Sacramento State WRFC vs USF

So I've had another busy rugby weekend and I'm getting further and further behind on this blog so I'll just have to keep plugging away. I think K-Train put it best a few posts back that sometimes its the hardest to blog when you have too much to say. I really am living in rugby heaven right now...there's so much rugby going on in the Bay Area that I'm actually going to have to skip some rugby events. Crazy right? Yea well whatever I'm missing UCSC's b-side match against Santa Clara University tomorrow night...mostly because I volunteered to go to the Berkeley High practice (and it saves me 20 bucks and is only a short bike ride away). Ummm so stupid me I went to the field today...having managed to switch around the practice days (between the HS and the All Blues). I sat around awkwardly playing around with a ball before scoping out the other fields at the park and then finally summing up enough courage to call a teammate and ask why no one was at the field. Bleh. Apparently they practice Wed + Thursday nights...which is a tad odd but whatever. This weekend is another by for UCSC and Sac State is playing St Mary's in Sacramento. Feb 21st UCSC plays USF...uh I don't know where...probably in Santa Cruz. On Sunday Feb 22 there is Prom Dress rugby between the ABs and the SF Fog 2-5pm at the Job Corps Field on Treasure Island aka the Goose poop field 15 bucks for entry and a hamburger. And more...I dunno I'm pooped just thinking about it all. Practice for the ABs start soon Feb 17. UGH AND I'M STILL UNEMPLOYED. Heaven's knows why...it's not like I don't foolishly post everything and anything on this goshforsaken blog in a highly unprofessional manner.

Alright, back to business. I ended up attending both matches and it ends up I can't really concentrate on more then a single match in one day. Or maybe because the second game just paled in comparison to the competitive excitement of the first match. So anyhoo, I have a lot more to talk about when it comes to the Stanford vs UC Berkeley game and because of that fact I'm going to postpone my review of it until later (aka maybe tomorrow). Instead I'll focus on the second game which was hardly a match at all.

Ok that wasn't really meant to be a shot it's just poor planning. Sac State should never have been USF's first match of DII collegiate rugby. I can't say I know much about the team (USF) and the league didn't really know what to expect out of a brand new side coached by the WNT head coach Kathy Flores. Despite its instability this league has been fairly competitive in the last couple of years so it isn't a real shocker given the circumstances that Sac State trounced them. Sac State's (cal state Sacramento) been on a rampage all of pre-season and quite on form so they smashed their way through the USF defense left and right. Their pack was dominant, wheeling or driving every scrum, lineouts were nailed, and rucks were pretty rough as well. Sac had the pace and power to grind USF into the dust and if this match review sounds a little one sided it's because the game just WAS that way. Sacramento scored I don't know 6-8 trys in the first half...maybe more, USF lost about 6-8 players in the first half to some rather serious looking injuries. One or two players had to be stretchered off and at least one girl got a gnarly concussion. There was also some handbags, which is pretty rare to see in our league. I think it was from a ruck but it might have been a scrum but a USF girl punched Sac's lock (and captain) in the mouth and she retaliated with a punch to the face. No cards were given, the ref just gave em a chat. I talked to Sac's captain about the incident and she was highly apologetic and was pretty sorry about the whole mess. Ehh overall the match involved a lot of knock-ons, scrums, turnovers to Sacramento and then some massive stiff-arms (both through the forwards punching through or their FLYING backs)and ending in tries. USF never really threatened Sac's tryline. The pitch was turf with duct tape marking the lines. USF seemed to have a fair amount of fans and the facilities were nice. They also appeared to have a couple of assistant coaches. Because of the frequent injuries USF soon ran short of players and the teams were reduced to playing 12s. Then for some reason it switched to USF just playing down again. An injury shortly after half-time resulted in the game being canceled altogether. Sac's coaches were definitely ruthless in pursuing the win despite the matches friendly status. I dunno I think the whole thing might or might not be a misunderstanding...after the first bout of injuries USF proposed forfeiting and borrowing players from sacramento but Sac refused. Thus instead of having a mutually beneficial friendly this farce of a league match was allowed to play on. I dunno, it seems hypocritical for me to complain about the match given UCSC's recent 55-0 victory over Santa Clara (in a fairly similar fashion) but I think the difference is the injury rate. Yea a couple of the Santa Clara girls got hurt and one of ours messed up her ankle but it wasn't the same thrashing. The Santa Clara women were physically prepared for the match and the intensity of playing an A-side game. While on the losing side of many of the breakdowns (and occasionally unaware of certain laws) they were still very competitive and had fairly safe form going into contact. I mean it really is hard to judge..I don't have any doubts about Kathy Flores' coaching ability but I really don't know anything about the program. Apparently they had coaches before but I don't know who they used to play etc...so all of this is really up to speculation. I dunno I feel like the match would have gone better if it had been billed as a friendly b-side match because perhaps the coaching decisions would have differed. I guess the one positive that can be drawn from this whole thing is that Women's Collegiate DII has gotten a lot fitter and tougher and gone are the days when you could slap together a side and expect to win (or survive). It should also be noted that Sac doesn't really have a whole lot of players so they couldn't really field a b-side to play USF either.

This kinda brings me to my next point...rugby...and the numbers game. Granted this is the number of CIPPed players (and everyone knows that lots of kids quit before league even starts so take these numbers with a grain of salt).


Number of CIPPed Players ordered by last years standings:
Div II
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UCSC 47
Sac State 21
St. Mary's 38
Santa Clara 24
USF 18

Div I (please forgive me but I don't really remember how the chips fell last year and I'm kinda beat so I don't feel like researching em...but I'll list the teams in roughly the right order...)
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Stanford 43
Davis 50
Cal 54
Chico 32
Humboldt 27
UNR 32

Just some food for thought. Yea I know Santa Cruz should move to D1. We just got A LOT of rookies this year. That's why it's pretty exciting to have a b-side match against Santa Clara 'cause it's the first time that we can really field one (uh although a lot of the n00bs can't make it to the game so we might have a few starters). The admin and support structure has to grow a lot though...the ABs have like 12 executive officers and I think we have a match secretary, a treasurer, and a social chair...which just doesn't cut it anymore. Plus the team is trying to raise money by recycling cans...*sighs and shakes her head* anyways...more updates tomorrow. I don't want to seem overly negative/pre-occupied by the Sac vs USF match...I'm glad USF is joining our league (they had a ton of heart sticking with it and not giving up till they absolutely had to) and Sac showed some major attacking prowess. It's just painful to watch so many injuries!

Oh and last but not least it was damn hard to watch the match 'cause the two teams were practically wearing the same jerseys!



Sac State is on the right wearing Green and White and Gold, USF is on the left wearing Sac State's old jerseys...I mean Green and White and Gold.