Your Rugby Fact-a-Day

A few weeks ago, my coworker cornered me in the office kitchen and told me she'd seen Invictus, loved it, but realized she knew nothing about the sport of rugby. "So I've decided that from now on, you're going to tell me a fact a day until I understand the entire game!"

Of course I agreed. Below are the "facts" I've given her thus far - I'm going to try to record everything I tell her by updating the blog, both for the entertainment of others and to keep track of what I have and haven't shared yet. Hopefully by the end, I'll have a full rugby primer!


1) You cannot throw the ball forward
In rugby, the ball must be thrown backwards or laterally. Play can only move forward through running with the ball or kicking it.

2) A rugby field is called a "pitch"

3) There are fifteen players on the field

4) Each number identifies a position, rather than a player
One through fifteen are the starting players; sixteen through twenty-two are subs. If you play different positions in different games, you switch numbers. If you're watching an unfamiliar team, you can still tell who's playing what based on what number they're wearing.

5) Backs & Forwards
(This one requires pen, paper, and a drawing that looks something like this)
The numbers 1-8 on the pitch are called "forwards." They are the ones who do most of the tackling and close-in work. They are also the ones who scrum. Technically, those eight players are only half a scrum - the eight forwards from the other team form the other half. The numbers 9-15 are the "backs". These players are the ones who do most of the running around and passing. However, backs also tackle, and forwards also run around and pass.

6) Players 9 and 10
Nine is the scrumhalf and ten is the flyhalf. They are the closest things rugby has to quarterbacks. They are the ones who usually call plays and direct the pattern of play.

7) Points
- You receive five points for a "try" - this is like a touchdown, except you actually have to touch the ball down in the try zone. If you drop it, or if someone from the other team puts their body between the ball and the ground, it doesn't count.
- After a try, you have the option of kicking through the posts. If you get it, it's two points and called a "conversion" or "converting the try."
- You can also "kick for points" during open play, either just in the middle of stuff happening or after a penalty. If you succeed, it's three points.

8) Penalties
Penalties occur when there's some sort of infringement of the law. You must kick the ball, but you can try to kick for points, you can kick the ball further down the field to gain territory, or you can "kick" by bouncing the ball off your foot and then run a play.

9) There are no rules in rugby - there are laws
The difference? Rules are always the same, but laws are interpreted. They depend on who's doing the interpreting. In rugby, whatever the ref says, goes.

10) No backchatting the ref
The only person on your team that can talk to the ref is your captain - and she'd better be nice about it. If you yell or swear at the ref, you can get a penalty called against you. If you try to argue a penalty called against you, the ref can - and will! - give another 10 meters to the penalty. Don't make the ref mad!

Rugby in the news

I'm loving this post on the UBC team and women's rugby in Canada:

In women's rugby, community counts

Although rugby was played mostly by men for many decades, rugby is no longer just a “old boys” sport. Since the first documented match between English schoolgirls played in secret in 1913, rugby has been increasing in popularity and is now the largest growing sport for women in North America.

Rugby Training Video

Behold: a truly inspired and thoughtful video on the basics of rugby, put together by some deadly serious lady ruggers. Starts off a little slow, but stick with it and I promise you'll be laughing your ass off by the end.





I anticipate a Furies video response. Stay tuned.

In which I glee a bit over sevens

I am, like presumably everyone else in the rugby world, thrilled to hear that the IOC will be recommending rugby sevens for inclusion in the 2016 Olympic games. It's so exciting to see a version of my favorite sport gaining strength and getting increased public attention. And even though I am a fifteens girl through and through, it's clear to me that the sevens game is really the space where the opportunities are, especially in the women's game.

Rugby Canada's match report on the England/South Africa Nation's Cup game really highlighted the South Africa's sevens players as strengths of the team, stating that "South Africa Sevens’ athletes Gadu and Saloma impressed for the entire 80 minutes and were able to cleverly create chances out of seemingly dead end passages." I don't know much about South Africa's sevens program, but I have to imagine that Gadu and Saloma took advantage of what it offered, and took the strengths they gained from sevens back to their country's fifteens program.

