Scrum by the Sea

This weekend was UCSD's Scrum by the Sea tournament. We left Friday morning by bus and then had two teams play Saturday. My team, the Blue team, played in the social division. We played 5 games and went 1-4 so we did not move on to playoffs Sunday. However, I don't think that reflects the improvements that we made from game to game. Our squad was entirely rookies except for myself and two other first year vets. There was some monster tackling and amazing effort. Also, a bunch of players tried positions they had never practiced at, including myself. It was just an amazing learning experience for the rookies and I'm proud of the way they handled it.

Our other squad, the Gold team, won all their games Saturday (UC Davis, CSU Sacramento, UCSD) and moved into playoffs seeded second behind ASU. They then won their matches against Chico (22-21) and UCLA but lost in the final against UCSD 7-24. It would have been nice to win the tournament for the second year in a row but second place ain't bad.

This weekend was really bad as far as injuries. By the second game Sunday, the Gold team roster was severly depleted, which probably contributed to our loss to UCSD. I think we had more injuries in two days than we had all of last year. In total we had a broken collarbone, a broken finger, a severe contusion, a possibly fractured wrist, a concussion, a badly sprained ankle, and several black eyes including one that caused the entire side of the girl's face to swell. On top of that we had two players get really sick. Luckily, we won't play again until league season starts so everyone will have plenty of time to rest and heal.

As for myself, I really enjoyed the weekend on several levels. Although I would have enjoyed at least a couple days warning and a chance to practice, I really enjoyed playing scrumhalf for two games. I think I'm a rather tall scrumhalf but it seems like a fun position and I wouldn't mind having another go at it. I was also a co-captain for the Blue team so it was interesting to be in an offical leadership position. Finally, I got to bond a little better with the rookies and that can never be a bad thing.

Lastly, the All Blues lost to New York in the final at Disney World, which makes me sad. I'm sure they must be a bit disappointed but second place is nothing to be ashamed off and next year they'll just have to come back even harder.