So I'm checking out the high school girls rugby photos at DropKickPhotos (because I think it's just awesome to see young girls playing rugby! COME TO AU!) and I think this is ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS.

So much for standing water on the field!!

PRU U23 All-Stars 2007

Guys. Guys. Did I ever tell you how rugby is my favorite thing ever? And ruggers are my favorite people ever?

This weekend I went down to UVA in Charlottesville to play for the PRU U23 All-Star team in the MARFU tournament. For those of you to whom that means very little, basically I got to play select-side rugby with some totally awesome girls.

AU had eight girls selected (six plus one alumni plus one alternate), so we set off together in Garthie and Petrides' cars early in the morning Saturday. Once to the pitch, we engaged in (true to AU form) spooning and karaoke, before doing a walk-through with the whole team. Then we kit up and watched EPRU beat VRU2.

Once that game was over, we warmed up and prepared for our game vs. VRU1. I started at flanker, and played for a half. I was... well, not really happy with how I played. I cleaned it up somewhat before I was taken out at the 40, but still wasn't very happy with myself. The whole team was a little off, I think largely due to the fact that we didn't get any practice time together (last tryout was last Sunday, and it's logistically difficult to get girls from all over the area together for a weekday practice). The more we played, the better we look, but we basically got rolled over.

Not too disheartened, however, we all showered up at the hotel and then met at the Mellow Mushroom to fuel up for Round 2 vs. VRU2. In the evening, a bunch of us hung out and watched Free Willy 2 (that movie is surprisingly dirty, if you watch it with the right people). Afterwards, we tried to go hot-tubbing, but it being closed, a group of us ended up sitting in the "exercise room" just chatting for an hour or two before bed.

Sunday dawned bright and a little warmer than Saturday, and we rolled out of the hotel at 9am for our game playing VRU2. I didn't start (I was not surprised, considering how I'd performed the day before), but all the AU kids that hadn't started yet were in the starting lineup (even our alternate!). The game was much closer and much better played than the day before, but we still lost by two tries. I got in for the last 20 minutes and (go figure) played about ten times better than I did on Saturday.

And as Tosan said after the end of that, "Losing ain't a loss unless you don't learn from it." There's a lot I have to work on before the beginning of next season and before I go to MARFU tryouts in the spring, and a lot for the team to work on together. Definitely not a loss.

Then it was kitting down, a flurry of pictures, and back in the Garthmobile for the trip home. And my season is officially, completely over - I won't get to play rugby again until February. Depressing.

But I'll still get to play with ruggers! This weekend was an amazing experience not just for the gameplay, but for all the awesome girls I got to hang out with on and off the pitch. I'm totally looking forward to seeing them at games and tourneys and socials in the spring, and hopefully hanging with some of them before then!

I just took 2 ibuprofen.

Then, ten minutes later, totally forgetting I'd taken the ibuprofen, I took 2 dayquil.

My body is kind of spazzy and dizzy feeling, and I'm running a baby temperature.

More importantly, PRU HASN'T SENT OUT SELECTIONS YET!!!!

6:30 my ass.


ETA: THEY SENT THEM! I AM ON THE TEAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAHHHH PRU U23 2007!!!!!


ETA2: Okay, now that I have calmed down - I should point out my pride in AU's representin'. Out of the 22, we have SIX players (two of them ROOKIES) and ONE alumni, and one of the four alternates. That's like a quarter of the team! MAN AM I EXCITED!!!!

Oh, abusive lover

Last night I had so much trouble sleeping, as my plague-touched mind kept running through rugby scenarios (you're in a tackle, place the ball, get up off the ground, get back in the game, hit the ruck, back ten for a penalty, etc etc) and refused to settle down for some rest. Then at 7am I inexplicably woke up again, and the brain went straight back into rugby mode.

Sigh.

So I got up and did my gay class readings and found some breakfast and was internally whiny about how miserable I was (I have some sort of cold/flu/plague thing) and then packed up my shit for - another day of rugby! PRU U23 tryouts.

Three or four hours of passing drills and contact drills and scrumming and lineouts and full-on scrimmaging. I almost completely forgot about the plague and threw myself into it and I think I did okay. Wasn't my best playing ever - I couldn't hold onto the ball for love or money in one of the drills, my tackles were too high in the scrimmage, and I had some trouble locking - got folded in half by an amazing opposing prop.