The USA's sevens program, of course, I know a little more about - as do plenty of my well-meaning but rugby-ignorant friends and relatives who have asked me whether there are professional female rugby players, and consequently heard more than they probably wanted to know about the USA women's sevens' team, and their training camp prior to the World Cup in March (which I followed religiously via their blog).

I'm seeing a lot of momentum out there in the rugby world, not to mention the momentum a little closer to home - the Furies have been training all summer to get ready to play in the new Premiership league, which starts with our first match against Keystone next weekend. There's some big changes happening in the rugby world, and I'm excited to see what happens next.

Olympic sevens?

My rugby news alerts have pointed me to buckets of articles on the seven sports vying for inclusion in the 2016 Olympic Games - because, of course, one of those seven sports is rugby sevens.

This article is one of the best I have seen (and not just because it's titled "Rugby has best shot at Olympic glory"!). It clearly lays out all seven sports and the advantages and disadvantages each one has to being one of the two chosen for Olympic inclusion.

Here's what it says about rugby:

RUGBY

What: The International Rugby Board is proposing men's and women's tournaments of 12 teams in the faster, short-format, seven-a-side version.

Why it's out: It was dropped in 1924, but it's now hard to find a compelling reason why it wouldn't work as an Olympic sport.

Why it's in: The sevens game is fast, exciting and popular worldwide. The recent sevens World Cup drew 760 million viewers from 141 countries. The sport would attract new sponsors. The IRB has promised to drop its World Cup if it becomes an Olympic sport.

Chances: Excellent. Probably the odds-on favourite.

Go rugby!

BAKE-OFF

My last post was about the Furies/NOVA Beltway Battle Against Breast Cancer.

I've been informed through the grapevine (actually the listserve, which is the Grapevine of Rugby) that this battle will consist not only of the playing of rugby, but also of a bake-off.

The listserve "reply all" messages and g-chat status challenges are flying. My mouth is watering in regret at the fact that I will not be there this weekend and thus unable to sample any of the promised creations for myself. As I'm sure all of you know, rugby players are the most competitive type of people out there, and I would not venture a bet as to what kind of culinary stunts these women might pull in order to create the tastiest, most tempting, pinkest dessert all in the name of baking a better cake than everyone else (especially NOVA!) and WINNING!

I mean, in the name of fighting breast cancer. BOO, CANCER!

Beltway Battle Against Breast Cancer

My Google news alert pulled up this article on eRugbyNews on the Furies vs. Nova Beltway Battle Against Breast Cancer.

The game, not this Saturday but the next, May 9th, should be a great match - not just because it'll be a tough competition between two skilled rival teams, but also because I know everyone's put a TON of work into planning a fun and inspiring schedule to raise money for a great cause.

Sadly, I'm not going to be able to make it - two of my college friends are getting married (!!!) - but anyone who's in the area should definitely head down to check it out!

Ruggerfest countdown!

Ruggerfest is kind of like a rugby Christmas for me: tons of rugby teams coming together, just like families get together at holidays, and there's the same build-up and sense of anticipation. Although instead of presents - we get rugby games!!

This year is even more exciting than previous years, when I just participated in Ruggerfest as a guest. This year, I'm a host of the tournament as a player for the Furies. This means showing up early to help set up, being on my best and most helpful hostess-ing behaviour during, and staying late after to help take everything down. It's kind of like running the show instead of just sitting in the audience to watch.

Not that I won't get involved! Actually, with the Furies entering 3 sides, I'll probably play more rugby at Ruggerfest than ever before. Between playing 8 for Furies Gold, staying kit up and warm ready to sub in for Furies Competitive, and participating in Eamonn Hogan's clinic at the end of the tourney, there will only be 2 hours between 8 and 5 that I'll be able to sit down and eat my PB&J!

