This weekend I played for AUWRFC for the last time. We entered into Ruggerfest, an all-female tournament hosted by the DC Furies.
Saturday, we played and beat Towson, then played (well) and lost to Nova's C side. The combination of the win/loss record and our point differential put us in a semifinal game vs. Lancaster. We lost, but it didn't feel like it - we played hard and well and scored two tries.
Now, one of those was a very special try - I scored it!!!! My third and final try for AU, in my last game playing for them.... and it was caught on video!!!!!!
What a way to end my AUWRFC career. Man.
However... the day wasn't over yet. Lancaster ended up needing subs for the final match, and I and one of my teammates volunteered. (My logic was that we'd played so well in the semifinal, AU deserved representation in the final!).
The ref we had was... abominable. Now, there are some pretty horrible refs out there... but this guy was the WORST I've ever had.
I bring this up to justify how I actually ended my season... not with an awesome game with AU in which I scored a fantastic try.
Nope.
Ended it with a sin bin. A yellow card. Kicked out of the game to spend ten minutes in the try zone while my team played one down.
In my defense, both Lancaster AND Nova (the other team) thought it was a BS call (which was also what we thought about... well, all of the ref's calls). My coach (now ex-coach, I guess?) also thought it was the most hilarious thing she'd heard all day and got really excited to tease me about it (she proposed that they change my nickname to "Sin Bin").
So that was it - a try, a yellow card, tons of bruising (including a few on my neck that look like hickies), a golfball sized lump on my shin, and lots and lots of mud.
And thus ends my AUWRFC career...
Monday, April 7, 2008
Cherry Blossom Tournament 2008
For some odd reason, I'm feeling pretty good about life. That's odd because nothing has been particularly good in the past week or two, but I've just been generally more cheerful.
Maybe it's the spring - things blooming, getting warmer? Maybe it's the planets aligning? Who knows.
One of the effects of this renewed happiness has been me falling back in love with rugby. Now, don't get me wrong, I never really fell out of love... but sometimes, when I'm busy and tired and it's cold/rainy, I get a little cranky that I still need to go to rugby where I will inevitably get hit and be sore and be even MORE tired and I need that time to do work! Not to mention all the business I have to take care of as treasurer.
But over the past week or so, I remembered how much I care. Not for any particular reason, but instead of "oh MAN, something else to do!" I've been working hard in the gym and trying to find time to watch the World Cup games I still have on my DVR and generally having "rugby player" moved up on my list of priorities.
This weekend we went to the Cherry Blossom Tournament, a big annual tournament that used to be on the mall (under the cherry blossoms), but isn't anymore because... well, spring = rain + ruggers = really messy ground = not nice for tourists. So now it's held at a racetrack.
Saturday was supposed to be awful weather, but ended up beautiful - mid-fifties, cloudy but with patches of sun. We started off the day playing West Virginia on a muddy pitch with quite a few lakes and patches of ankle-deep mud. I was flanking strong-side (MY FAVORITE, especially when the opposition's flyhalf is a cute as the WV's was - I do enjoy tackling an attractive rugger girl!). AU played really, really well - especially considering the ref was about as bad as you can get: we scored a try that he wouldn't call because "he couldn't see it".
However, we just went back and scored another try about 30 seconds later. So that worked out okay. I was very proud of us, because usually we get really upset at bad refs (or other teams playing dirty, i.e. the UMD game in the fall) and we get caught up in our heads and don't play as a team, but Saturday we realized that "you can't do anything about the ref" and kicked ass despite having an AWFUL ref. Final score: 12-7, AUWRFC.
In the afternoon, we played Xavier University, which is apparently located in Cincinnati? By then the sun was out and the ground was much dryer (we were on a different pitch, too, which had fewer puddles to start with). This game I locked, and oh man... I have NEVER wanted to be flanking instead so badly! AU had a little more trouble with this game, even though when we'd watched Xavier play WV earlier we'd thought they'd be easy (big girls, but slow, didn't run low, and didn't come up hard). AU was not nearly as aggressive as we needed to be (thus me DYING to be flanking), but we did well enough to keep them back and score one try of our own. FInal score: 5-0, AUWRFC.
This put us in the top bracket for Sunday - which dawned as cold and miserable as Saturday had been supposed to be. We played Army at 9:30 am on a pitch that was part mud, part lake.
It's been a long time since I played a game that messy, but AU played REALLY well. Despite the mess and the cold and the wet and the mud (I probably weighed about ten pounds extra, between the mud and the water soaking me all the way to my underwear), we never stopped and never slowed down and kept coming up hard and aggressive. I was strong-side flanking again, though I ended up eighting for a bit at the end. We lost, not too surprisingly, but we definitely kept them from scoring as much as they could've AND scored a try against them! Final score: something - 5, Army.
