Cal vs. All Blues

It's amazing how differently a team can play on any given day. The caliber of play this past Thurs. night against the All Blues was so much higher than when we played St. Mary's. We lost but we pressured them like mad and we even scored. There were some amazing individual moments. There were great punches, good decision making, and one of our girls juked Laura Cabrera...TWICE. We also played well together. Something clicked and it just looked smooth. Plus, no injuries!

This game gave me a lot more confidence going into playoffs. I have been worried about numbers and how we would deal with having some of our regulars in the gimp club but this game showed that we can still play with the best of them. Spring break will give everyone a breather and then hopefully we'll come back ready to crank it out.

I had my surgery Tues. and it went well. It wasn't the 3 day misery that I thought it would be. In fact the worst pain was in my back from having to lie with my leg up for so long. I'm on crutches but I can already put some weight on it and the swelling has gone down some. Now if only I could get all the yellow streaks from the iodine off.

I'm not a big fan of the new erugbynews.com. I liked the simple layout of Goff.

Cal vs. St. Mary's

The break between league games and playoffs is both a blessing and a curse. It's nice to have that break so that people can rest up and take care of injuries but at the same time it makes it difficult to stay focused, which is why we scheduled the game against St. Mary's. We put out a mostly B-side squad with a lot of people. It was a chance to get people more playing time and to throw some people into new positions. Unfortunately, injuries have hit us pretty hard this year, which means the more depth we can develop at each position going into playoffs the better off we'll be.

It was a fun game to watch even though we ended up only scoring one try and losing by a large margin. There was more cohesion than I had seen in previous B-side games and a lot of people gave some awesome individual performances. Plus, there was spirit. Even when they got scored on, they kept their heads up and continued working. They adapted and there was a huge improvement from the beginning of the game to the end. Overall, I'm just glad that the B-side got some time on the field and that they were able to hold it together without A-side starters on the field with them.

Cal vs. Reno

Yesterday was our last league game and it was a nice way to end the regular season. Not only did we play on Witter but we also shutout Reno 39-0. We had control of the ball most of the game and there was some beautiful continuity. We did have some diffifulty with penalties though which contributed to us being on our end of the field a bit more than I had expected. Reno fought with everything they had which is to be respected. In the end it was a great game for all our friends and family to see. Plus, we were able to rotate most of the seniors onto the field so that they had the chance to play on Witter. The only true downside was that we had a number of people hurt. This year has just been full of injuries. Luckily we have some time before playoffs for everyone to rest up and heal.

I would like to make a correction to a statement I made in a previous post. Apparently, this was the first time we had played on Witter in at least five years, not the first time ever.

Apologies, Jealousy and Miracles

Alright so I said that I wouldn't comment further on the subject but hey, a girl can change her mind. I understand that I've upset some people. Sorry. I have a tendency to put my foot in my mouth. I would just like to clarify a few things. First, I love this game, respect this league, and give props to every girl who steps out on the field and goes balls out. Those are the people I admire on my team and on every team. I also will give credit where credit is due. The games that we have lost this season are games where we were simply outplayed. Plain as that. I believe that we have improved drastically in the last two games and if our game against Davis is any proof, we've got heart like no other but we did lose soundly in the first two games. Secondly, maybe I shouldn't have generalized to entire teams being dirty. It was a lazy statement. What I should have said is that there have been instances that I highly disapprove of but those most likely have to do with individuals. All teams, including my own, have individuals who do questionable things and those players can create a bad rep for the team. I shouldn't have labeled whole teams but honestly I didn't expect anyone would read this and so it never occured to me that I should be more specific. To the accusation that my team plays dirty, I would say that I believe we play a fairly clean game but you are free to form your own opinion of us. Also, I don't equate injuries with playing dirty. I don't blame anyone for my torn ACL. I went into a tackle like I had a million times before and for some reason it popped. Injuries happen in a contact sport. I get that. So it wasn't the injury count that led me to believe that the game was dirty it was the verb "punched."

Once again I apologize for giving offense. It was not my intention. Now that I know that people might actually read what I babble, I'll try to edit/clarify better. However, if you are going to read this please remember that I am human with all the flaws that entails. So if I write something stupid feel free to correct me but don't get so angry that you lose sleep. Nothing that I write will ever be so important that it should envoke that much of an emotional response.

Good luck to all in playoffs. Hope to see you at Sweet 16s.

Now that hopefully that is over and done with and everyone is reasonably satisfied, I have three completely different points. One is a rant, one is a boo and the last is a huge but tentative hooray.

First, the rant. Saturday's a Rugby Day credited some photos of the Stanford vs. Chico match to the CSU Chico newspaper so I went to the site in hopes that there'd be more photos. No such luck but there was a pdf file of the front of the most recent issue. Know what was on the front page? The game! With a gigantic photo! I bet we'd have to win nationals to make it into the Daily Cal. Even then there'd probably be a huge article about the men winning for the bajillionth time and at the end it would say something like, "And the women's team also won that day." I'm jealous.

Second, the boo. We have news that the third seed from our league will most likely be facing a military school for Sweet 16s. Basically if we make Sweet 16s, that's us. Damn. They're just so bloody fit.

Now for the tentative hooray. Our game against Reno is this coming weekend. It's our only home game of the season and we're scheduled to play on Witter Rugby Field! FINALLY! I'm a bit bitter that I won't actually get to play there but I'm truly happy for our seniors. It will be so cool for the seniors to play their last league game on campus on the actual home rugby field.

You're kidding right?

Some people take my words a bit too seriously. I am a college student blogging for myself about a sport I enjoy. If other people read what I write great but I tend to write my posts quickly and I don't go back to edit them later. Therefore, my posts should be taken with a grain of salt. Also, please remember that these are my words and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of people or groups I am associated with. Finally, I take offense with the accusation that I am not being truthful. Truth is subjective (Don't believe me? Ask anyone on the losing end of history). There are multiple sides to every story. This is my blog and so it will tell my side. You are welcome to disagree but just because you don't like what I said doesn't mean that I am intentionally lying. It simply means that we have different opinions.

Take it or leave it people. If you don't like what I write, don't read it. My opinion really shouldn't mean that much anyways.

And on that note, have a wonderful Saturday!
Besos to all, even those who don't like me!