Works been driving me into the ground

I only work 30 hr weeks but at 9:30pm to 3:30am the going has been a little rough. I don't really feel that great currently and summer school just started up. Picked up a nifty book from the library about black rugby players. My internal clock is just wonky though and the weather is flipping about as well. Went on a bike ride after class to run a few errands, I ended up with: a comic book, a mouthguard, and a tub of margarine. I forgot to pick up cups so I'm currently drinking tea out of a saucepan. My prof is a retired general who apparently has taught numerous vice-presidents of nations as well as a king. Weird. If this post seems scattered...well...frankly it is. My life has yet to settle down and its halfway through summer. The future is freaking me out. I think I'll do the sensible thing and attempt to find a job up north after graduation and practice with the blues (or something). Ahhh why didn't I try harder in college?! Alas, now I'm stuck with my lot in life. Well, the U23 team won their first game and lost in the 2nd. I wonder what happened to my site tracker...

oh and the team wants me to make a website.....AGAIN

That was FRICKIN amazing!!!!

So I'll start this post off by saying if I don't look back at some of my actions from the previous year and feel utterly humiliated by them, then I'm not really growing. Weeeeell it's that time of the year again. I was feeling shitty about myself because of my grades...worked hard...and fixed 'em. We lost the national championship last year...because we actually played a team that played real rugby. Screw ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING that I've ever said, posted, or thought before. I'm going to add a little line at the bottom of this post and read past it at your own risk (chances are you're just wasting your time on uninformed idiotic jabber). Now I'm still uninformed and idiotic but at least I know I am. So screw it, I'm wiping the slate clean and I'm a rugby rookie all over again. And damn it all I'm excited!

So yes the Alex Williams rugby camp rocked my world like a real tackle should. I went to an "Introduction to Rugby" camp and learned more in three days (about REAL rugby) then I have in three years. Now I understand why Amara always said that we didn't play real rugby...and its frickin true. We have pretty intuitive/organic backs but our forwards are a roving band of marauding barbarians assaulting other teams into submission...we don't really play this sport called rugby.

So How Do I Like Real Rugby??? It's frickin' cool! It's faster harder safer smarter...it is everything good. So now...my goal is to use my raw strength and apply it to this sport. Every single aspect of my game can change for the better...and I'm so frickin excited to start. My core is strong but it needs to be infinitely stronger and I need to engage it in every aspect of my game. My whole body is disjointed and I need to coordinate my upper and lower body (with my...duh duh duhhhh...core). Nutrition is frickin important...had a hot dog yesterday and I crashed afterwards...now I know...no more hot dogs. Passing at the chest level, elbow up, using my fingers to flick the ball, going into contact facing forward like its a ruck, when there are two defenders and I want a maul I will attack one and turn outside in, when I want to sink I bring out my butt to counterbalance, I use my props to resist my locks and I want to sink at the same time as them, look over the top of sunglasses when I'm crouched so I don't need to duck on the engage, bend my elbows down on my binds, a new way to throw lineouts!, power position, lockouts are amazing, I won't move my pelvis up to try and drive up etc etc. I'll put more but I'm making breakfast!

The camp was incredible, the coaching staff.....Liz Kirk is my new idol! More on it later but the end line is...GO TO THE DAMN CAMP!!!!!!!!

---------------------------------DON'T READ PAST HERE----------------------

So I feel bad

being boring as tar but that's just how my life is going right now. Practice SUCKED (run 8 shuttles then go home) but 7s last week was fun. Played the All Blues/Cal A side twice and San Jose once. Got to meet Blaire Goefstansan(can't remember the spelling), but yea All star 8-man previously from UCSB...guess she's an all blue now. Lets just say damn she was good. I had a pretty nice day, made a lot of turnover ball but didn't have the fitness or pace to stay in the final game. We lost the first two against ABC and barely beat out San Jose. It helped to have two wings on our 7s side..actually it was probably because our old captain/fly-half was making devishly strong lines up the center giving us the punching power we were lacking before. So I just paid for the rugby camp...hope I don't regret it. More later...

I'm back....from Istanbul

Not much rugby blogging in Turkey...but I did pick up a rugby mag in England and I gotta say the new England jerseys look awful...possibly even worse then Australia's.

More rugby on the 7th!?

palo alto 7s site
Man I need to hydrate! I'm leaving for Turkey tmorrow and I just found out that if I drive up on the 6th I can make it to the qualifying day of 7s... I guess all the quality competition will be out then...man o man I'm going to bring my World Cup player cards to get a few signed! I know it's dorky but hey I'm totally a rugby geek, not just a player. What else....oh I think I figured out a way that I could go the the Alex Williams camp...I'll just have to leave early (bummer) or find a way to get back in 2 1/2 hours in rush hour traffic(impossible). Hehe...if anyone has any suggestions please tell me but I think it takes 2 hours to get from SF to Santa Cruz without traffic so maybe my hopes are just stuffed.

Well that was a clean sweep....

of losses =] And it was fun damnit! We played with Naima from Chico and Suzzanne from Cal and a few girls from BASH. It was definitely a fun but casual tournament for the women, with our only competition being an amalgam of San Jose players (mostly alum?) and a Cal/All Blues mash-up. Oh..I should mention that our jerseys were the awful margarine colored shirts we made for regional playoffs...oh ad the only sizes left were youth medium and small! Needless to say it was like running around in a corset for my fat ass. Nearly beat cal/berkeley the first game, lost to san jose, then lost to cal/berkeley again. Ran into Petrie at the tournament but I don't think she recognized me. She did set up contact with Amara for some sort of whores match with a few teams including Belmont Shore! Well anyhoo that'll be a hoot. We learned a lot in our games and it's always a bit of a switch up avoiding contact and all that. We ran in a good number of tries but our defense was pretty sluggish. I scored a try which was fun, and made my own conversion (to the chagrin of anyone watching). Weather was pretty nice too
Oh and there was this article. Palo Alto ArticleA local news class was out filming and did a number of interviews with various women's teams...I wonder if the footage will surface on the net. Ykno if it does I'm on it.

Well it's been nice chatting about rugby again (especially now that I know my grades: B+, B+, B+, A-!!!) Ha! Well I'll be off in Turkey so I won't really be able to blog so peace out yeh

7s season start!

Yea so we still don't have wireless.....but we're going to Palo Alto sevens! Woot! Uh I think we'll have seven people. So Amara made the Eagle pool and Naima made the Eagle team...so woot (u23) and Kathy Flores gave props to the U23 all stars.


Huzzuh

I died at practice...and I'll die tmorrow.

sorry I've been away

but our new place lacks internet access...it might be a while...sit tight though yeh? I'll post again this week with rugby news

SF Camp open for registration!

Williams Rugby Camp


So register now! And make your friends do it too!

What else, the Reddick sisters are off to Minnesota with the U-23 Grizzlies to frickin kick some ass.

Mmm what else...I dunno I have a paper due in person in one minute and I'm still doing this instead of my paper. I start work tomorrow. Meh.

Results of the Teddington Game....like a week late

So it's basically finals week and I'm trying to make up 35 pages of bull and finish off my grades...so yea a definite lack of rugby news.

But from last week, we played a lovely English side and had a blast. That was honestly the funnest game of rugby I've played in all year. We had a few classy whores on our side and it made for a fun match against a club with plenty of experience but a tad of a handycap (they had a couple decades on us)! It was just good clean fun, no worries, and I made a sick breakaway and beat a few backs for a good 30m before passing it off(not bad considering I haven't run in a month.../all year). I'll post pics next time but their waterboy was awesome!