Well, selections are supposed to be out by 6:30... I will sit here, plaguey and sore, and wait.

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.

Perfect rugby forecast

It's supposed to rain throughout the night, tapering off around 10am, an hour before kickoff.

At 11, kickoff of the A-side game against Georgetown at the Colmar Manor field for AU's parents weekend, it's supposed to be cloudy and 66 degrees.

You could not ASK for better rugby weather than this.

We played Penn State today

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 (?).

Injury update!

Today I got my face stepped on. By a girl in metal cleats.

It was one of those moments where everyone stopped and went "OH MY GOD ARE YOU OKAY!?!?" and I said yes, because I was, but I had to really think about it because that answer did not seem quite right.

Now my face is a bit sore, and I have a big red mark up the side of my face (sadly hidden in my hairline), and there is a slight chance I'll get my first rugby black eyes.

Scrum clinic!

I have three papers to do for tomorrow, but since I have finished one, gotten as far on the second as I'll probably get without a serious "what's going on here" meeting with my professor, and don't need to turn in the third until 8 pm tomorrow, I'm going to take a break and write about the scrum clinic today!

(If you don't want to read the long version, here's the short: I learned a lot, it was really helpful, and I got to be a hooker).

The clinic was led by Lisa Rosen, the MARFU* U23 coach, as well as Gabe Ortitz (who I worked with for PRU U23s last fall) and several players from the national level (U23 and otherwise) whose names I don't remember because I fail like that. I was the only AU player to make it there, but I was not lonely! There were at least 40 other players there: Catholic had their full men's and women's packs (since it was on their turf), and there were also players from Towson, Philly, UPenn, UVA, and all over the MARFU area.

We started out the day with dynamic warmups, then went over scrumming body position. First we went over having a good, flat profile (shoulders up, not rounded; hips tight, pulling your belly button to your spine; back flat; head neutral, looking over your eyebrows with your tongue pressed against the back of your teeth); then we made sure we could drop down several inches maintaining the same profile. Finally, we talked about the "angry cat" position - being on all fours and maintaining the same characteristics as the standing profile, and also keeping all leg angles at 90 degrees: thighs straight down, calves parallel to the ground, feet dug straight down.

Next we divided up into stations to work on that body position. I ended up with the VRU group, as they were a bit short-handed, and we started at the ab/core station. One drill we did was for one partner to be on her knees, with her hands supporting a leaning partner at the shoulder. Then the kneeling partner would switch moving her hands (so she'd be supporting the leaning partner with only one hand at a time) while both partners worked to keep their profile straight and tight. Then we did the highly entertaining "monkey" drill, where one partner picks up another in a firemen's lift, and the lifted partner climbs full circle around the standing partner's head while the standing partner tightens her core to support the monkey partner.

The next station we went to was the bungee station, which involved harnesses and rubber straps (fun!) Strapped first to a lamppost and then to each other (in a diamond pattern, so we were all going in opposite directions), we worked on keeping body position and driving against the backwards bungee pull. I apparently have good body position, but wasn't able to keep myself from lurching side-to-side in the drive, and actually was snapped backwards on my ass in the diamond formation. It really hit home for me that if I am going to physically be able to play a forward position at the level that I'd like, I'm going to have to find time in my schedule to go to the gym or at very least do some ab/core work at home.

The last station we went to was the Predator. We just lined up and took turns hitting individually until the end of the rotation. Again, I learned that I have good body position but not enough force. I'm so little! But as Lisa pointed out to me, there are plenty of great, little, strong rugby players out there. So the gym it is.

Before lunch, we took a little time to talk about binding. Instead of binding across to hips or sides, which distributes some force sideways, Lisa talked about having everyone in the scrum bind at the midline to distribute (or punch) force forward into the opposing scrum. Additionally, everyone enters the scrum on their feet in the same body position we'd practiced earlier - no going down to one knee for the locks. It's something Deanna's been working on with us for the past few seasons, but it still feels a bit odd.

In the first part of lunch, we also talked about hooker and eight footing. Both act as "brakemen" on the scrum, setting up with one foot forward, one foot back, and at "engage" they (counterintuitively!) move the forward foot back to move weight forwards. Weird, but it works (oh gravity!)

Then we broke for lunch. Yay lunch!

