Season and Playoffs Recap

Okay so I've been really bad about blogging. It's just not a priority. Oh well. Moving on...

We had our home game against Humboldt on Witter Field. We won and it was pretty. It was too long ago for me to remember the score or even whether we won by a small margin or blew them out of the water. It was good to win in front of all the family and friends that turned out. We had our alumni banquet afterwards and raised a good amount of money which is always a good thing.

Our final game of the season was against Chico. We played in Memorial Stadium. We lost, and badly. Chico was firing on all cylinders and we just couldn't stop them from breaking through. We got better as the game went on but that meant there were longer breaks between them scoring on us, not a comeback.

Over spring break, we went up to Canada to play UBC. They beat us. It was freezing, windy and rainy but I played the entire second half, which is the longest I've played since coming back so I was happy.

Playoffs were this past weekend. We handily beat University of Oregon. Things were a little slow in the first half but we turned it on in the second half. It was a good game and I was impressed by their behavior after the game. They came over as a team to where we were stretching to congratulate us and wish us luck. It was very classy. I talked to one of their players for a bit and I feel sorry for their team. There are only 3 teams in their league and so it is hard for them to get games. Then they have to come down for playoffs where they get repeatedly beat. It's not that they're bad. I think it's just that we have more playing opportunities. OSU didn't even show so Chico got a bye.

We played Chico the second day for seeding going into Sweet 16s. We lost terribly. We had about zero ball possession. We just were not on our game. It was not pretty to watch. It was also not the most friendly game. There were a lot of uncalled penalties, such as playing the ball on the ground. There were so many in fact, that the touch judges talked to the ref at half time. Also, one girl took a swing at our center and another girl clearly played our wing when she didn't have the ball. I have a lot of respect for Chico. They play well and with heart and off the field they are generally one of the friendlier teams in our league. In the most recent games against them, I would say things have been pretty clean which is why I don't quite get what happened on Saturday. When you're winning by that large of a margin there is no reason not to play cleanly. Now I wasn't on the field so maybe there is stuff that I don't know about but that's how I see it.

Regardless of that loss, we're going to Sweet 16s! Yay! The team has been working really hard this past week. We're playing Texas A&M so that should be interesting.

On another note, Goff seems to think that we don't belong at Sweet 16s. To this I say, we earned our spot. We won the game that we needed to win. We have no control over the seeding. Whether or not it was "fair" to one team or another, we did what we had to do to get to nationals and I'm damn proud of my team for doing that. As for Goff's pet team, BYU, I don't think there is enough information yet to make a good judgement on them. They lost to Stanford and then won against Reno. Neither of those results are all that ground breaking. No, they did not lose to Stanford by all that big of a margin but neither did we when we played them in league. Truth is, Stanford is still good but not the team they've been the past couple of years. As for beating Reno, I saw a bit of the game and while I liked that BYU was flexible on offense, nothing that they were doing was all that remarkable. They look like another good, solid team. No more and no less. They don't deserve to be 8th in the seedings for regional playoffs but until they play a league season against competitive teams I don't think they should be touted as one of the best teams around as Goff does.

Two games, Two losses

We played UC Davis on Treasure Island last weekend and lost hard. The final score was 20-5. Thankfully we did score one try but, after how well the team had been playing, it was still a disappointment. We just couldn't seem to get any momentum going. There would be a good individual effort but then we would lose the ball. It didn't help that there were some questionable calls made and that the Davis pack couldn't seem to stay on their feet in the scrum. I've never understood the point of diving on the engage. It's incredibly painful to hit the ground face first and there's a huge risk of injury. If a player can't scrum, don't have them in the tight five. It's common sense. At the end of the day though, we just didn't play our game and Davis took full adventage of that.

Yesterday against Stanford was a whole different story. We still lost but the final score was 19-10. We played well and we played together. The ref kept a tight game but I think that helped us, to be honest. Both sides had plenty of penalties called on them but I think we dealt with it better. Of course it would have been nice to get another win but considering that Stanford just recently beat Chico by a spread of 20 some odd points, I'm pretty proud of our team.

Bringing things up to speed...