So I just need to turn in my damn papers (and write them) and I'll be fine...*sigh* 7 more days to not fuck up..

So what ruggers are going to pride!?

(#*&$@@#@#$

Had practice yesterday, the days are blurring together but that sticks out as a beacon of fun. Ugh, it's remarkable how much you forget in two weeks. Funny how that works out...but yea the Teddington game is tomorrow in Monterey and it seems we'll be having some whores from chico and berkeley. It should make for an interesting match with the Reddick sisters playing side by side. Eh I hope I won't die but I'll admit the lack of sleep added with school stress and @(*#&(@# everything else should make for a tiring week.

This is the time that I need to buckle down. I have all summer to mess around, drink, and play 7s. That's why I almost hesitated on playing this game. I'd really like to pass all my classes for sure this quarter. What else....oh the coach for St. Mary's proposed that we make our league play double the amount of matches, each team playing each other twice...once home and away. Thus dealing with our shrinking league and balancing out home pitch advantage. Interesting but you could also see where burnout may come into play.

So I've calmed down a bit...

but things haven't actually gotten better. We have practice today to try and get back in shape because we're playing a match aainst Teddington WRFC. Their a social club side from England and I'm pretty sure we're going to get our asked kicked.

I'm still desperately looking for a job.

School is ridiculous.

Rugby is really taking a second seat.

LIFE IS FILLING ME WITH HOPE AND JOY AND DOOOOOOM

Mmmm....school. I have nine major projects due. I have five days to find a job. And rent + deposit for my house is due in ....yeah...you guessed it! Five days.


We bombed the alumni game.


Yup. They rocked us silly.


Looks like I won't have the cash to go to the rugby camp.


On the plus side if I turn in everything....I may just pass all my classes. And if I continue passing classes I'll be able to walk in time. Which is my longterm goal. Woot.

Talk about weird

The Championship Banner...on Ebay?

Weird huh? Well, judging from the rest of the sellers items...it's probably just an extra copy. If Iowa State is missing their banner I'd suggest checking out this guy.

Alumnae game is this weekend and I haven't raised my heartbeat in two weeks. So yea I'm going to be gasping air through a straw. To add insult to injury I can't even afford water. I'll be honest...I really need a job. And housing. And to pass all my classes. *sigh*

Our 8-man made Grizzlies as a prop and so did her sister. Western Oregon's flanker made the team as well as someone else on their team (I'll post the whole list when I get it). Cool stuff =] gotta love it when DII players stack up to our DI counterparts.

There's probably other rugby related stuff but I can't remember. I've been spending too much time around crazy radio personalities in the redwoods at four in the morning.

School Fun

So I was definitely a better student when I had 6am practice. Now I sleep in and catch up on foreign films (A Bittersweet Life, A Fistful of Dollars [to contrast with Yojimbo], and Barefoot Gen [for my wwii memories] and tune out of school. I'm about a week and a half behind/two weeks and am screwing myself over in 3/4 of my classes. Kinda scary. So I'm saying it in here to get back on track. *sigh* it's so much easier to be a student athlete.

mmm what else...Chico made a website! Now I should get off my lazy duff and put one up for us. I mean usarugby used the pic from SEVEN years ago for the National Championship program. I mean it's a fitting tribute to our alumni who kept the club going and gave it a base but yea...it would help if we had an updated website (with an alumni page...I really like how Belmont tributes alum).

Random topic...does anyone know where I could get some info on the norcal 7s league? I've kinda looked around a bit and can't really find stuff (I might just be distracted looking for a place and trying to pay my med bills).

Speaking of summer Theresa Champagne e-mailed this to me earlier...Women's Summer Rugby Camp. I'm going to try and go, hopefully I'll be back from Istanbul by them.

Hmm last random topic of the day is sports photography....



This is just a great pic of the two forwards captains of the day. Kinda funny what happens in a split-second eh?

I'm in school?

Heh, yea...back to being a student...pretty pleasant actually. It involves a lot of sleep.

So....what to learn about Saturday? I've been playing rugby for a wee bit over three years, I've won a DII National Championship and lost one. Coolbeans.

To be honest I'm struggling with the dichotomy of reactions across the team. Some people are furious, others depressed, some are proud, and others are ashamed.

I played a solid game, but it wasn't up to par for me, I didn't push myself the right way, I didn't prepare myself the right way I couldn't seem to push myself and all the while my housemate was tearing everyone to shreds with a separated shoulder and broken shoulderblade. Hence the guilt. I can make all the excuses in the world (and believe me, I have them) but really it comes down to fitness, communication, and mental discipline. This is how I failed my teammates and this is how I'm going to improve my rugby game.

I've go 7s to test out this regime. So there, I've said it. I'm guilty and prepared for the consequences.

But yea, other things, as a team we need to improve the attitudes of non-starters. I think I'm going to post my freshman posts, when I was young and ambitious. I want them chomping at the bit because I'm going to be. That's the reason for having depth...not just injury, but real intense opposition at every practice. We fell into the DII rut of complacency. So lots of lessons learned yeh?

I'm psyched for next year, it may seem ridiculous that it took losing "THE" game to get into the game but...well, it happened. Time to get fixin'.

May 6th

Lost it 26-19, second in the nation isn't half bad. I'll blog more later but frankly I have to ice my head.

http://www.mediazone.com/channel/rugby/jsp/2006/usarugby.jsp

but if you go here you can download the game free and watch me walk for the whole game! Heh...no seriously. But anyhoo, you should also definitely check out the Stanford vs Penn State game, the score doesn't reflect the nature of the match at all!

Right o, will post up more media coverage later.

In One Hour it is May 5th

the DII Women's Collegiate National Championship (damn that's a long title) is tomorrow. We're playing to defend our National Title.

51st Post!!! (ok so maybe I should've put that in the last post...)

I added a few links to the bar...here is our bit of press for the hour, would've posted it sooner but I was hoping to do more bits: Sentinel
Oh and activity has picked up at Scrumhalf Connection. Didn't notice till she mentioned my blog. Coolbeans =]

Yep so fifty posts, kinda ridiculous considering how long I've been blogging =p

This Saturday is the National frickin Championship. My parents are coming up (they only come up for one game and one game only a year). Of course I'm nervous. Every Mother's Day I go and get myself injured and have to get a CAT scan. Bleh. Oh well, I'm excited about the game, I guess. I'll post a photoblog later. But I'm superstitious.

Controversy?

Ykno...ever since goff merged with rugby magazine into erugby news...well they've pretty much refused to give DII collegiate women's rugby any press. To add insult to injury they've covered DII mens and DIII mens club far more thoroughly in years past. I dunno, I'm pretty pissed off that I payed forty frickin bucks for my entire division to be ignored. Ok so we got a paragraph this year. I don't care if UCSC gets nill press (despite being last years champs and having made the final game again this year), but do you think they could've mentioned anything about Elite 8s, or predictions, or SOMETHING to acknowledge the countless DII collegiate womens teams across the nation have set their soul for glory and put in the hard hours for the sport that they love? This has been stewing around in my heart for a while now but I've been waiting...and as the days tick by I realize it isn't going to happen. That one little paragraph tacked onto the numerous coverage of the various tournaments. That was all that I was expecting.

For forty bucks I could buy a lot of things. 80 tacos, a REAL jersey, two pairs of rugby shorts (one black one white in case I ever work up the courage to try out for a select side), a match ball...so many things that would foster my rugby career (er besides the tacos)...why am I wasting it on a news source that tells me that my division doesn't matter?