I haven't done a lot of game writeups this season, but generally I'm beginning to feel really good about my playing. Between being sick and busy, I'm still not as strong or fast as I'd like to be, but technically I think I've really improved. I've started making different decisions in rucks (like long-body rucking or sealing over my teammates) and reacting to how both AU and the other team are arranged across the field. I've also gotten a lot better at scrumming - I've figured out flanking much better, and over just the past week or so I've really figured out a good locking body position.
I do still need to work on my form in tackles (I am aggressive and effective, but with better form I'd use less energy and hurt myself less), and I'd like to be a bit better at lineouts. Flanking, I'm not always off the scrum fast enough, and overall I do still have some work to do on field awareness and strategy - for example when to use a short vs. long lineouts, etc.
But there will always be room for improvement. Overall, I'm definitely feeling good!
More or less related: on Saturday, I experimented with wearing my new molded cleats (the ones with spike cleats) instead of metal. And, oh man, RIGHT CHOICE. Maybe not if I'd been locking, but my feet felt SO much lighter without those nasty heavy metal spikes weighing me down. If I ever feel the need to get metal again, I've gotta look smaller and lighter, but I think I'm sticking to molded for now.
Maybe it's the spring - things blooming, getting warmer? Maybe it's the planets aligning? Who knows.
One of the effects of this renewed happiness has been me falling back in love with rugby. Now, don't get me wrong, I never really fell out of love... but sometimes, when I'm busy and tired and it's cold/rainy, I get a little cranky that I still need to go to rugby where I will inevitably get hit and be sore and be even MORE tired and I need that time to do work! Not to mention all the business I have to take care of as treasurer.
But over the past week or so, I remembered how much I care. Not for any particular reason, but instead of "oh MAN, something else to do!" I've been working hard in the gym and trying to find time to watch the World Cup games I still have on my DVR and generally having "rugby player" moved up on my list of priorities.
This weekend we went to the Cherry Blossom Tournament, a big annual tournament that used to be on the mall (under the cherry blossoms), but isn't anymore because... well, spring = rain + ruggers = really messy ground = not nice for tourists. So now it's held at a racetrack.
Saturday was supposed to be awful weather, but ended up beautiful - mid-fifties, cloudy but with patches of sun. We started off the day playing West Virginia on a muddy pitch with quite a few lakes and patches of ankle-deep mud. I was flanking strong-side (MY FAVORITE, especially when the opposition's flyhalf is a cute as the WV's was - I do enjoy tackling an attractive rugger girl!). AU played really, really well - especially considering the ref was about as bad as you can get: we scored a try that he wouldn't call because "he couldn't see it".
However, we just went back and scored another try about 30 seconds later. So that worked out okay. I was very proud of us, because usually we get really upset at bad refs (or other teams playing dirty, i.e. the UMD game in the fall) and we get caught up in our heads and don't play as a team, but Saturday we realized that "you can't do anything about the ref" and kicked ass despite having an AWFUL ref. Final score: 12-7, AUWRFC.
In the afternoon, we played Xavier University, which is apparently located in Cincinnati? By then the sun was out and the ground was much dryer (we were on a different pitch, too, which had fewer puddles to start with). This game I locked, and oh man... I have NEVER wanted to be flanking instead so badly! AU had a little more trouble with this game, even though when we'd watched Xavier play WV earlier we'd thought they'd be easy (big girls, but slow, didn't run low, and didn't come up hard). AU was not nearly as aggressive as we needed to be (thus me DYING to be flanking), but we did well enough to keep them back and score one try of our own. FInal score: 5-0, AUWRFC.
This put us in the top bracket for Sunday - which dawned as cold and miserable as Saturday had been supposed to be. We played Army at 9:30 am on a pitch that was part mud, part lake.
It's been a long time since I played a game that messy, but AU played REALLY well. Despite the mess and the cold and the wet and the mud (I probably weighed about ten pounds extra, between the mud and the water soaking me all the way to my underwear), we never stopped and never slowed down and kept coming up hard and aggressive. I was strong-side flanking again, though I ended up eighting for a bit at the end. We lost, not too surprisingly, but we definitely kept them from scoring as much as they could've AND scored a try against them! Final score: something - 5, Army.
I haven't done a lot of game writeups this season, but generally I'm beginning to feel really good about my playing. Between being sick and busy, I'm still not as strong or fast as I'd like to be, but technically I think I've really improved. I've started making different decisions in rucks (like long-body rucking or sealing over my teammates) and reacting to how both AU and the other team are arranged across the field. I've also gotten a lot better at scrumming - I've figured out flanking much better, and over just the past week or so I've really figured out a good locking body position.
I do still need to work on my form in tackles (I am aggressive and effective, but with better form I'd use less energy and hurt myself less), and I'd like to be a bit better at lineouts. Flanking, I'm not always off the scrum fast enough, and overall I do still have some work to do on field awareness and strategy - for example when to use a short vs. long lineouts, etc.
