Playing the Valks this weekend

Skipped practice cause my ankle has been bugging me. Well I went to practice but missed out on a ton of great tackling drills. Missed the ORSU game 'cause I'm not traveling this year. Been slammed at work but at least it's work. Enjoying my new place a lot and I guess that's it for now.

"Hit Like a Bear" Women's Collegiate Rugby Clinic



Come be a part of an all-day clinic put on by the local women's club team, 12-time National Champion Berkeley All-Blues! Members of the All-Blues will coach you through general skills (passing, kicking, tackling), positional skills and sub-unit skills (scrums, lineouts, backs play, etc.) in the morning and in the afternoon you will play in live scrimmages. Clinic participants will be divided up according to experience and skill level, in order to make sure that those new to the game are instructed in the basics and those with some experience learn some more advanced skills. The day will wrap up with a discussion session during which players can ask their All-Blue coaches for specific feedback. We look forward to seeing you there!



Date: Saturday, October 10, 2009



Time: 9:00am – 4pm; Check-in @ 8:30am



Location:

Pinole Valley High School
2900 Pinole Valley Road
Pinole, CA 94564

The Field: From the parking lot in front of the school - the baseball/softball fields are to the right of the turf football field. People will park in the lot in front of the school and walk across the football field to the clinic fields.


Cost: $25 early registration gets you: a full day of instruction, and a t-shirt! Same day registration available for $30. PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN LUNCH! Water and snacks will be provided.



Open to: All women collegiate rugby players, regardless of experience



Early registration deadline: October 8, 2009



For more information and to sign up, email Julie Kieu jdkieu - at - gmail d-o-t com or please visit http://www.berkeleyallblues.com/

Berkeley All Blues vs Twin City Amazons

100-7. Yep. I didn't play but man am I beat between setting up stuff,running water, and cleaning up. It's tough to be a rookie! Although a lot easier and less stressful then being a vet...it's just a little harder the second time around. I bought another pair of shorts/jerseys 'to help support the wnt(actually just because I live in shorts and we scrum enough in practice that jerseys are useful)'. Uhh what else, I saw the gnarliest clash of heads that I've ever ever ever seen. Like...ever. Damn and I saw the photo after it was cleaned up and it's like 3/4 of her forehead! Holy crap! Uh, first half was pretty square, lot's of turnovers lots of territory gained and lost. The All Blues started ticking over some tries, the Zons threatened through the centers scoring their 7 points and almost struck again with a dangerous intercept that was chased down by Stephanie Bruce. Eventually the All Blues started clicking and the floodgates just opened with try after well supported try. That's about it, it's really hard to watch a match when it's broken up so much with scoring. I'm really looking forward to watching the game tape on this one. Some of our Santa Cruz kids came up (albeit late) which is awesome and exactly what we need, there were (gee whiz I'm horrible at estimating) maybe a hundred or so supporters who came out for the match. Fun times now I'm going to pass out =]

----
btw it's raining and man do my bones ache. I swear I'm only 23.

Getting pumped

First off they killed my favorite radio station (Energy 92.7) and replaced it with a hip hop station...wtf!?!?! You take the best dance music station in the nation and replace it with a generic hip hop station?? You have to be shitting me. So shed a tear with me. So I've been re-watching last year's collegiate national championship (there is seriously something about watching a college final helps ones rugby soul) and it's an awesome match so far, I can't believe I missed it but knowing me I was probably writing a thirty page paper on nuclear weapons (*barf*). It's pretty funny 'cause you can see a bunch of whose who in the crowd whenever the cameras pan the stands. Also I just wanted to share this pic of total band geekhood. I know there aren't a lot of rugby nerds but I hope someone appreciates this pic of the Stanford band and remember 'all glory to the hypnotoad!'



Oh and I really am pissed about energy, they just supported the Women's National 7s Invitational on treasure island and provided some badass beats both days. *sigh* I am so in mourning.

Making the Bench

Holy crap! I'm stoked! Ok scared but stoked none the less. I am pretty nervous but I know it's a chance and I should have fun with it. Coach just doesn't want me to freeze up and she said I'll probably be propping but maybe hook or flank(really doubtful). Anyhoo I can't believe I get to wear the blue jersey =] now I just need to do my research. Gah so if you have a chance this Sunday, Treasure Island, Gaelic Athletic Fields, 10 am kick off. Be there!

Women's Premiership League Videos are up!

Woot! Women's Premiership League Match VideosHow sick is this, one can actually watch high level women's rugby matches without boarding a plane every weekend. Please enjoy and watch all the matches! This weekend we have our first home match against the Twin City Amazons so show up and watch some kick ass rugby. 10am Sunday on the Gaelic fields (check out the berkeley all blues website for directions (I embedded a map weee)

Week 1: New York at Beantown (1st Half) from Women's Premier League - USA Rug on Vimeo.

Just to start you off here is the first half of the Beantown vs New York match.

Also I know this video has been around for ages I just forgot about it until now.



That's the sickest maul I've ever seen in my five years of watching pro, club, collegiate and hs rugby.

Oh on another note I'm starting to feel a bit more comfortable at practice. I'm still having a minor positional crisis (ie I'm just not tough enough to play at this level, much less in the front row). But having a lot more fun. I'm feeling alright in the loose but I'm really rusty linking up with others. I'm doing alright in rucks/counter rucks and carrying the ball. My lineout throws were fairly good and I'm happy to say I was hitting 'em both near and far. I did some ball handling practice today on my break at work...which means I'm probably hooked on rugby again. Practice tomorrow, coolbeans.

Patience...that thing that I have a lot of apparently.

So I haven't exactly been blogging lately, mostly 'cause I was seriously dangling onto the last frickin microscopic thread of love for this sport. Looking back at past posts I think it's pretty obvious that I've been doing some major level flip flopping this is mostly due to yea, some major level self examinations at what the hell I'm doing with my life and why I'm stalling it to play a sport that for a whopping nine months I couldn't even play. Not nine months in Vanawatu or wherever sipping on coconuts and enjoying sunsets but rather 9 months of showing up to practice, kitting up and sitting out for all the fun bits. 9 months of scrapping around for a job in a some new city, 9 long ass months of worry (and 9 months of bitching about it!)

Haha! But as of today I have health insurance and I had some fucking fun at practice. Played like crap but hey moving to the ABs represents a huge step up in playing levels so it's kinda to be expected. Some scrum practice (where I actually managed to not get blasted completely out of the scrum), agility and handling, defensive and mostly just prepping the traveling squad for their first premiership game in Minnesota. I'm missing due to budgetary constraints but I had a damn fun time disrupting possession on defense. Got a few thumping tackles in but mostly got dusted, I really need to work on the concept of connecting and defensive structure. The stuff is going directly over my head as UCSC generally lacks any defensive organization beyond lead and scrape. *sigh* maybe I'll attend some Cal practices. Ooo and I got a tech tee. Fancy.

Um lot's more to come. Grizzlies got third at NASC 7s in New York. Not bad at all hopefully with the new national invitational NorCal will finally develop a 7s scene beyond just Palo Alto 7s.