Add to all of that predicted highs near 90 all weekend and "isolated thunderstorms" on Saturday, and you'd better believe it's going to be a crazy fun exhausting weekend.

I doubt I'll be doing any blogging when I get home Saturday night, so if there's anyone who reads this blog who won't be at Ruggerfest themselves, I believe Jo is keeping Wendy updated on the day's scores.

Just 14 hours until the fun begins... I can't wait!

Motivation

Yesterday, I got back from a fun but exhausting weekend of rugby (games vs. Raleigh and Norfolk, then a fun stay at our coach's house involving a hot tub and a puzzle!). I was super tired and wanted a nap, but then I realized I had an hour before the gym closed. So I busted ass and managed to get there and finish a workout in that hour.

Today, I woke up early, intending to do the PT for my shoulder, but instead rolled over and went back to sleep.

Then this evening, practice was canceled thanks to DC Parks & Rec (dear rain: please stop making our fields too soggy to practice, this is no way to prepare for Ruggerfest!!), so I came home intending to have a nice, relaxing evening doing my shoulder PT and some ball handing.

Instead I watched a movie.

I guess some days you're on the ball, and some days you're not...

Go PRU!

This is why Penn State is in the final four after this weekend's playoffs - when's the last time you had 35 members of your team show up for optional fitness, much less at 6:45am, in the rain?

Good luck to both Penn State and Navy who will be representing the PRU at nationals - and congrats to Brown and Stanford for rounding out the top four!

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!

FINALLY – rugby is back in season!

Last Wednesday, my coworker asked me if I had any exciting plans for the evening. When I excitedly told him I had my first rugby practice of the season, he looked skeptical. Hadn’t I been playing rugby for a few weeks now?

Well, okay, the Saturday before I’d gone to Baltimore with American, my alma matter, to sub in during their game against Towson. I relived my first few seasons by playing wing, and had a great time rucking it up with my old teammates.

And sure, a few weekends before that I’d driven all the way to New Orleans for a tournament, and spend two weeks before that going to practice for the tournament.

But none of that’s the same as the season really officially starting. Practices reliably occurring twice a week! Games happening every Saturday! My inbox flooded with emails about meet times and practice details and selections and kit reminders! Playing “Dirt or Bruise” and, if I win, going to work looking like I lost a fight with a staircase!

Oh yes, there’s NOTHING like rugby season.

Crazy fun rugby

I love this quote from a California State article, UC Berkeley shuts out short-staffed Chico rugby team. I think it sums up rugby pretty well!

"This sport had to be invented by someone who was drunk," Kieren said. "But even though it's crazy, it's still crazy fun to play and watch."

As a bonus, there's a pretty good video of some gameplay with interviews with the coaches at the bottom of the page.

NOLA/Mardi Gras write-up: the FUN part

I am writing up my weekend trip to New Orleans in chunks, because it was too much experience for just one blog entry! Read about the road trip, a cemetery, and the rugby tournament too.

Crawfish and Mardi Gras


A few Stingers with our second place trophy

Post-tournament, fifteen members of the Stingers headed out to a crawfish boil. Q later reported in the Stinger's Weekly Buzz that the fifteen of us consumed:
25 lbs of crawfish
8 lbs of potatoes
15 ears of corn
1 dozen crabs
1 lb of shrimp
3 baskets of crackers
2 baskets of fries

and of course...

9 pitchers of beer

After that, it was time for showers and MARDI GRAS. We failed a little bit on Saturday night (although we did receive a truly beautiful second place trophy boot – painted silver and decorated with beads – at the tournament social!), but we made up for it on Sunday.

We spent the afternoon and evening exploring Mardi Gras New Orleans, doing line outs in the crowd to get MORE BEADS (even though our necks and shoulders were already sore from the weight of the ones we had!) and singing “Saturday’s a Rugby Day” as we strolled down Canal Street. We also enjoyed our share of NOLA cuisine, including beignets drowning in powdered sugar, hand grenades complete with little green plastic grenades, and hurricanes in souvenir glasses eighteen inches high. (Yes, I am counting beverages as cuisine.) Finally, we ended up dancing the rest of our night away at a bar called the Rugby Fruit Jungle.