IF someone from erugby reads this I hope they don't get the wrong idea. I'd LOVE to keep my subscription, it's great to have rugby media in the US, I just wish they'd give us the same amount of coverage as they did before the merge!

I report on DII Women's Collegiate Rugby News and I'm damn proud of it!

In the first round of games we defeated the College of Charleston in a pretty solid match 49-0. This wasn't their first time representing the South and they had very threatening backs. Their fly-half could cut back all day long and played fabulously with ball in hand. Charleston were swift poachers and always threatened our ball at rucks. One of our rookies got a yellow for high tackles, we've tried to teach her to get em lower but its definitely one of those cases that will just take time. We felt bad though because their fly-half had to change jerseys twice because we shredded both in attempt to tackle her crisp lines. One of our players managed to have godawful luck and break her metacarpal in her first 30 seconds of play. The ref for the match, Katy from DC was terrific and its not just because she had zero tolerance for feeding in the scrums. All refs at the tournament were impeccable in their vigilance, striving for a good free flowing game.

(usa rugby's records are down probably because of the hubbub over the Belmont vs Austin game so I can't give exact scores for other teams matches but I'll post those results later)

U of Arizona Wildcats lost to Bowdoin Maine by about three trys. What I did see of the game, Bowdoin managed to get it out to their 14 who put on the jets and beat everyone around the corner.





In the other bracket Norwich defeated Western Oregon in the only game that wasn't a shutout in the first round. And I can't say that I saw that much of the game thanks to my teammates insistance on taking a long lunch.

Lastly Iowa St beat Mary Washington (whom I managed not to see ALL tournament...don't quite know how that was accomplished) handily 63-0.

Round Two saw us defeat Bowdoin 49-0 in a much tighter match then the score would reflect. Their backs were very technically sound and would have been much harder to deal with if our forwards hadn't stepped up their pressure and effectively smothered their backs with tackles at every opportunity. Their forwards were also quick to poach and damn solid in the scrums (I might have been winning the scrums but we certainly couldn't wheel them). Gotta say I was pretty happy with my lineouts all tournament thought, I think that was the most ball I've EVER won in the lineout, all my games combined. I'd also like to mention that Bowdoin is pretty much the cleanest, most polite, and classy team I've ever had the pleasure of playing (or watching for that matter). I mean, not a cruel word, explicative, or anything for that matter. One of the funnest games I've played in a while that's for sure. I did get in a bit of trouble for being offsides twice in a row of a lineout (I'm lucky the ref didn't ping me for talking back) but frankly I was a bit mentally frazzled after smashing into their big replacement tighthead for the second time in a row. It should also be noted that Bowdoin is one of the only varsity teams in the nation and definitely deserve it.

Iowa defeated Norwich University in a tight match 20-19, apparently Iowa State was ahead in the first half and Norwich came back and almost got the win but the time ran out. (granted this is just what the field crew told me)

In the consolation matches U of Arizona defeated the C of Charleston by two points and Western Oregon beat Mary Wash by a bit.

Overall, Nationals was an interesting experience, and one very different from last year. It was the same fields and we stayed at the same motel but went with thirty people(which sounds impressive till you subtract two coaches, four ex-players, and two injured). Needless to say there were a lot more rooms and we had to take a VERY indirect flight to keep prices down (San Jose to LAX to Kansas City to Orlando, Orlando to New Mexico to San Francisco; can you say jet lag?). The fields were great and the weather was much improved from last years. Less humid, less hot, same old sulfur water. The one thing that they could improve the situation is to have the porta potties be closer to the field and changed daily! On the second day it was RANK!

Right, in other news the D1 final four is a big ol' surprise. Stanford (duh), Penn State (duh), UC Davis (!?!??! Y'all rock!), and New Mexico (!??!?! Goff has ranked them high for quite a while but I've never seen them in the fours before). I'm kinda bummed that Navy didn't make the finals but yea...grats Davis! They're always happy to play a scrimmage against us and we're glad to see em make it so far! They play against Stanford on the 4th of May and you can bet your ass I'll be up their cheering for em.

Lastly, I can only state how grateful I am to Belmont Shore for exposing me to a higher level of rugby and helping me realize the steps necessary to take my game to the next level.

Oh Sanford...

Florida was a lot more pleasant this year. We had a wee bit of a support network and it worked miracles to provide our players with a tad more comfort then we were expecting. Weather was nice and we won both our games 49-0. We'll be going to the National Championships @ Stanford again on May 5-6. We'll be playing Iowa State. Yep. More deets later but I'm BEAT.

So it's been a busy weekend/week

My mother visited me over the weekend and that was nice. We raised 422.50 panhandling the night before she came up. We've been fundraising all week, and scrambling in practice while trying to avoid the glares of our professors. So I already know that I suck at journalism but my broadcast journalism class is proving it. I did the tech part well...but...my writing blows. This is going to be a tough class! Er in rugby news I want to bite the throat out of 'four corners', bury its cannibalized corpse, set the ground on fire, then drive a three foot stake in it. We did some rugby related drills today and it was frickin fun! I realized that my understanding of defense is completely instinctual and I need to learn some of the theory behind it.

Oh. And I'm just curious...is it a back thing? Why do people get so frickin antsy when you tap someone a wee bit too hard (in their judgment) in a touch drill? I've been bitched out well over my fair share of times for slapping rather then daintily caressing their fair and tender bodies (please note these are the same people who continue to pass out of the "tackle/endofthefrickindrill" if you don't smother the ball). It's just frickin obnoxious from a forwards perspective. I mean a back in a 2-1 or 3-2 drill might have the agility and speed to react to cuts and unexpected bursts with grace and a deft touch at the hips...but frankly my ass is just trying to get to you in time. *grumble* Look, I'm not saying backs aren't tough, open field tackles are brutal on the tackler and tacklee, but c'mon... I took three or four elbows to the throat today and you didn't hear me complaining. Ykno why? Cause it's going to happen in game, they weren't intentional, it just happens...play on!

On another note we leave for Florida tomorrow. I sure as hell hope they're ready. Back to sulfur water, swarthy hot days, and infamous nights!

(oh lastly I got a new hd that arrived today and I'm formating as we speak....weeee! I'm such a geek! 400 gb Seagate SATA for...99 bucks! Free shipping. Yehhhhh.
Wish us luck!

Panhandling

ooops yeah I've been so busy trying to help my team raise 16,000 dollars (to send a bunch of silly goofy ruggers over to the sulfur pits of Florida) that I missed this great little article...thanks Blondie for the reminder here So I'm off to panhandle. And I just found out that my prop has chickens in her dorm room. Weird huh?

Pelican Refs

Yes we're frantically trying to raise funds...I literally had 5k dollars fly through my hands the other day. School is ridiculous.

WESTERN OREGON 26 (4) – Sacramento State 19 (3) Referee: Sam Reagle
Touch Judge: Deb Hart
This was an exciting game between two proud teams. Both sides struggled to control the ball in the first half as the pitch was soggy in spots from an overnight misting of rain. The Wolves of WOU missed several opportunities due to poor ball handling, but appeared in control, though only leading 7-0 at the half. The second half started well for WOU with 2 tries in the first 7 minutes on poaches of Hornets' passes for easy tries, but the Hornets answered back with 3 hard-fought tries of their own over the next 20 minutes to end regulation tied 19-all. The Wolves reasserted themselves in the overtime scoring one minute in and shutting the Hornets down for the win. Jen Williams (#13) of WOU had a banner game scoring 2 tries and setting up the game winner with a long run down the left side before dishing off to her winger.