Following lunch we had Scrum Time. We practiced binding into our scrums and doing sprint engages, where instead of hitting anything we just sprinted forwards. The groups also rotated through using the Predator, and man was it nice to use a scrum machine! Then we graduated to hitting other packs, but by that time we were all getting a bit worn out and tired and the engagements weren't as clean as we'd like. The difference with the body positions and binds were still quite clear, though - the drives were hard and everyone's power went straight forward.

The best part, though, was that I got to play hooker! Our group was a bit short, and I'd mentioned that I'd like to learn how, so I ended up spending almost all my time rotating in and out at hooker, with only a few turns at lock and flanker and none at eight. I do wish I would've gotten a bit more practice locking and eighting in that setup, but on the flip side I'm now okay playing every position in the scrum but prop!



*Quick rugby hierarchy lesson: I play for AUWRFC (American Women's Rugby Football Club), which is in the PRU (Potomac Rugby Union), which is in MARFU (Mid-Atlantic Rugby Football Union), which feeds into the national pool. MARFU is made up of the PRU, EPRU (Eastern Pennsylvania Rugby Union), and VRU (Virginia Rugby Union). U23 is short for Under 23 All Stars.

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.

Getting back into the swing

The semester's finally kicked in, and life is crazy. I'm taking 17 credits again, and though five of those are art and water aerobics and six more are gender classes, it's still a ton of classes and all three of the real-life classes have three page papers due Monday (boo!).

Rugby, of course, is also taking up a shitton of time. Besides the administrative stuff (taking care of the dues and trying to get 50-some people to Salisbury without spending all those dues) there's praaaaaaactice! We have rookies (and, oh lord, do we have rookies) so practices are a little more thrilling with so many new people to meet. Plus today Deanna started integrating the rookies with the returners during more specialized drills, and I'm really excited to play with these girls.

Personally, it's been a bit of a slow start. I made the conscious decision in Japan that I was going to focus on my classes and experiencing the culture while I was there, instead of trying to get to the gym every day or even every other day. Definitely the right decision, but it means I'm not as fast or as ready to be back in the game as I'd like. But I'm putting my all in at practice and I can feel my body getting back into rugby shape - I'm getting sore in all the right places, I'm slowly but surely being able to ramp up my intensity, I'm getting more focused and less lost in drills, and (the surest sign!) my boobs are getting smaller. I'm really looking forward to what this season will mean to me personally, as well as the AUWRFC as a team - we've got a big group of very experienced seniors, talented underclassmen, and really promising rookies.

Oh man - I just got real sappy. Tear.

Rugby boot camp!

Today our coaches ran a 5-hour (plus an hour for lunch) boot camp, which was basically an excuse to get us all together and get us back on the same page with a continuity we can't get at 2-hour practices that not everyone can get to.

It was a really excellent use of a Saturday. We got together at ten and started with some basic ball-handling before having a "reintroduction to tackling" session - progressing from tackling on our knees all the way to full contact drills. Then we took an hour break for lunch, and when we returned we split. We did lineouts and scrums!!!

Oh man I missed scrums.

I was locking (no idea of this is an indication of the position I'll be in for the rest of the season), and originally was in the same situation I've always been in previously locking: usually my body position was off, and at best I got in the first hit before becoming useless, and at worst I was actually holding back my prop. Then someone basically grabbed me and pulled me into correct body position while my head was in, and it clicked! It was like my muscle memory was like "Oh that's how you lock!" and after that, I was able to hold myself up without pulling back on the prop, make the first hit, and keep the pressure on until the ball came out of the scrum.

Oh man... scrumming... did I mention I missed that?

We ended the practices with a scrimmage. It was pretty messy and chaotic, and I felt like a rookie again ("I'm supposed to be where? What? Okay, okay, do this.... wait! No! Do that! ...who has the ball!?), but it was a scrimmage on the first practice of the season.

And now I'm tired (the parents are in town, and they took me to dinner and then to Linens and Things where we bought $85 worth of things that did not include the two items we went in the store for) and I have a large bruise on my hip and so, so happy that my favorite thing ever is back in my life.

PS TRUE OR FALSE I AM FACEBOOK STALKING POSSIBLE NEW ROOKIES.

I adore my Kyoto ruggers <3

I just checked the KWRFC website and photos from my going away party have been posted. Oh man... how much will I miss hanging out with these girls?!

