not much in rugby news

but I got an A-, B+, B+ this quarter! Mwahahahaaa not too shabby. I'm still trying to kick this cold while still earning some money over spring break. The trip to Washington for regionals is rounding out to 250 a player (for the flight and cars) so yea obviously housing and grub will up the price tag *sigh* and 250 would buy me a terabyte hardrive as well (or more realistically it would get me that much closer to a deposit so I can actually have somewhere to stay this summer). MMmmm what else...

My mum said something really adorable the other day. I guess one of the various rugby catalogs came with a rugby spectator guide and she called to tell me that we had to make it to Stanford because now she understands rucks and mauls and offside laws and wants to see me play again. It's kinda funny how mother's think they're making perfectly reasonable requests when they're actually asking you to move a mountain for them. That and we've already made the National Championship match TWICE and she had to wait til now to learn the damn rules to appreciate the game. *sigh* At the very least it's good motivation to get in shape and sharpen the skills for Washington. No one is looking that far ahead yet (except my mom apparently) but yea...it's post-season and hopefully it'll be a long one. Fourth year. Last chance. What's that old rugby refrain?? That's right...'Redeem Thyself' (a new mantra perhaps?)

Damn GO Navy Go

heh...taken straight from goff...

March 22, 2008, Annapolis, Md. - An aggressive Navy side took advantage of every Princeton mistake to steamroll the inexperienced Tigers 115-3. Breanna Strand scored 23 points in the first half to lead Navy’s onslaught. Flanker Michelle Akins replied with three tries in the second half for Navy.

Breanna Strand (inside center) went to my high school, and I knew she was a good rugger but damn...=] good to see that she's kicking ass.

Makes me wanna kick this cold and get back in shape

Finished finals...I'm exhausted

I think my mental toughness has been upped by leaps and bounds. I've been going nonstop for literally a full week (like 22 hour days). I can't believe the sheer amount of shit that I've accomplished. Now that the quarter is over for me I can relax and....deal with the massive amount of shit that's been accumulating.
I need to get back in shape for regionals (I've been running on coca cola and burritos for the last seven very sedentary days)
ughhh

oh and sleep.

hmmm....oh Univ San Francisco joined our league so we'll technically have six teams in our league now if Monterey and San Jose muster up the numbers. Which is awesome but I'll be a slug alumni by then.

Er...the top 20 ranking was finally updated but I don't really care cause we haven't moved.

That's enough rugby news for now right? Er Belmont Shore did pretty damn good at the Champagne Classic. That's about it. It's 9 o'clock and I'm to tired to even drink a beer.

So I skipped pelicans

And that was probably my one and only chance to play at the elite level. Meh. Life and priorities...right now I need to focus on school...I say that every year, every quarter but it's true. School isn't just a money sink for a piece of paper and the older I get the more I believe in it. *sigh* What else...Humboldt forfeited so there was no game on Saturday...something funky may occur and Humboldt and possibly Reno may move down to D2

What else....


WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALES! WALES! BREAD OF HEAVEN! Ahhh it was good to see m'boys win the grand slam. I haven't seen them play so well with such confidence since four years ago. Ah to see Martyn Williams and Shane Williams and Hook and Gethin and Byrne and Ryan Jones and Alun and Ian and Shanklin and Huw and even mister macho Mike Phillips and bleeding Gavin Henson....ahhh hahahahaha and all those who doubted the awesomeness of Wales and Argentina can suck it =]

NorCal DII Women's Collegiate League

Yup UCSC beat St. Mary's 32-13 yesterday and we won league. I dunno it's just a cool accomplishment to have won league for all four years now. I've had my ups and downs with rugby but man it's been worth it. Yes there was only three teams this year but each match was hard fought and a difficult battle for all sides. More on this later but finals are just around the turn and I have no days to write 15 pages ahhhhh.


What lies ahead...

Women's Collegiate D2 Regional Playoffs

PCRFU 1 = USARFU 2
PCRFU 2 = USARFU 8

Seeding:
1 NCRFU 1 (UCSC)
2 PNRFU 1 (WWU)
3 NCRFU 2 (Sac State)
4 PNRFU 2 (CWU) / URFU 1 (UVSC) (pending March 29 challenge match)

Dates: April 5/6, 2008 (Sat/Sun)
Host: PNRFU, WWU Rugby Club !!! (news to me)!!
Venue: Bellingham, WA

Saturday Matches:
Match A: NCRFU 1 v PNRFU 2
Match B: PNRFU 1 v NCRFU 2

Sunday Matches:
Match C: Winner A v Winner B
Match D: Loser A v Loser B

Winner C = PCRFU 1
Loser C = PCRFU 2

Hmm so we have two seeds again? That's peculiar...

2008 Seedings (a la usa rugby)

1 Midwest #1 [University of Minnesota-Duluth]
2 Pacific #1
3 Northeast #1 [Norwich]
4 Southern Cal #1 [Claremont?]
5 South #1 [Charleston?]
6 Mid-Atlantic #1
7 West #1
8 Pacific #2

and the bracket is as follows
Day 1 in New Mexico
Pool A: Midwest #1 vs Pacific #2
South #1 vs Socal #1
Pool B: Northeast #1 (which is Norwich)vs MARFU #1
Pacific #1 vs West #1

and the rest who knows from there, Norwich is doing a gnarly job ripping up the DII rankings so we'll see how that works out. It is kinda peculiar to have two seeds. I'll try and fill out more info when I'm not in finals week...

Sac State Women's Rugby vs UCSC **EDIT**

We won it 12-7 in an in-cre-dibly close match. More details later but other big news. Apparently UC Davis beat Stanford 10-0. YEA....jeez talk about big news especially since the aggies seemed to be struggling a bit this season (with a 1 point victory over Humboldt) **edit** Actually they were in second place **edit** but shit...way to know down one of the top teams in the nation. More details later, but yea my old bones need to take a rest!

pps. so I guess there is a lot more to this story. Stanford had a couple starting players off at a U20 eagle camp and their Sr. capped Eagle flyhalf Jossy Tseng sat on the bench because she was late to the teams warm-ups.

A) that's a pretty cool show of integrity on Stanford's part, (as well as the diff between D1 and D2...hell we couldn't spare the players)

B) Stanford is still on top of the Norcal D1 charts due to point differential

C) a weee bit cocky on Stanford's part.

Yup ok that's it, now I have to finish my five page film paper today, go to practice, try and read a 500 page book (in a day), write a 20 pg paper by sunday, play in a game, read five novels in two-three days, may or may not have promotion/relegation match, may or may not go to pelicans camp, write five pages, read a few hundred pages, write two pages, read a couple thousand pages and catch up on a months worth of work, take two DEATH final exams...and fin. The next fifteen days are going to be....H E L L!!