Sunday:

UC SANTA CRUZ 36 – Western Oregon 7 Referee: Sam Reagle
It's hard to say if the previous day took its toll on WOU (UCSC had a bye) or if UCSC is just that much better, but the Slugs were noticeably more aggressive, dominating most scrums and driving the Wolves backwards for most of the day. Halftime score: 31-0. Both advance to the next round of play-offs in Florida: the Banana Slugs as the #1 seed and the Wolves as #7.

Playoff Weekend

So it's been a crazy!....crazy!...crazy! weekend. I honestly don't know where to begin.

Saturday morning we set everything up expecting a bit of a blowout. Sac State has definitely been one of the most consistently good teams in our league and looked the strongest (taking 2nd) this year but this was Western Oregon! We had swept Sac State in league play 31-5 back in February. We had a bye that day due to Utah backing out, and Central Washington lacking the advanced info, and our league couldn't muster a third competitor.

Anyhoo, the match started at 11 with some of our famous rolling fog and slightly greasy pitch and Sac pulled out all the stops, playing the gutsiest match I've seen all year. Arlene and Georgi held it down at prop (being tough grizzled vets), their jumper stealing it all, #20 pirating at every breakdown, Lorae Simpson intense as all hell at scrum-half, their fly and inside cutting through everything, and their fullback rounding out with some calm collected hands. Western Oregon was their typical selves, fast, aggressive...always the first ones to the breakdown, ready to poach and ever willing to grind it down any channel given a sign of weakness.

Jeez they gave a good show against Western Oregon. WOU was ahead at first and then Sac finally broke their try line and the crowd was silent...just starting to hope. WOU scored two quick ones at the very beginning of the second half, one after the other, the first being a lightening quick intercept try. Then Sac came back! They scored the second try to tie it near the ending moments of the game and everyone was screaming. They needed the conversion to tie it up...supposedly the kicker was shaking so hard she tripped as she went to kick the ball. She split the sticks and the crowd howled!

Overtime consisted of five minute halves. WOU subbed in their resting A-side fullback and she made 60 meters with her first touch of the ball. They scored shortly thereafter and made the conversion. Sac state didn't really threaten them until the 2nd half of overtime and their inside center ALMOST made a clean break through the inside, given an inch of more space and she would've been through the gap. But the trap snapped shut without enough support the ball was smothered and they never really had another viable chance. The final score of 26-19 doesn't reflect how tight of a match this really was.

Sac State played their heart out and had an amazing match into overtime against Western Oregon (which has been a tough ass team since its fairly recent inception). Sac State sure as all hell made NorCal proud, it's great to see them do so well. We'll try and bring the national title back again this year so they can take the second seed next year!

Sorry I had to add this sick picture of yours truly...'cause c'mon there has to be some benefit to running a consistent blog yeh?

We played our game on Sunday. We've had a shortage of props this year so our tighthead was a lock who hadn't propped in a while which threw off our scrums quite a bit. I COULDN'T THROW A LINEOUT WELL TO SAVE MY LIFE. Our backs had issues passing forward in the last quarter but overall we managed to play a solid game and keep them to a single score. Alas I didn't score a try but managed to set up two trys for my teammates. I can't rightly tell more then that due to a few knocks I got with their lock's noggin'. We had two scores in the first half, scored two quick ones after the half...and then they dotted the line, and we came back with a few more. Final Score was 36-7. Pretty damn good for a team of rookies.

So we'll be taking the 1st seed going into the Elite 8 tournament in Sanford, Florida. Of course we're scrambling for funds to send more then 18 players to Florida (unlike last year!). Our first game is set against the College of Charleston (South #1). To compile the brackets...

Division II Women’s College Club Match Schedule, Sanford, FL
Saturday, April 21
9:00 am: UC Santa Cruz (PCRFU #1) v College of Charleston (South #1)
9:30 am: University of Arizona (SoCal #1) v Bowdoin (North-East #2)
1:00 pm: Mary Washington (Mid-Atlantic #1) v Iowa State University (Mid-West #1)
1:30 pm: Western Oregon (PCRFU #2) v Norwich (North-East #1)

Sunday, April 22
9:00 am: Pool B Consolation Bracket
9:30 am: Pool A Consolation Bracket
1:00 pm: Pool B Championship Bracket
1:30 pm: Pool A Championship Bracket

I got to talk to WOU's coach, Chris Ruffolo after game which was pretty neat. She was an All American flanker, and U-23 Eagle who went on tour to the British Isles. It was cool to hear that my blog is being read by real people and I hope it encourages more people to pick up the hobby. The more press women's rugby gets, the more involved, aware, and appreciated our players and coaches get...and well shit that can't hurt can it? My only advice is to use blogger ('cause it's easy), to get started now ('cause what's more exciting then championships), and to stick with it ('cause it's really cool to realize that I've been blogging for a full season!).

Now as thanks for sticking with this REALLY long post...here are some links...

Pictures from Sunday
In Local News

Goff mentioned us in the final paragraphs of "Who is Rested Could be Key in PCRFU Playoffs" but I don't wanna quote it 'cause you should pay the subscription to read it! (jk) but it includes a sweet picture of our flanker and her crazy hair.

Oh and real quick in D1...Stanford beat Chico in the Finals taking back the #1 seed 43-30. So Chico takes PCRFU #2. UC Davis did well and beat Cal 26-5, and for the first time in my memory the Bears aren't in Sweet 16s. Chico snagged the worst pool for playoffs though...playing Army first and then the winner of Penn State vs Ohio State. Basically every single team in the pool has been a top four finisher in recent years (ok so army wasn't top for last year but they're ranked #2 right now). I still wouldn't count Chico out of the top four. Good Luck to all Cali teams (not the Cal mens need any help in D1) but the same well wishes go out to Humboldt State in DII mens. Last year three of the four national collegiate champion teams were from California =]

Just for comparisons sake here are the scores from the PCRFU playoffs this year and last:

----------------------------------------------------------------
2007 PCRFU Collegiate Women's DII:
Host: Santa Cruz
April 7-8, 2007
WOU
DAY ONE: WOU over Sacramento 26-19
DAY TWO: Santa Cruz over WOU 36-7
----------------------------------------------------------------
Women's Collegiate Second Division
Host: Western Oregon
April 8-9, 2006
Match A - Western Oregon (22) vs St. Mary's (0)
Match B - UC Santa Cruz (45) vs St. Mary's (5)
Match C - Western Oregon (24) vs UC Santa Cruz (34)
PCRFU 1 = UC Santa Cruz = USAR 3 = 2006 Finish: 1st

Long Day

6:30 Practice=death. Ugh, I don't agree with this. I'm tired. I should sleep. Well I'm taking 17 credits...and I have to go to bed. I'll finish this in the morning...

----edit----
Ok so today wasn't so bad...more new classes....books are going to be like 350!!! @(U#@#(&*@(#*&@(#*.

So in rugby news todays practice was cool...got to stretch out some of that soreness and scrum down against the boys team. It was fun stealing some hooks from my friend since frosh year Hooker John. Our field was painted and posted and was looking fine.

One of the reasons why I've been so reluctant to post about the upcoming playoffs is because the info is practically changing by the hour. Basically I didn't want to keep repeating incorrect information. But I guess this is the info so far...

