Lots of Bruises

The annual Berkeley/UCSC camp/scrimmage went pretty smoothly. As always, the weather was possessed and tried to kill us all. This time we had multiple ice patches on the field as well as mud ice and frosty grass. This is California mind you...and I was raised in SoCal. In my part of Los Angeles we have sunny skies yearlong and maybe one week of rain. So this ice shit was a shock, I still have shin splints from the game. We held Berkeley's B/A side to five or ten points...basically the same scoreboard as last week. We only had one vet back so our backline wasn't looking pretty. Our forwards were looking shaky as well with a number of rookies playing new positions (I nearly died having a BRAND new prop and lock on the same side). A number of people picked up some light injuries...but nothing too serious I hope. I played the shittiest game of my life...walking the majority of it and taking bad knocks in rucks etc. Still, I did a decent job at hook and made a nice 20m run for a try (I sidestepped two backs and shoulder checked the fullback) which I'm kinda proud of. Ellen really is doing a great job with Cal, all of her players are solid tacklers and great all around ruggers. It was cool seeing local collegiate legends like Street and Chou and getting advice from them at the camp. Their tighthead was doing a fabulous job nailing me in the temple (and effectively taking me out of the scrum)...I just wish we had had an experienced loosehead to combat that because frankly I could have skipped on the concussion. I missed the Stanford Women's Sr. Side Invitational because I didn't trust myself to drive the 17 while feeling looser then a goose's feathers. We're probably going to miss the Stanford Collegiate Invitational too because we all need a week off. I'm still not thrilled with this emphasis on conditioning over general rugby knowledge. Especially considering we have two weeks until our first league games and our backs don't even know plays. (Kinda scary when the hooker knows the backline plays before the backs).

On a more personal note I'm bummed 'cause our lifters dropped my gf on a lift and she sprained her ankle so she'll be out for a few weeks. I'm doing decent in school and feel semi on top of my stuff. Lastly, I picked up a road bike for twenty bucks and I'm like a little kid in a candy store stripping and cleaning its parts (I've ridden it whenever I've found an excuse). But anyhoo....back to reading.