fullback when JMU kicked the ball.

The whole team didn't do extraordinarily well, but considering that JMU's pretty good and we were fielding a lot of rookies, it was a good game. The mistakes we made were predictable for rookies, and will be fixed with just a little experience. We lost pretty badly (only got one try - Nips put one in B-side), but we had FUN!

Injury report: I banged my head pretty badly at least twice when I was in at A-side (once when rolling over some girl I tackled, once when I was too preoccupied with passing the ball out of a tackle to pay attention to how I was landing), but nothing happened besides a bitty headache that went away with a few cups of beer at the social afterwards. I did, however, in the first few minutes of the A-side game, get a really nasty bruise just above my left knee. It was like someone had cut a tennis ball in half and stuck it to my leg, and it hurt like a bitch to run on it. But I wasn't going to let a bruise stop me from playing! I've been icing it since the games were over, though, and even though it was still pretty swollen last night it's pretty much back to normal now. Still hurts, though, and I decided not to go to campus for the sci fi movie tonight because I didn't want to walk that far on it.

I can't WAIT for next weekend!

Ruggerfest part 2

So today was day 2 of Ruggerfest (the all-women's rugby tournament this weekend) and it was just as fun as yesterday!! Well, actually slightly less fun, because we only played one game and we lost that, but it was a well-played game and I got to play wing in my favorite back triangle (me and Scrappy on wings, and Petrides at fullback). As I said we lost the game, but we still played quite well, and ended our season on a good note.

After the game was over, I decided to stay rather than come back to campus with most of the team - the Maryland Stingers had invited any of us who could to stay and maybe play with them. I didn't end up getting to play (they needed forwards more than backs, so Keen played while Scrappy and I watched), but it was still really great to warm up with the Stingers, wear a sub jersey, and watch the game. The Stingers are a women's club team that has a really good relationship with AU - that is, half their team is AU alum - so I'm getting to know and recognize some of their players.

Following the Stingers' game, the three of us who'd stayed hung out with Deanna and Maria (two of our coaches who were also there) and watched the final game of the highest bracket.

Then Maria gave the three of us a ride back to campus (after we stopped off at the KFC/Taco Bell combo for food with Primo), and I got back juuuuuuust in time to get to work in the oh-so-exciting library reserves.

And so here I am - hyped up on rugby, beer, and a little caffeine, not too sore yet (thanks to ibuprofin and the sun), avoiding studying for my Japanese oral final tomorrow! Hurrah!