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!

Spectating!

This weekend was an exciting one for women's rugby, as D1 and D2 teams from around the country battled it out in Florida. However, considering that my participation in nationals was limited to the occasional text message update ("We lost our morning game," etc.), and the weekend is well documented elsewhere (Blondie, Wendy, USA Rugby, D2 website), I will post about MY weekend.


For the first time in ages, I had no rugby to play for myself - no Stingers matches, no PRU U23 tryouts, no MARFU camp, nothing. Faced with the odd experience of no rugby games to play, I found myself two rugby games to watch!

On Saturday, I went to see Georgetown and George Washington face off in the D2 championship. As I understand, both teams have gone undefeated all season, and the match was expected to be quite the standoff.

I'm happy to report that both teams lived up to expectations. George Washington scored a try in the first few moments of the game (sadly, before I made it to the pitch), but after that, it was a deadlock. Play ranged up and down the pitch, and both teams spent considerable time in their opposition's 22, but neither could penetrate the defense long enough to score a try. The ball was evenly contested in scrums and lineouts (the latter particularly fun because two of my PRU teammates were jumping against each other in the first pod), both teams forced turnovers and displayed some crafty back play, and all in all it was a very exciting game to watch.

In the end, neither team could make it through to the tryzone, so GW's first try made the difference and won them the game. Congratulations to George Washington as the PRU D2 champs! But kudos to Georgetown as well for a match beautifully fought.

On Sunday, I headed over to American to watch my old team play Penn State. Unfortunately, that game was not nearly so even - over the past few years, Penn State has consistently remained one of the top college women's teams in the country, while American remains a club sport at a small liberal arts school without a lot of emphasis on athletics. Still, it was good to see my old teammates in action, say hi to everyone I knew, and see the new rookies play.

I brought my camera to both games and got some good photos, posted on my Facebook page for anyone to check out.