But there will always be room for improvement. Overall, I'm definitely feeling good!
More or less related: on Saturday, I experimented with wearing my new molded cleats (the ones with spike cleats) instead of metal. And, oh man, RIGHT CHOICE. Maybe not if I'd been locking, but my feet felt SO much lighter without those nasty heavy metal spikes weighing me down. If I ever feel the need to get metal again, I've gotta look smaller and lighter, but I think I'm sticking to molded for now.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
The photos I promised
Can you tell I'm avoiding doing lots of work?
Facial turf burn on my eye and chin. I was not happy - especially since everyone was telling me I'd gotten a black eye, when CLEARLY it is just turf burn.
Me rinsing dye out of my hair... I mostly include this photo because it's kinda hilarious.
Purple hair! (And Law & Order!)
Me and my two teammates who willingly subjected themselves to my dye escapades.
My knees, aka the reason I will be using an entire tube of neosporin in the next week.
Facial turf burn on my eye and chin. I was not happy - especially since everyone was telling me I'd gotten a black eye, when CLEARLY it is just turf burn.
Me rinsing dye out of my hair... I mostly include this photo because it's kinda hilarious.
Purple hair! (And Law & Order!)
Me and my two teammates who willingly subjected themselves to my dye escapades.
My knees, aka the reason I will be using an entire tube of neosporin in the next week.
VWIT
I have returned from Charlottesville, where I have been all weekend playing rugby for VWIT (the Virginia Women's Invitational Tournament).
I have returned with the knowledge of how it feels to have the U.S. Military beat up on you for two hours: we were seeded with Women's Army Rugby (WAR) and Women's Navy Rugby (WNR). We played two thirty-minute halves against each, and lost by... considerable amounts.
I have returned without skin on my knees and portions of my face: we played on not particularly kind turf, and the turf burn was horrendous. I also am very stiff and sore and will probably have trouble walking for the next few days.
I have returned with purple hair.
But I have also returned... with VICTORY.
Our consolation match was on Sunday, with the University of Maryland (UMD). AU and UMD have some beef - they recently moved up to D1, and beat us in the fall (in a game that no one at AU wants to talk about or generally remember), so they are going to playoffs and we are not.
But today, we played them for two thirty-minute halves and ten minutes of overtime. No tries scored in the first half. We then scored our first try fairly early on the in the second; later, they caught up with us by scoring their first try [illegally, but let's not dwell on that]. Then in overtime, we put our try in and held them far away from our try zone the whole time.
It felt AMAZING - not just winning, not just being matched up against a team that we could REALLY compete with, but playing such a good, tight game. UMD made some mistakes, definitely, but they played really well; we just played better.
We played really and truly fifteen-as-one, everyone on the field paying attention to where their teammates were and where the other team was. We supported each other, reset fast and came up aggressively on defense, made smart decisions on offense, and (a big deal for my team, which usually loses their heads in these circumstances) kept out of our heads and on the pitch in the face of some questionable tactics used by the other team and some interesting calls by the ref.
It was what we'd been working for all weekend - we'd started off slow in the first half with Army, but picked it up, and played pretty decently against Navy, but we still weren't at our best; it's hard to keep your head and your aggression up when the other team is running tries into the tryzone every few minutes. But today, it just all came together and looked beautiful.
As for me personally, I had a pretty fantastic weekend (as a first, I played the same position all weekend: strong-side flanker). I didn't do as well as I could've in the first half against Army, but after the game was over, Deanna came up to me with a very serious expression on her face and said, "Pink. Do you know what you did? Pink," and just as I was getting worried that I'd done something very wrong, she finishes with, "You did exactly what a strong-side flanker is supposed to do. You made their flyhalf look for you every play because she was so nervous you'd hit her! You came up hard and aggressive on defense and wanted the ball every time."
And I don't think I've gotten a better compliment in my life.
And that's how I played all weekend.
And it was SO GOOD.
[PS - photos of the hair and the facial turf burn and the skinless knees whenever I get off my ass and upload them!]
I have returned with the knowledge of how it feels to have the U.S. Military beat up on you for two hours: we were seeded with Women's Army Rugby (WAR) and Women's Navy Rugby (WNR). We played two thirty-minute halves against each, and lost by... considerable amounts.
I have returned without skin on my knees and portions of my face: we played on not particularly kind turf, and the turf burn was horrendous. I also am very stiff and sore and will probably have trouble walking for the next few days.
I have returned with purple hair.
But I have also returned... with VICTORY.
Our consolation match was on Sunday, with the University of Maryland (UMD). AU and UMD have some beef - they recently moved up to D1, and beat us in the fall (in a game that no one at AU wants to talk about or generally remember), so they are going to playoffs and we are not.
