Getting Schooled and Cleaning up my room

ALL BLUES 59 – Belmont Shore 7 Referee: Preston Gordon
Assistant Referee: Eric Rauscher

Because SFGG's main pitch is being re-seeded, this took place at the Job Corps field a little further up the island. We kicked off just after 12:30 for 4 20-minute periods with open subs, as requested by the coaches. The opening quarter of the game was fairly even, with both sides working off a little summertime rust. The All Blues did a little better with support play and passing, and ended up with 4 converted tries by halftime. Belmont Shore did well but couldn't quite match their opponents.

The second half was about the same, and the All Blues scored 5 tries, 3 of which were converted. Belmont Shore put one across the line towards the end of the match through some good recycling, and converted it, leaving the scoreline at 59-7 to the All Blues. I think that flatters the winners a bit though - this match wasn't really that lopsided.

This was the first match under the ELVs for everyone on the pitch, myself included. I thought everything went pretty well - the 5 extra meters of space at scrum time seems to create more attacking opportunities. I don't recall many of the others having an impact either way.

Thanks to Eric Rauscher, who showed up to touch judge, or rather, be an assistant referee. He and I stuck around to assist Don with the first half of the SFGG-Greggs match that happened right afterwards. That was a great game (36-32 at the half) and I would have stuck around for the rest of it had I not had family waiting for me. Next week's match should be a cracker!

-pelicanrefs.blogspot.com

yup...I know it's a slow repost...I've been working 60+ hrs a week and yea it's got me all muddled. The game against the All Blues was awesome...I was only in for a quarter but it was so cool playing against the who's who list of world cup players, eagles, and u-23 eagles. Ehehee I know I have issues with being star-struck but it was cool playing against Tina Nesburg, Mari Wallace, Jossy, Street, Chou, Blaire's sister, Vix, and those were the ones I noticed while I was being pummeled to a pulp (hmm seems I know my famous forwards a wee bit better then my backs). Belmont did damn well (before Lenny and I were subbed in) to hold off Berkeley. I was pretty surprised by the number of knock-ons and penalties that the ABs committed and some major credit has to be given to the Landshark defensive pressure which was the cause of a number of these mistakes. A good pre-season friendly for both teams for sure. I gotta say it was an awesome experience being surrounded by so many veteran players and against such a skilled side. Regina Sheck added additional structure and leadership to an already solid and experienced Belmont pack and I can't believe how effortless they made scrumming against the all blues look. Regina played 8 and was our primary kicker in the match and there is more info about her here (Heh and now I can say that I've played with a world cup champion against half the eagle roster).

Long story short I got schooled for the twenty minutes or less that I was on the pitch...for the first couple minutes I was fine, had a few straightforward carries, made a few yards, rucked a bit and that was fine. But lord once we packed down I was toast. I played loosehead and I haven't propped in a full scrum since oooo last fall...and I only do it during rookie tournaments...ehehe. So I held my own for the first two scrums until they realized that I didn't know shit and just started dropping, pulling, barging, holding, and popping me at will. Then I died. Only time in my whole life that I've been chastised by a ref for sucking so much in the scrum. And I quote "If you can't take the hit maybe you shouldn't be out here". Yup. Ouch. I was keeping my side off the ground but I was basically limbo-ing and my spine was doing a stretch-armstrong. I'm in total awe of my opposite number and any prop that can keep the scrum steady while she's doing the things she does (cheers to Brooke and Amber). Wish I knew her name but she wasn't particularly friendly during the match or after...eh...it's kinda a Berkeley thing (which isn't meant in a harsh way but Berkeley tends to be serious + elite and deservedly so).

After the match was pretty fun, got to hang out a bit with the Reddick sisters, Alex from Fog, Georgi Ellis from CSU Sacramento. It was cool 'cause Alex Williams stopped by and said hi (I went to her summer camp last year) and everyone basically assumed that I was playing for Belmont now which is a hard thing to correct when you mumble a lot like I do. Kathy Flores was there as well and it was also super cool to see Miller again (Belmont's forwards coach) heh she's so badass! Heh Kasey, Kate, Shannon, Fuj, Grace...yea I miss Belmont even if I was ridiculously dorky and awkward when I played for them (not that I'm much improved now).

Anyhoo enough sentimentality. Apparently I completely missed that our women's club LAU dissolved and now there's just a pac coast competition. Wonder if they'll still be a TAU playoff...I feel that step always helps prepare our collegiate team to gear up for post-season play and prep us for Elite 8s (I'm only bringing it up because I imagine it serves the same purpose for Women's senior side teams). As goff and a number of other blogs have mentioned that there are two more teams that are trying to settle into the scene and they are Budd Bay out of Olympia, WA and the Davis Double Deckers (which I think I mentioned earlier seems to be a mix of UC Davis alum, chico players, and sac alum...but I'll try and post a roster later in the week). Anyyhoo both teams played a match against a strong side and did fairly well for a brand new club. I can't recall the budd bay match but I'll look it up later. Davis played the All Blues and held it 61-0. Oh and there seems to be a lot of questions about club rugby in norcal and I thought that I'd mention that the Sacramento Amazons seem to have been having issues with dues/admin stuff with Pelican Refs and thus have been in 'poor standing' so that might be why things are going through a bit of a shift.

BLeh...lots of rugby so little time. Apparently rugby magazine is going to be distributed in Barnes & Noble stores around the country as well as college campuses...which is neat and while I don't super like the magazine it's kinda one of those things ya just gotta buy cause it has rugby on it (and actually is about the sport and not about stupid fuck fashion...thank you Ralph Lauren....you didn't invent rugby...*sigh*) I'm going to the Berkeley vs Seattle game tomorrow...no I don't actually know which seattle side it is...but we'll see. Maybe I'll get the guts to do and interview. Meh...probably not seeing that I'm so poorly prepared. Then again if the Berkeley All Blues ever updated their website...............


**UPDATE** womeneagles.com updated their website and expanded their 7s roster. Did you know that there was a women eagles youtube channel? Nope...I didn't either (well kinda but then I forgot about it) Alright that's it goodnight.