WOMEN'S COLLEGIATE D2:

Dates: 4/7-8/07

Host: NCRFU

Venue: UC Santa Cruz (Santa Cruz, CA)



Saturday Matches:

Match A: UC Santa Cruz (NCRFU 1) v BYE

Match B: Western Oregon (PNRFU 1) v Sacramento State (NCRFU 2)



Sunday Matches:

Match C: UC Santa Cruz (NCRFU 1) v Match B Winner

Match D: BYE v Match B Loser



Winner C = PCRFU 1 = USARFU 1

Loser C = PCRFU 2 = USARFU 7

So basically we have two seeds going to Florida.

April 21-22, 2007
Seminole County Sports Training Center, Sanford, Fla.
Hosted By: The Central Florida Sports Commission

Division II Women’s College Club Match Schedule, Sanford, FL



Saturday, April 21

9:00 am: Pacific Coast #1 v South #1

9:30 am: So Cal #1 v Northeast #2

1:00 pm: MARFU #1 v Midwest #1

1:30 pm: Pacific Coast #2 v Northeast #1



Sunday, April 22

9:00 am: Pool B Consolation Bracket

9:30 am: Pool A Consolation Bracket

1:00 pm: Pool B Championship Bracket

1:30 pm: Pool A Championship Bracket

Yup so if we win on Sunday we're going against the Southern seed and if not Northeast. I'll do some leg work and find out who won what regionals etc. But that'll be later...right now I have to juggle rent, utilities, and books.

Oh! I'm excited because I'm taking a broadcast journalism class and I'm going to have to research, write, and edit radio broadcasts and podcasts. One guess what I'm going to do my pieces on...

You Can't Go From 0% to 100%...

...but apparently if you bust your ass enough you can get to 75%! Whoever said front-row can't turn on a dime. Anyyhoo I finally broke my failing streak and my final grades for the quarter are....

Intro to Social Movements CMMU101 C
European Intellectual History HIS178A C+
Global Organization POL160B C


HA!!!! I'm staying in school I'm staying in school! And I didn't even have to petition my provost this time. Which also means I'll be around for post-play.

Which makes it a good thing that I've been doing a little bit of cardio on the side. So yesterday my housemates and I decided to do some lineout practice, so we warmed up, did some sprints and then got to lifting. One of my housemates friend who play for Cal was our jumper. My throws were pretty atrocious, I need to use my core more for my short ball, but it's just so weird 'cause you feel like you're just gonna knuckball it. Plus the wind sucked. I need to practice more....good thing my gf is a lock and we live across the street from a park.

Well anyhoo they decided to go wine tasting after practice and I decided to go for a bike ride up Empire Grade...it was INSANE. I was biking up a mountain and being a stubborn person I didn't want to stop riding till I hit a stopping point. 8.3 miles of uphill mountain climbing...I never felt so ridiculous in my life. Halfway up I got some encouragement from a cyclist and a guy driving a truck in the opposite direction. Ever turn got steeper and steeper. Finally made it to Icecream grade just as my water ran out. There was nothing there, it was a volunteer fire station...ugh so I took a few pictures, turned around, and biked 8.3 miles downhill back. Frickin ridiculous ride on a hybrid.




Oh, lastly our challenge match against the lowest D1 team (Reno) is mandatory this year so we can't skip out. Ughhh another ride to Reno.

NOVA won Nashbash...

um let's see what else...cal played the All Blues and according to a visiting cal scrum-half...well...one of their wingers juked Laura Cabrera (TWICE) and she fell on her butt. Yup, well our Berkeley/bay area kids are doing good keeping in shape. My ass died at kickboxing last night, and my scrum-half housemate was assigned as a LOCK for Pelicans. She's never locked before, is probably...ohhh 5'5" 150 ish of solid muscle and a flanker/scrum-half/utility back. Our house is turning into a tight five! All of this is interesting news as she heads out to Utah for the Grizzly Shield in about five days or so.

On another note....UGH!!! Hurry up and post my grades!!! C and Above C and Above!

So one of my housemates was given an offer to go to a developmental camp for rugby LEAGUE. I had a vague idea what league was about...13 players, uncontested scrums yada yada...well she was curious so I got a rugby league game to watch. OMIGOD it is so weird. It's a major mix of football(US), union, and touch. No flankers, scrums are a fricken formality (not even an engage), tackles are gang bangs, no lineouts, rucks.....it's just weird! You have 6 tackles to get a try or you kick the ball away like football, after the tackle the defense has to move back ten yards (excluding two people who can be up), the tacklers lay on top of the ball carrier till their defense is in position, then they let the ballcarrier get up, roll the ball under his legs and poof the ball is in play again! WHHHHHAAAAT?

Anyhoo...more later...I just want my grades!!!

WHAT?

Ok so I knew goffonrugby was going to be taken over but...but oh the betrayal! erugbynews it now is...ew.

Where to begin...

So you might not know this about me but I'm not just a rugby player, but also an avid rugby fan. Sure I love watching the Heineken Cup and Super 14 and other club sides but watching nations play nations?! That's the stuff that stirs my blood and brings a tear to my eye. The 2005 Six Nations was the first International Rugby Tournament that I had ever seen, Wales staggered me with their brilliant passes, sheer guts, and quirky personality. Needless to say it seems like forever since that fateful Grand Slam...but through all the injuries and influx of new faces...I gotta say...I still love Wales! Can't wait till the World Cup...and while it sure is a long shot for Wales I've a hankering that Argentina can set the world by storm...if I had to choose any team that could touch the All Blacks I'd have to say...give me Argentina!

Ah well, on another note...I want to learn Welsh! Namely so I can sing the Welsh national anthem with the same passion as Alun Wyn Jones (this lovely pic is from their victory over the bloody English). Sorry for this random service announcement. Oh, and I biked 12 miles today (drunk).

Wooo! Finals are over!

MWahahaaaa now all I have to do is finish a team website and get in shape. I'll work on the website later and I'm going to visit all of my teammates at work today (drunk and on a bike of course). Um what else...as posted by Blondie usa rugby updated its site...and it looks AWFUL! I mean more content is great, but frames?!?!? C'mon who the fuck uses frames!??! Plus the resolution of the whole thing looks atrocious, and I'm using firefox...I'd hate to see it in IE. What else...Belmont beat San Diego 60-7 and beat Tucson 69-0 in a b-side game. Goff's top 25 isn't changing much. DII collegiate women's clubs are still getting little press despite a number of articles on DII mens. Not that I'm complaining...I still love Goff cause at least it gives SOME coverage.

Hmm what else...eh I have a few stories I'll leave for later but yea...enjoy this rugby house picture!!! From front to back, Hooker/prop, prop, scrum-half/utility back/flanker, flanker, inside center, our one non-rugger, and finally lock/8-man. It's our Jistmas picture! (Jistmas is Christmas in January...when financial aid checks arrive and presents can be bought). Yup

Well that's some odd news...

So we had an by this weekend (not to mention league play is over for us and everyone else as well) but St. Mary's played Cal's b-side and lost 37-5....quite odd. We beat St. Mary's squarely, we barely lost (by a couple points) to Cal's b-side with some a.....hmm..weird. Grats to everyone who made Pelicans, my housemate and old scrum-half Christie Ravera made the Pelicans senior side at flanker and my other housemate Amara Reddick, our 8-man, made Pelicans U-23 at prop. It's kind of weird how people shift positions for select sides...my old captain Heather Beswick was our old 8 and she switched to lock when she played for the u-23 grizzlies. Meh. It was neat reading the list of who made the team, a number of familiar names and faces (Katie Chou, Naima Reddick, Vix, Cameron Stewart...) maybe I'll get my lard ass fit for next year. Ooo speaking of which I've lost ten pounds in the last month...fun stuff. Right-o working on my last final on Thursday, then I've got nothing on my plate besides riding my bike and working on a website for the team!