Whoever typed up the commentary (probably Shima) said so many sweet things about me. For example, that I was a positive force since I joined the team, that my funny/strange Japanese is endearing, and I sing karaoke well ("even though they don't have karaoke in America, she was good!"). Besides all the ridiculousness of my teammates.

I can't believe I didn't spend more time with these girls. I mean, I can - my Japanese is just not up to snuff, although it is MUCH much closer after 4+ months - but they're such fun, and I say that when I didn't even know what was going on most of the time.

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

Varsity rugby

Saturday's A Rugby Day* made a post about women's rugby getting NCAA varsity status, which got me thinking about the nature of AU's team and ended up in this long comment, that I figured I might as well repost here.

American's team's been around for about 11 years, and right now we're one of the top club programs at AU. We've got great ambitions for the growth of our team - our board has been working with the club sports office for increased field access and equipment storage, and I'd like to think that the visibility and success of our program has been a factor in the university's recent decision to increase the office's total budget.

On the one hand, field access, equipment storage, and money would be easier or maybe unnecessary to fight for if we had varsity status. Not to mention that holy grail of getting access to a trainer.

But on the other hand, very few if any of us want the constraints that come with being a varsity team. As a club side, we can choose whether our focus will be on increasing our competitiveness or just having fun playing an amazing game, and individual members can join with the knowledge that rugby's a flexible commitment. Many of our best (and most dedicated) players participate in multiple activities or work jobs or just plain don't want the 24/7 commitment that comes with playing for a varsity team.

For the AUWRFC, moving to varsity status would effectively change the character of the team. Perhaps this wouldn't objectively be a bad thing, but I would personally be disappointed if the club attitude of self-determination and free-will participation were lost to that varsity designation.

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.

Facts about women's rugby in Japan

- In Japan, there are about 400 women who play on about 25 rugby teams.

- Only one of those teams is a school-affiliated team; the rest are independent clubs.

- The Kansai region has only four women's rugby teams: one in Hyogo (I think that's the name of the area, anyways), one in Kyoto (mine!), and two in Osaka.

- This Sunday the KWRFC will play the Hyogoken Ladies.


I gathered all this information through a conversation entirely in Japanese with my teammates. Today a number of them remarked on how much my language skills have improved. I've got to admit, I've noticed a difference myself - this was part of a conversation which also included a discussion of rice, rice balls, what granola is, and what people eat for lunch in the States. It's AWESOME.

Kyoto rugby and the return of Pink the back

I have arrived in Japan! And today I was picked up from my dorm at 8:30am by two Japanese women (Shima, who drove, and Umi, who translated) to go play RUGBY.

We drove across the city (maneuvering streets that I didn't believe that cars could go down and still don't believe cars can go down, even though I was in a car at the time I was on them), ending up at what appeared to be a high school (Umi didn't know, because apparently they change fields every practice, with Shima sending out an email 2 or 3 days ahead of time with directions).

And I guess I shouldn't call it a "field" - it was a big area covered in... sand? I thought that was really, really strange, but when I pointed it out to Umi and said our fields back home were all grass, she looked impressed and explained that around here only the very good schools have grass fields.

Practice itself was a bit of an adventure. Umi and one other girl, Haruka, kind of spoke English, but no one else did, so I mostly hung back and watched to figure out what was going on. The team's ball handling is very good, and after we spent the whole first hour or so of practice doing purely ball handling drills, I figured out why.

We then did some contact drills, which were run very... interestingly. I somehow ended up in the group that didn't do more than very basic contact (just one-man rucking, no mauls, no going down, etc.), and the coaches apparently didn't care if people just stepped out of the drill to hang out for awhile. Because I was the foreigner and apparently very interesting, people kept stopping me and talking to me while I looked wistfully over their shoulders at the rucking going on the background. But it was pretty cool, and I definitely will be improving my Japanese with all that practice.

One interesting "oh hay gaijin!!!" moment was when one girl with kind of a rebel look introducing herself (forgot her name, though), declaring us friends ("Furendsu!"), and then standing up in my personal space to point out how long my legs were and how tall I was. Another was me explaining to two girls, Kira and Azu, that I had a girlfriend - no not a woman friend - no not a boyfriend - no not a girlfriend which is the same as a friend - hey what? Apparently rugby teams in Japan are NOT the same bastion of lesbianism as they are in the US.