All in all, a weekend that lived up to expectations.


More photos on Facebook: one and two and three

NOLA/Mardi Gras write-up: the rugby part!

I am writing up my weekend trip to New Orleans in chunks, because it was too much experience for just one blog entry! Read about the road trip and a cemetery, too.

Rugby!


Stingers vs. Buffalo Girls, photo thanks to Dee

The Mardi Gras tournament is a pretty friendly affair, and our hosts, the Halfmoons, squooze all three of our games into one Saturday so we could spend Sunday better appreciating the finer points of New Orleans at Mardi Gras. Despite these allowances, Saturday was no lazy rugby day. As both the first rugby day of the year, and my last games with the Stingers (I'll be moving to play for the DC Furies this spring), it had a lot to live up to - and it did.

Our first game was against the Baton Rouge Barbarians. It was a close, tough fought match: the Stingers scored in the first half, but after that play ranged back and forth between try lines with no further score. After two 25-minute halves of hard play, the Stingers emerged victorious, 5-0.

Later in the afternoon, the Stingers took the pitch again, this time against our hosts the Halfmoons. Play in this game was looser and messier, with a lot of pick-and-go from the forward packs. However, the Stingers were able to capitalize on the chaos and play another shut out game, with a final score of 19-0. A highlight of the game for all was when Jen Dean, in her last games as an active rugger before retiring, not only scored a try but kicked a successful conversion!

Finally it was time for our last game, with no break. We were playing the mysterious Buffalo Girls - up until Saturday morning, I figured they were some D2 team from Kansas or something. But over a Continental breakfast at our hotel, a chat with one of the players from the Oklahoma college side enlightened me: "The Buffalo Girls? Watch out! That's the Old Girls - they're tricky!"

Tricky indeed! For when we took the pitch, we found that we recognized more than a few Buffalo Girls from Back in Black, who narrowly defeated the Stingers at Ruggerfest in the spring. Determined to turn the tables, the Stingers played a good game; but, true to predictions, the Buffalo Girls were full of tricks, as well as hard tackling and good footwork. It was a well-fought match on both sides, but in the end, the Buffalo Girls shut out the Stingers for tournament gold and we received the silver.

More photos on Facebook: one and two and three

NOLA/Mardi Gras write-up: tourist time

I am writing up my weekend trip to New Orleans in chunks, because it was too much experience for just one blog entry! Read about the road trip, too.

New Orleans: The Educational Part


Our tour guided at the family tomb of Marie Laveau, Voodoo Queen

On Friday afternoon, because I have never been to New Orleans before and really wanted to get to know a little bit about the city, I went on a Cemetery and Voodoo tour with Kelley B, Kellie Cav, and Tiff. Our tour guide was a very energetic blond woman who gave us lots of fantastic background about New Orleans as we walked to St. Louis Cemetery - for example, did you know that New Orleans was Spanish for just as long as it was French? The thing is, it was French first, so when the Spaniards came in and changed the street names and insisted everyone spoke Spanish, everyone basically ignored them, and just changed the street names back to French when they left.

St. Louis cemetery was one of the several Catholic cemeteries in the city. It is full of those above-ground tombs that I'd always figured were popular in Louisiana because the ground is too marshy for underground burial. But, our tour guide explained, they were popular because they're a very efficient use of space: a family (or neighborhood association) would own a plot in the cemetery, and build a tomb on that plot that had a number of casket sized spaces - one, or two (like Marie Laveau's), or in the case of the neighborhood-owned or common tombs, more like fifteen or thirty. When you died, your body would be put into a coffin, which would go into that space in the tomb. Not so efficient so far, right? But here's the nifty part - after a minimum of a year and a day (this amount of time has something to do with Catholicism), when, say, your cousin dies and needs that space, they take out your coffin, take out your decomposed remains, shove them to the back of the tomb where they fall into a little cave in the bottom along with all the bones of your previously dead relatives. And hey presto! A new storage space for your dead cousin!