News Flash....kind of

Radio Edit: So Goff just posted something about OU (a D1 team) barely beating out Western Oregon 27-24. Supposedly it was a frickin physical game...basically what I've been telling our silly lil' rookies to expect. Man...I'd better make sure my insurance is ready for the match 'cause I have a feeling that if our scrums don't tighten up I'll be coming off the field in a neck cast.

What else...in random rugby info...Humboldt's Old Growth RFC (a DIII club team) has some awesome shirt with "If you can't take a hit Lay off the Grass". It's amazing...and I don't even smoke.

Just wondering if anyone would like to respond on how they deal with low numbers and scrumming? I know DI teams don't have this problem, but are there any creative DII teams out there with solutions? Our locks needed real practice getting into position and driving (and we can't afford balls much less a scrum machine) so we practiced by having the front row facing the second row and them engaging between our legs (the hooker turning sideways so the locks bind on one another stayed tight). Today at practice the locks just went against our goal post with pads on. We're trying to schedule a scrumdown against our men's team but that doesn't look like it's going to happen. I hope I get some comments....

yeah boring post. Old news but in case you missed out...Chico's number 1! Woooo! Um what else...we're hosting PCRFU DII playoffs (women's only I think...but I could be wrong). Utah State and Western Oregon will be there (most likely, both their LAU sites could use a bit of updating). Santa Clara backed out of our game Friday night. All of us have to bust our asses over break to stay fit and mentally in rugby. April 6-7 are playoffs.

I HAVE A FINAL TODAY....ARGH.

Oh and my house embodies drama.

More rugby news when we have rugby news. Over and out.

Testing....Testing 123

for my friend Jo.

I love this music video by the SF Fog Women's RFC.



hmm and in other news...Coach Miller from Belmont Shore passed around this gallery of the Champagne Classic here.

So I've been blogging a lot lately...which means it's nearing finals week

and I'm avoiding studying. Ugh. Don't hate on me...I can't help it...a lot of exciting things have been going on in the PCRFU (Pac Coast RFC). Which had me acting like a net whore and going around various team websites. It's really exciting when teams put up pics and videos but sadly very few teams update these more then once a year. *sigh* every year I say that I'm going to put up a Santa Cruz site and I opt out getting distracted by all sorts of things (like staying in school). This spring break I'm going to do it! Yep! A real website!

*cough*yeahright*cough* anyhoo Cal put up some awesome video compilations on their site that you should check out here. Oh and Naima Reddick was mentioned again for being a beast at the Champagne Classic where Chico won the collegiate competition and Belmont Shore went 5-1 in the senior club division!



Woot. Oh and I found this old picture they put up from the Stanford Rookie Tournament (no one told us that it was a rookie tournament! So you can see a giggling and smirking stack of slug vets on the right side of the pic)

Sooo I have four two page papers due tmorrow along with my final paper (only five pages) for my cmmu class. My politics final is on monday and I have to read a book for it and have a few study sessions. My history class...well I have to go to the library and check out and read five books and bribe a classmate to study with me before the final on thursday. *ugh* I'd rather lock for a week. But I gotta do this shit to....stayinschoolIwillstayinschool!

Ha! yeh baby

Women's Collegiate D2
Name Win Loss Tie Played PF PA PD Pts
1. UC Santa Cruz Women 3 0 0 3 109 24
2. Sacramento State Women 3 1 0 4 133 61
3. San Jose St Spartans Women 2 2 0 4 156 100
4. St. Mary's College Women 1 3 0 4 40 95
5. Santa Clara University Women 0 3 0 3 7 165

The Ref Report

UC SANTA CRUZ women 39 (7) – St. Mary's 5 Referee: Sandy Robertson
The Santa Cruz women dominated all aspects of the game. They won virtually all their own set pieces as well as most of St Mary's scrums and lineouts. They made good use of many opportunities, spinning it wide, exploiting gaps, supporting well, kicking for territory. With just seconds on the clock St Mary's got a penalty on the Santa Cruz 22. They played the ball through several phases, including multiple changes of possession, and movement between the try line and the 22. After a couple of minutes of continuous play a St Mary's woman got the ball about 20 meters out, tight-roped down the left touchline, and scored in the corner.

---from www.pelicanrefs.com

fun stuff, wow I didn't realize that we scored seven tries. At least it was a complimentary report. Ugh I really need to change the colors to this site...maybe I'll give it a shot to avoid writing papers.

oh quick edit...

Woot...so we got some press

There's some video from "highlights" the game

and a pretty sweet article as well

oh and decipher this as you will...ugh seeding charts are confusing
NCRFU is Northern Cal (us), PNRFU (not to be confused with PCRFU is Pacific Northwest IE Western Oregon), and URFU (Utah...Utah State). Supposedly the PCRFU will be getting two seeds for 8s. As far as I know this is just hearsay but who knows...could be true.

WOMEN'S COLLEGIATE D2:

Host: NCRFU
Location: UC Santa Cruz
Dates: 4/7-8/07

Saturday Matches:
Match A: NCRFU 1 v URFU 1/NCRFU 3/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

PCRFU Seedings for Nationals and 2008 playoffs:

Winner C: PCRFU 1 = USARFU 1
Loser C: PCRFU 2 = USARFU 7
Winner D: PCRFU 3 = N/A
Loser D: PCRFU 4 = N/A

UCSC beats Saint Mary's 41-5 (? our coaches aren't sure)

Woot! I'll admit I was worried coming into this game. St. Mary's is a smart, fast, experienced team. *sigh* we're having forward issues. Our starting hooker (not me) had to go home because of a family emergency and one of our best flankers had to have surgery for a broken metacarpal(?). So you could say we had a less then prime pack. Uh if this post is kind of disjointed I got a pretty solid knock to the head, and again, and again, and one last time. Woo...why do I knock my head up before finals?

Um so we dominated the scrum and stole a ton of lineouts, our backs saved our ass again. We scored six trys and well I'm just happy 'cause I scored another one. Basically I've scored one every league game. Ha! Pretty awesome for a hooker/prop yeah =]

Anyhoo. I played like shit again. Granted my leg/knee made a wet pop at the practice before the game and it hurt to extend it. I'm going to the trainer tmorrow.

If I work hard I should be fine in school. Now.....ugh...time to work.

Oh yea...WE WON THE WOMENS DII COLLEGIATE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA LEAGUE....woot..well we have to play Santa Clara...but they've been playing teams 10s and 13s so it's kinda iffy if the game will count or not. Meh. It was a crappy win but hey we did it. Woot.

Now back to school.

So Sunday...

was supposed to be a rugby day. But y'know what?! I finally experienced burnout and decided not to go to the Pelican's camp. Pelican's is the Northern California LAU select side team and a number of my mates and I were supposed to go. They went, I didn't, cause two games, three practices, a pr event, and a select side camp would be too much friggin rugby for me right now. I'm sore, sick, and behind in school and frankly I need to fix all three. SO I chose this weekend to rest up and have non-rugby thoughts.

In other words I've been drinking some water and playing a lot of Shadow of the Colossus. Amazing game...despite our small screen, the camera is unique, the AI is fairly bright, the gameplay fairly novel. My only issue is I got lost for three hours trying to find the sixth colossus.