Then we split into backs and forwards, and I was told to be a back. Furthermore, I was put into the position of fullback. For those of you following along at home, I haven't played as a back since last fall season, and even then I was primarily a wing and only occasionally subbed in as fullback. Add to that the fact that we were running multi-phase plays, when AUWRFC organizes only one-phase plays, and I was way confused. The coach kept explaining to me in Japanese, and even though the position names are the same and I understood words like "enter" and "right" and "left," it took a couple of tries and eventually the coach just running along after me and pushing me into place before I understood.

But, apparently the team has a game the last Sunday of April, and not enough of the team can make it - so I'll be playing in a game for them in just a month!!!

You know you're a rugger when...

I can't remember where I took these from, but they do sound awful familiar... :P

- You have gone home on a Saturday after a game, passed out, and then woken up and kept drinking.

- You can want to fucking kill someone from the other team during a game and then get shitfaced with them afterwards.

- When people walk slowly, you have to resist the urge to tackle them from behind.

- You frequently get the songs from the drink-ups stuck in your head

- You don't actually know the real names of your teammates, only their nicknames

- You know that Jesus can’t play rugby cause his dad would fix the game

- The number of gay people on your team outnumbers the number of straight people

- You have gotten the “what the fuck is that group of annoying girls doing” look in denny’s after a big game

- You steal beer after a drink-up so that you can keep drinking

- You learn about what happened Saturday night at brunch Sunday morning with your teammates

- You are trying to facebook people that you met after a game but can't because you can't remember if you ever actually learned their real name

- You know shooting the boot doesn’t have anything to do with a gun

- On the weekends you pee in the bushes more often than in the bathroom

- You’ve dreamt about sleeping with one your referees and commented on how good he looks in his short little rugby shorts

- Your excuse for everything is "I Play Rugby"

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!

Rugger family is international

Today I met up with some members of the Kyoto women's rugby team for what I thought was a morning of cherry blossom viewing, and what ended up being a whole day of chilling and awesomeness. I am very tired, have to get up in the morning to practice, and have to also shower/bath and write a nice long email to girlfriend before I sleep, so y'all get bullets:

- Eri, the girl who met me on the train (an 18-year-old who just graduated high school), is a sweetheart and I love her, but I wish she'd realize that I can do things like buy my own train ticket and put it in the machine.
- Aki is def. my favorite Kyotoruggergirl. This is largely because she's the one person who's had actual conversations with (she slogs through my terrible Japanese to discuss things like what kind of jobs she's done and how I feel about sports).
- Kumiko (34-year-old), who I just met today, is awesome, though I think she thinks of me as just another kid to take care of. Her kids (Mira [girl, 8] and Kaito [boy, 10]) are even awesomer. Mira especially spent the day trying to get me to understand her 8-year-old Japanese and taking pictures of me and marveling at my blue eyes and blond hair.
- When they say don't make eye contact with the monkeys? DON'T MAKE EYE CONTACT WITH THE MONKEYS. They will try to prove their dominance and chase you down and you will get teased about it for the rest of the day.
- Kitsune soba (fox soba, or soba with fried tofu in it) is delicious.
- It is apparently impressive that I not only know how to use chopsticks, but know to use the back end of them to pick food off of communal plates.
- Whichever Japanese soap opera was on the minivan TV while we drove all over whoknowswhere was HILARIOUS.
- Somehow I ended up in some hospital that was possibly halfway to Osaka to say hi to someone (I assume a rugger) with a leg wrapped and immobilized to the thigh. I also found out I apparently have high blood pressure, which has never been the case before.
- Fuku (pufferfish) can be poisonous if not prepared right. So if I drop dead in the next few hours, you can blame me breaking my vegetarianism to eat fuku just to have a story to tell.
- Sitting on tatami mats around low tables while Yuka's parents bring dish after dish of strange Japanese dishes and everyone is talking loudly in a language you barely understand and someone's kid is taking a million pictures of you because you look so damn funny and every so often the whole table tries to ask you a question in Japanese and draws on all their synonyms and body language and you end up with an 8 year old curled in your arms as she writes in your "memo" book while a 20-year-old sports addict corrects her kanji - somehow, it feels similar to bumming around a student rental at 6 pm on a Saturday. I guess rugger family is international, and I am +10 glad I found that out.

Plus? The beer totally tastes the same.