After wandering around the cemetery for an hour or two and learning lots more fun facts about New Orleans, burial grounds, and voodoo practices (those triple-X marks on the tombs of voodoo queens [and they are always queens, never kings] are a silly tourist thing. You shouldn't mess around with someone else's religion if you don't understand it, and anyways, all real voodoo practitioners are also staunchly Catholic. Our tour guide was also very opinionated), we went to visit a voodoo temple. There, we visited a room absolutely full of stuff - hangings on the wall and trinkets and statues stacked on the furniture and rolled up dollar bills and cigarettes stuffed everywhere. Then a woman (I guess... a voodoo priestess?) talked to us - or rather, at us - at great length about staying true to ourselves and not changing the outside because that will never change our insides. She seemed both insightful and a bit crazy - definitely an experience.

This was the end of our tour, and by then, having driven all night and then walked around a cemetery all afternoon, I was exhausted, so I met up with Dee and Q to head back to the hotel for a nice early bedtime of 5pm.


More photos on Facebook: one and two and three

NOLA/Mardi Gras write-up: the road trip

Oh, man. This trip, as might be expected, was absolutely EPIC AND AMAZING. So much so that, in order to be able to handle it, I had to break up it up into a few different sections - I'll post them one by one as I finish them!

Road trip


Q and Dee in their killah shades, somewhere in Alabama


1,200+ miles, 7 states, 18 hours of driving - and that's just one way. But Dee, Q, and I are all both dedicated to rugby and cheapskates adventurous, so we decided to drive from DC to New Orleans, Louisiana - overnight Thursday and Friday morning to get there, then all of Monday (day and night until it was almost day again!) to get home.

It wasn't as bad as I had expected - mostly because I sleep like a baby in moving cars. But there was also scenery, and rest stops (6 am McDonalds!), and late night discussions about all the important things in life (sex, love, and rugby), and the license plate game. Q and Dee laughed at me, but pretty soon they were just as excited as I was when they saw a state like California or Minnesota. By the time we'd gone to NOLA and back, we'd seen 31 states, plus DC, diplomat plates, and two Canadian provinces.


More photos on Facebook: one and two and three

NOLA road trip: T minus one day!

This is the route I'll be driving overnight on Thursday to get to Mardi Gras tournament in New Orleans.


View Larger Map

I AM SO EXCITED!

Spring is in the air

After four years of college, I started measuring time by the patterns of class – fall semester, winter break, spring semester, summer.

Now that I've graduated, however, things haven’t changed much. Thanks to rugby, my life follows nearly the same pattern: fall season, winter break (fitness), spring season, summer (sevens).

To be honest, there’s not a whole lot I like about winter. It’s cold, it’s dark, and – worst of all – there’s no rugby. Just going to the gym when it’s already dark, talking myself into layering sweats over underarmor to go running, and missing scrumming and tackling and contact.

But I can feel winter finally coming to an end. Not only did DC just have a week-long warm snap (it’s hard to hate global warming when you get seventy degree weather in February), but rugby is starting back up again!

Last week I started preseason practice with the Stingers to get ready to compete in the New Orleans Women’s Rugby Club’s Mardi Gras tournament. Though I’ve been working out and playing touch whenever I can, all the fitness and ball-handling in the world can’t compare to finally getting out on the pitch with some ruggers to do contact!

It would sound crazy to any non-rugger, but I LOVE my sore, rugby shoulders the day after a tackling and scrumming practice. I love it because I know it means I’m getting stronger and better, because it means I’ve been pushing people around with my body, and – best of all – because it means I’ll soon be out on a real pitch playing a real game.

Soon, rugby will start for real and it will finally be SPRING!!