But back to sports. Yesterday we had our Women in Sports day event and we had to go to accept a plaque for last year's season (DII National Collegiate Women's Champs....probably the highest sports award to go to our school...the slugs aren't well known for our athletics, education, or partying...but anyways). It ended up being a pretty awesome event, some of the speakers were cringe worthy agenda pushers but we had a few genuine ones that made the event worthwhile. Sissi was there and that was frickin inspirational, not only her story, but actually seeing how many young girls she affected in the pursuit of sports. A number of my teammates remembered being little girls lining up to talk to her after games (she played for the Cyberays from the WSA). One of our rookies was completely adorable as Sissi was her childhood hero. But anyhoo, there was also this great surgeon there....Dr. Allen or something, she was really passionate about her work and just an enthused individual. I dunno, it was just neat listening to two women who really made a career out of sports.

So....about Chico

Well actually I'll start off with this lovely pic of our rucks against Sac State. In other words...high and not coming in through the gate. On the plus side you can see our gorgeous pitch in the background. Yep, good ol' UC Santa Cruz. We'll be hosting the regional playoffs this year and that should be a royal pain in the ass.

Meh. So we left Santa Cruz at 9 o'clock in the morning and arrived in Chico around 3 which left us with half an hour before kick off. The ride...erm...let's just say sitting in a twelve person van with a cold and bad heating was an all around poor decision on my part. I played like utter slop and my team made sure to inform me about it. I made my tackles, threw some decent lineouts, and hooked decently in the scrums. Besides a few runs (and a try that Soooooooo should have counted) I managed to miss every single ruck and was late to every scrum and lineout. So I'm feeling like shit today after a miserable 5 1'2 hour car ride back. Yep.

We held our own against Chico's B-side for most of the first half then proceeded to get trounced all over the field. It was literally tit for tat for the first three trys until they broke away. While we were winning the ball in scrums we couldn't hold them and while we had a number of rookies and new combinations..well our performance was plain shoddy. We haven't taught crabbing to our new rookies yet so we couldn't handle their wheels, luckily they would wheel AFTER regaining possession so we'd keep the put in and re-scrum.

Their fullback and one of their centers looked great and did well running the ball with steam and punching through our defense at a depressing rate. Naima Reddick was playing flanker and plain ol' smacking the crap out our young side and I'm proud to have just slown her down once or twice. Their mauls were really impressive, they had the skill to pass the ball back from the center of it to the back and present it to their scrum-half, they were damn efficient in their long-body rucking, and were the first to every single breakdown. They were aggressive as all hell and I wish our B-side played like that/we had a b-side. Considering that there was only one or two a-side members playing...well I have to say Chico has more depth to their team then goff gives them credit for.

I do have to say I found the game particularly frustrating because if our a-side had been there we could have shown them a bit more of what Santa Cruz can do. But alas it was still a good learning match for our rookies and frankly we needed a good ass kicking and I'm just bitter that we had to drive 9 hours to get it (which beats the 3000 odd mile flight to Florida).

Lots of rugby to talk about.

So I've been putting off this post for a while. As I kinda blogged it....well...it was a tough week. Lots of papers, midterms, illness. IE a shitty week to have one of our toughest games. I turned in my paper on time(kinda), my midterm went well, and I'm still hawking up a lung. But this weekend? Was awesome!

Ok so I'm lazy. I'll talk about the game in depth later today but I've got practice in twenty minutes so I should speed this up. We beat 'em 31-7....which is great but we let them score in the last minute of the match which is disappointing. I scored another try (yep that's three folks) and it wasn't an impressive one, but it was the first of the match. So I scored one at loosehead, my 8 scored, our wing, someone else, and our fullback touched down two beauts.

Also Chico beat Stanford 25-5! Holy Shit! Not saying that Chico didn't have it in 'em to beat Stanford...but by twenty points?! Yea I know Goff is covering this story but I just wanted to make that exclamation in case people missed it. Not saying that Stanford can't come back and defend it's D1 National Champ title...but it looks like their Pacific Coast League ranking is going to drop to two. More on this later. Er did I mention we're playing Chico's b-side this Wednesday, as in two days from now!? Gah. I still can't move my neck or my quads.

urgh

10 minutes late to class...a page to go. I hate all nighters. @(*#&)@(*#&)(@&*#

We need our numbers.

To show up to practice!!! Anyhoo, Chico kept Davis scoreless, as did Cal with Humboldt and Stanford with UNR (more or less?). Sac state did well against St. Mary's and looks to have some nice wings and competitive ruckers. Oh and San Jose smashed Santa Clara 102-5 or something to that degree (granted they were playing 13s). It's kind of depressing that we only have three league games. Or perhaps just how casually my teammates are taking this fact.

Meh.

I have no expectations for this year.

School is my priority...really...I swear. I'm trying but not to the degree that I want to. Case and point I have less then four hours to write a six page paper on two books I've never read. Hmmmmm. But I'm trying people! And I did decent on my midterm. I just need to spew bullshit and get C's. Wish me luck. Over and out.

Midweek Update

So still no news from Santa Clara. Which is odd because if we really are playing them on Monday.....well....we kiind of need to prepare. It's been a bit rainy at practice and as a result we've been practicing lines...FOREVER. Argh...there is nothing as frustrating as getting clueless uncoordinated rookies showing up mid-season to throw off whatever sort of gel has been developing all preseason. Gah. I don't mind the athletic ones coming in late who can kinda of catch on....but seriously folks. If you can't chew bubblegum and walk at the same time...maybe you should just wait till next fall to join up. Then we can take three months to teach you how to catch a pass...but right now?! Right now?! Monday was two hours of lines in the rain doing pushups at the end of each line. Doing literally hundreds of pushups, situps, star jumps, and planks because some gits decided to show up (LATE AT THAT) for the third time this month (at least be consistant) to goof off and giggle when they drop EVERY SINGLE PASS EVERY SINGLE TIME. Is frustrating. It makes you doubt the consistency of your own pass, you end up tossing hospital passes just on the off chance they may catch them...

I know I sound like a bitter cocky vet but there are a few things I respect and a few things I don't. I can understand not being able to come out for preseason (you didn't know about it...your schedule etc). BUT, if you are going to come out...be dedicated, show up more then once a week, ON TIME or early if you know that there are some fundamentals you want to work on. If there is something you need to work on...practice it daily ourside of practice. I have godawful lineout throws...so I often practice my throws while people are still booting up. I'm also getting a bit peeved over the attitude that is developing that repeatedly missing practice is ok. People were seriously hurt that they didn't start against San Jose after they went missing for two weeks before the game. Then...you would think that they would get the point...but no! The same people, skipping three or four practices at a time or half-assing it when they do show up (LATE). They're going to get what they deserved come next Saturday (when we play sac state).



Fuck. Well I'm sorry for the rant. I have a ton of homework to do this weekend. Fighting the fight to stay in school. I'm doing ok in my CMMU class...B ish.....I'm ok in history but I've got a paper coming up...and finally I got a D on my Politics midterm and another one on Tuesday. Meh.

Hopefully people show up on Friday.

Old News...Or Week Old News

So this weekend we had a by and didn't really do much. I went to a kickboxing class held by my old scrum half...a number of ruggers went and it was pleasant cross training. Sadly I had to opt out of an opportunity to work at the International 7s tournament down in San Diego...which blows but I need to stay in school.

In old news pictures from our game against San Jose. On another note St. Mary's took down Santa Clara in a tens match with 20 minute quarters. The thing to note...they won it 91-15. Fuuuuck. And due to speedy wingers too...so yea I reckon we need to work on our drift defense yeh?

On a cool note I've figured out how to create SVCD's so our team can watch games on a real tv screen instead of my tiny crt monitor (tiny in the screen dimensions...lord knows if this bucket of bolts isn't big enough). I'm working on doing a successful dvd burn as well.