But today, we played them for two thirty-minute halves and ten minutes of overtime. No tries scored in the first half. We then scored our first try fairly early on the in the second; later, they caught up with us by scoring their first try [illegally, but let's not dwell on that]. Then in overtime, we put our try in and held them far away from our try zone the whole time.
It felt AMAZING - not just winning, not just being matched up against a team that we could REALLY compete with, but playing such a good, tight game. UMD made some mistakes, definitely, but they played really well; we just played better.
We played really and truly fifteen-as-one, everyone on the field paying attention to where their teammates were and where the other team was. We supported each other, reset fast and came up aggressively on defense, made smart decisions on offense, and (a big deal for my team, which usually loses their heads in these circumstances) kept out of our heads and on the pitch in the face of some questionable tactics used by the other team and some interesting calls by the ref.
It was what we'd been working for all weekend - we'd started off slow in the first half with Army, but picked it up, and played pretty decently against Navy, but we still weren't at our best; it's hard to keep your head and your aggression up when the other team is running tries into the tryzone every few minutes. But today, it just all came together and looked beautiful.
As for me personally, I had a pretty fantastic weekend (as a first, I played the same position all weekend: strong-side flanker). I didn't do as well as I could've in the first half against Army, but after the game was over, Deanna came up to me with a very serious expression on her face and said, "Pink. Do you know what you did? Pink," and just as I was getting worried that I'd done something very wrong, she finishes with, "You did exactly what a strong-side flanker is supposed to do. You made their flyhalf look for you every play because she was so nervous you'd hit her! You came up hard and aggressive on defense and wanted the ball every time."
And I don't think I've gotten a better compliment in my life.
And that's how I played all weekend.
And it was SO GOOD.
[PS - photos of the hair and the facial turf burn and the skinless knees whenever I get off my ass and upload them!]
Saturday, February 23, 2008
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
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
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Quotes from a snow practice
"You know, I really wish we had some good grass."
To a toddler:
"Aw, are you a hooker? Yes you are!"
"No, I'm not sure if it's okay or not... I'll let you know when I can feel it."
To a toddler:
"Aw, are you a hooker? Yes you are!"
"No, I'm not sure if it's okay or not... I'll let you know when I can feel it."
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
And life is good
Today, I had one of those days where, after leaving the house, I had literally 30 minutes to myself - 10 minutes for "lunch" (a quesadilla and a green tea protein shake - tasty, but slightly odd) and 20 minutes for dinner.
One of those days where, though nothing actually bad happened, you just get frustrated and feel this need to HIT something.
Well... lucky for me I'm a rugger!
Second real practice of the season; my first full practice (had to leave early for class on Thursday).
Oh man oh man oh man. Did it feel good.
Never mind the cold, the fact that I couldn't feel my hands or that I was shivering in underarmour and a nice thick jersey. Never mind the wind that made it hard to throw a ball or hear the coach.
It was RUGBY.
We ended practice with Real Rugby (a little scrimmage), and wow, it felt so good. Rucking and passing and even a little scrumming (I got to hook a little, and you know how I feel about being a hooker - whee!). Honestly, I feel so good about our team - even at the second practice of the season, we're looking good. Yes, our defensive line looks a little straggly; yes, there were a LOT of missed tackles; but we had a lot of good continuity, communication, support, etc. Definitely a good base to work off of.
And we'll get a good glimpse of HOW good a base this weekend - round robin with Catholic, Georgetown, and VCU (I don't think we're all playing everyone, but I'm not 100% sure on all the details).
Three tournaments to go for trophies in... this could be a VERY good season for my last one with the AUWRFC :D
One of those days where, though nothing actually bad happened, you just get frustrated and feel this need to HIT something.
Well... lucky for me I'm a rugger!
Second real practice of the season; my first full practice (had to leave early for class on Thursday).
Oh man oh man oh man. Did it feel good.
Never mind the cold, the fact that I couldn't feel my hands or that I was shivering in underarmour and a nice thick jersey. Never mind the wind that made it hard to throw a ball or hear the coach.
It was RUGBY.
We ended practice with Real Rugby (a little scrimmage), and wow, it felt so good. Rucking and passing and even a little scrumming (I got to hook a little, and you know how I feel about being a hooker - whee!). Honestly, I feel so good about our team - even at the second practice of the season, we're looking good. Yes, our defensive line looks a little straggly; yes, there were a LOT of missed tackles; but we had a lot of good continuity, communication, support, etc. Definitely a good base to work off of.
And we'll get a good glimpse of HOW good a base this weekend - round robin with Catholic, Georgetown, and VCU (I don't think we're all playing everyone, but I'm not 100% sure on all the details).
Three tournaments to go for trophies in... this could be a VERY good season for my last one with the AUWRFC :D
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)