It's been a long time since I last updated. In that span of time we had our clinic with UCSC, had Double Days, played in the Stanford Invitational, beat UN Reno in our first league match, and had a scrimmage with Stanford. Needless to say, it's been a busy month or so.

We kicked off Double Days with the clinic and game against UCSC. We lost. We got better as the game went on but in the end we still lost. A week later though, it was a whole 'nother story. We came in second at the Stanford Invitational, losing in the final game to Stanford. It was definitely a confidence builder to see the team come together and beat some pretty good sides. Then we went to Reno for the first game of the season. We won by a nice margin but Reno put up one hell of a fight. They played down a couple of players almost the entire game so their efforts were pretty impressive. They might not have numbers but they do have heart. Finally, this past Saturday, we played a Stanford mostly B side. We lost but not too badly and some of our key players weren't on the field. But guess what?! I played! It was only for about 10 minutes because I was still recovering from the lovely 103.7 degree fever I had a few days before and because I managed to sprain my ankle but still! I was pleased and it felt good to be back after over a year.

This weekend is our game against UC Davis. We'll be playing on Treasure Island and hopefully the good weather will holdout. TI in the rain and wind is no fun.

Sweet!

It looks like Sweet 16s will be New Mexico and then Final Fours will be at Stanford again. I like that all the teams will be together for Sweet 16s, not split into 2 places like in the past few years. I always thought that was a bit odd. Hopefully, the fields in New Mexico will be full sized. The ones in Florida were so short that you could make penalty kicks from the half. Bit ridiculous. This whole thing does seem a bit unfair to the teams on the East Coast but its a pretty sweet deal for us. Not having to include a possible trip to Florida in our budget will make things so much easier, especially if we're going to Canada over Spring Break like I hope we are.

Hesitation...

I leave Brazil on Saturday. Double days are in January and then it's straight into league season. I'm going back to rugby. I know I'm going back but every once in awhile I have to wonder if it's wise for me to continue playing or at least to attempt to play this coming semester.

I tore my ACL back in January and had surgery in March. It's been about 7 months, a reasonably long enough time that my playing rugby again isn't an absolutely insane idea. The catch is that those 7 months have not been filled with dedicated rahab. I was moderately good about it over the summer but once I got here rehab was pushed down the priority list. There was a language barrior to overcome, a new city to explore, creepy men to avoid, a family to live with, and new people to make friends with. It doesn't help that there is not a patch of grass in Salvador and the cobblestone sidewalks are definitely a no go for running with a post ACL surgery knee. I've jogged a few times on a treadmill but nothing too serious or all that regular. I just wonder if I'm setting myself for a retorn ACL. I don't think I can put into words just how that would suck. Going through it once was okay, not terrible, not great and I dealt with it. Going through it again would just be frustrating, maddening, heartbreaking, and a myriad of other not so positive adjetives.

This is of course all hinging on the assumption that my PT will clear me. I haven't seen her in months so I have no clue what she'll say. It's not as if the knee is bad. Daily walking is fine and I know it's a lot better now than it was when I first arrived but I still get twinges every now and then. Plus, I'm fairly certain I'm still a wee bit gimpy looking when I run at higher speeds. Again, I haven't really been able to test that out here. I guess I'll just have to wait and see but I've never been a very patient person.

Just my luck...

The Rugby World Cup is happening in France but I'm in the ONE country outside of the US that isn't crazy about rugby! It's not like rugby isn't in South America. Argentina is in the quarterfinals! But Brazil is too damn good at soccer to care about rugby. Argh!

And in other non-rugby but oh-so-exciting news, Cal is #2 in the nation for football. Of course it has to happen during the season that I decide to go abroad.

Bad timing. Boo.

Complete change of subject but I found a site with really good rugby videos. It's called rugbydump.com. Granted it only covers the men's game but that lack of good judgement can be overlooked for the sake of quality videos of trys, tackles and other fun stuff all in one spot.

In Brasil...

I'm going to be pretty silent this semester because well, it's kinda hard to report on team doings when you're not even in the country. I'm studying in Brasil this semester and it's amazing but I do miss rugby and my rugby girls. There was a poster for men's rugby in the airport but that's the only evidence I've seen of the sport in this country. Here it's basically soccer, soccer, and more soccer.