Our next game is this weekend against Sac State and we have a game against the ever-fit Chico State that I'm personally dreading. My teammate and housemate's sister is on that team and she's a very qualified front row eagle. Scrumming down against her with my current pack?! Let's just say the prospect is putting me in tears.

Well anyhoo practice later and I've got things to read....I really hate the colors of the blog but I'll work on it later...it just needed a change.

UCSC Defeats San Jose State 39-14?

Ok so I'm a forward...thus I couldn't tell you the score if you pinned a point clicker to my rugby shorts. But we scored seven trys in the game and most of them early on before we subbed in b-side players. Our "A-side" (ie our list of uninjured + those who showed up to practice and participated consistently) had three rookie forwards and three rookie backs so a third of them were absolute n00bs...and we scored seven trys (1 hooker, 1 flanker, 1 8-man, 2 wingers, 1 inside center, and 1 scrumhalf). Oh and I scored one of them. Woot!

San Jose was obviously rebuilding this season. They showed some guts in the backline and did a good job sticking with it and playing fierce for all eighty minutes. I propped for the first half of the game and got to play opposite a brand new rookie (which left me with some rather severe bruise on my collarbone due to binding inexperience) and hooked in the second half. We dominated the scrums and managed to do fairly decent in the lineouts ( a bit of the reverse of what I expected). Our backline kicked well and our scrumhalf went on some swell runs. The game managed to stay pretty friendly. Near the end our fitness degenerated and high tackles ensued on both sides (our flanker got a yellow for a team offense and so we were a man down for the last 10 or 15 minutes). There were slightly more scrums then average.

I'd muster more excitement but I'm kind of beat from school and life.

But back to rugby. Yea it was exciting to break in our new jerseys (which are frickin' sweet by the way). They're Kooga jerseys and I couldn't care less about how they look...mainly I'm just in love with the little reinforced piping on the sides of the jerseys. Binding is heaven...at least compared to binding on t-shirts for the last five or six games.

On a slightly separate note...one of our new coaches insisted on making t-shirts. T-shirts that say 2006 National Champions. Now here is the rub....he wasn't our coach last year...and the majority of the people on our team wearing them are rookies. Personally I don't care about the whole respect thing, but teams that match are an affront to my motley crew sensibilities. It was our scrappy attitude that got us to Stanford, not the matching windbreakers and kit bags of our opponents. Plus I don't like braggarts.

On a final note...living in a rugby house provides me with the opportunity to have a great number of rugby related discussions. I'm thinking of adding a little housemate topic at the end of each blog or something of the sort. This week I just wanted to comment on how it seems like as you get older rugby takes more out of you. Not just 'cause you're getting older but also to some degree because you're doing more of the right thing on the pitch and with more pace or aggression. It could also be positional. I live with one of my flankers and she is a freaking train wreck after games and practically lost it today when one of rookie wingers teased her about being a contact weary today. Meh...little ramblings.

Incidentally...I'm not getting a lot of traffic but it's coming from interesting places. So rock on fellow ruggers.

Hump Day

Today is Wednesday! Wednesday is an Ahhhhhh (let the tongue flicking ensue). Now is everybody happy? You betchya ass we're happy! Dnunuh nuh nuh Nuh nuh nuh nuh!

Ok now that I've gotten that out of my system...can I just say how frickin' excited I am about Saturday's game? Well I am. A lot.

Now on another subject...Stanford recently contacted us about playing a game against their b-side, they'll host or travel. Sweet news eh? And we actually have a real match scheduler now so it might actually happen.

Quick rugby update

It's been a rough week. I've been experiencing shin splints since the cal game and quite frankly it sucks. On Friday I had a frustrating practice where my arches refused to cooperate and my shoulder was feeling dodgy. But I gutted it through despite getting a bit of sarcasm from my coach. It was, however, difficult to just tough it out when we had an oversized greek choir of non-participants at practice. I'm all for injured players showing up and supporting/learning at practice but some of them need to freaking butch up a little and a few others who were practicing really should have given it a rest (she has bruised ribs, a slightly torn rotator cuff, and a broken toe for shit sake).

I sound like a broken record but I really feel we need less fitness and more rugby at this point in the ballgame. Hopefully practice this week will reflect said shift towards the practical as this week is our last before our first league game versus San Jose. They're always a tough team and it's an away game...I'm not sure if our team is in the right mindset yet...this isn't some pre-season friendly...this is LEAGUE. San Jo is a serious team with big players and they know how to win while our team can't focus up enough to go through a line of hands without dropping the ball and staring at how pretty it looks in the mud.

Wednesday was a pretty good practice and we got our new shorts. I'll admit I'm kinda disappointed, they're stretchy Kooga shorts but we were assured that they would have reinforcing tape...which they lack. Our first lineout with them nearly resulted in a dropped jumper. So we're kind of in a muck over whether to buy lifter shorts for our jumpers or just to have them wear some old shorts (this is complicated by the fact some weird kids actually care about uniformity and our lack of a solid lineout plan). I also did some lifting, this was the first serious lifting I've done...pretty much ever. An odd experience for a hooker but I know it's good for me despite all the protesting my jammed thumbs and fractured fingers might have felt at the time. I have a sinking feeling that my coach is going to shove me in at prop if I don't get fit soon or if our pack doesn't settle down. I'm going to personally start kicking some ass if this happens. But really? I'll play anything...I'm just a hooker at heart.

Saturday we had a friggin trail run. I was not pleased being the only front row to show up and running with a bunch of relatively fit locks and wings through damp forest razor-backs. If my arches, ankles, and shins weren't bothering me enough, spending my Saturday morning slipping around on moss trails like a rampaging elephant after a pack of long legged cross-country runners was a sure way to further kick in my morale. To add insult to injury, my gf with her sprained ankle was able to keep up with my fat ass. Once my body got over the harsh kick of running up a mountain it was actually an enjoyable run with brisk fog, luscious green clovers, and the comforting scent of the redwoods (or at least as enjoyable as an hour long trail run broken up by push ups and planks could possibly be for a front row). By the end of the run I finally caught up with my fly-half (ha! bitched!). I suppose it was worth it, it reminded me that I need to get in shape and that I should do it on my own terms so team attempts at fitness are less painful.

So this post is running kind of long so I'll leave a few things for next time..but one last thing. I'm thinking of getting a scrum cap so I can still play after I turn 23. I'm looking for suggestions for the cheapest...best scrum cap that a gal can get. I've got a little azn faux-hawk going on so I don't need space for a pony-tail or anything like that. I just need to protect my noggin from opposing tight-heads getting a little contact happy in a scrum. I'm thinking of getting a random Canterbury one.

Well anyhoo I guess that's it. I'll blather more later.

Santa Clara!

So just a quick snippet. Our league game against Santa Clara has been put off 'till later (or most likely will be). For some reason we're getting kit bags...kinda ridiculous considering we still don't have jerseys.

WE STILL DON'T HAVE JERSEYS.

God...such the motley crew....I dunno, I'm not a fan of kit bags or matching shit but I guess when I play for a club side I'll be glad to show off some slug pride.

Speaking of pride, Belmont Shore showed their stuff at the Stanford Invitational and held out against some high caliber teams.

I'll admit I'm a bit concerned about our teams readiness. But meh. On a side note I'm thinking about picking up a scrum cap...no more concussions.


Speaking of concussions..I definitely forgot to mention that I added a site counter. Shiny. I have exactly four readers. Woot. While this makes me happy I can't help but notice the fact that my best friend is forgetting to check up on my blog. Shame on you Joseph Edward Armstrong King III.