Berkeley All Blues vs Emerald City Mudhens

aka starstruck day 2. Well I managed to be less starstruck then the last time I saw an All Blues match and as a result I remembered a bit more about the rugby this time around....granted it helped not getting rocked on the pitch. It was another who's who-fest on the sidelines with Jen Crawford (who has been to 3 world cups and and eagle captain aka Berkeley's super-experienced backs coach with 23 caps), Laura Cabrera (hella experienced eagle), Lisa Butts (current Davis captain? and eagle and world cup reserve hooker/flanker) and more I'm sure.



Wow...even in a team of Berkeley's caliber Blair makes and impact. The way that she targets the binds of players, ducks under tackles, with her pace, power, and work rate she was really part of the lube that kept the ABs ticking over with tries. With Blair in first pod and Street in 2nd the ABs had a powerful attacking platform off of lineouts. Emerald city seemed to hold their own on their own scrums keeping the ABs from using it to its full potential (in the second half the mudhens occasionally got a drive on berkeley but not in time to affect the unleashing of the all blue backs). Ashley English was on the pitch at fullback linking up with Natalie Marchino (for some reason the usa rugby stat site has her under Nathalie...?) at wing for some spectacular tries. The All Blues were doing a great job hitting everything at pace and playing multi-phase rugby. The kicks by both teams were well placed and props has to be given to the Mudhens pack and fullback (who I'll figure out her name eventually) for their tenacity. Near the middle of the second half the mudhens had the ABs pinned in their own twenty-two for a good amount of time, putting them under pressure as their forwards doggedly kept driving the ball to within inches of the tryline. Unfortunately due to an eventual mistake and infringement by the mudhens (can't remember if it was for coming in from the side or diving over the ruck) but the ABs were able to clear the line and the mudhens didn't really get another good scoring opportunity after that.

Injury-wise Stephanie Bruce or Ruth Bryson had to go on for the other but I really have a hard time telling them apart so I can't tell you what was going on with that. One of them made an amazing 60 yard breakaway but was tackled from behind just as she made the tryline and was injured in the process. Chou had to go out when she took a knee to the eye socket at which point Mari Wallace moved to prop and that east coast hooker that I played against at pumpkinfest (Audrie? Something like that) came in at 2. The ELVs didn't really come into play as far as I can see (it's hard to judge whether the added space behind the set piece is really affecting anything) but there was one quick lineout that was done in a spectacular fashion. For the whole game she had been sprinting into the fans to retrieve kicked balls and I thought she was just trying to keep the game moving. Well next thing you know the mudhens take a floating high ball into touch from their half and Marchino is a blur into the crowd taking the ball mid-flight (and nearly taking out a spectator who was stepping forward to catch the ball) and throwing it in rather flat to Ashley English who preceded to open up the unprepared mudhen defense (it was a hair backwards and not where the ball went into touch but behind it...which is why I brought up the ELVs). Apparently the rule only counts if a spectator hasn't touched the ball yet hence her full body dive to prevent the spectator from touching the ball...this kinda sounds like a grey area law but I'll email a ref and post an update if I'm wrong. Oh and street was awesome off of scrums and harrying the opposing scrum-half...the first scrum of the game she wrapped the 9 so fast she was unable to even pass the ball to her backs.

Final Score ABs won a lot to 0. The game was played in two halves and I'll post the official pelican refs score later. The match took place on the goose-poop pitch on Treasure Island.

Oh and I talked to Lisa Butts (2 full caps) after the game to get a bit of a scoop on the new Davis team. Apparently they played an extra third against Berkeley because Sacramento (amazons I assume) canceled a match against the ABs last Sunday. The team was mostly made up of chico + davis alum with some chico state players filling up the ranks. They have a number of u-23 players (grizzlies I think) and they actually held berkeley to 38-0 during the first game and only conceded the rest of the points in the extra third. Berkeley didn't even score a try until the 23rd minute of the match (which after seeing Berkeley in action the last couple of weeks is a pretty mean feat on it's own). Once again a really strong start for a teams first match against last year's national champions (Lisa Butts of course used to play for the Berkeley All Blues and helped them on that road to victory).

Well next week in Norcal Rugby...the ABs are flying up to Portland for a match against ORSU (I assume) and the Davis Double Deckers are playing Fog somewhere in San Francisco! Specific...I know! Hehe anyhoo hopefully I'll be there and I can get a better hold of this new tough team in Norcal women's club rugby.

ps total sidenotes...didn't know that Street (Allyson Hemstreet)and Natalie Marchino are the captains of the All Blues. And rookie dues for the All Blues run $75 bucks and returning vets are ~100+ bucks. Yup.