Bam!

Ahh.....it feels so good to be yet again rugby sore. We finally got to get a practice outside today and it was a pretty good practice. I'm sure if my ankles weren't in such excruciating pain I would probably complain about how we didn't run that much. But we had two new girls at practice, and I am really really happy with their slow but steady progress. Finally we got into some tackling, something that I was seriously concerned about because none of the new girls have done any tackling before today. Obviously no one could go into a rugby game without knowing anything about tackling or getting hit! But now I am really relieved that they have been at least broken in a little to the idea and basics of tackling and falling. Now I think that the girls will be able to play at least B side in our tournament this coming weekend, which is a really nice feeling because I want them to get into the experience of playing a game as soon as possible. 

But on a more serious note, my ankle was unbearable today at the gym. I went before practice because I have accepted the fact that we are not going to be doing the amounts of running that I would like to and not at the speed I need to anymore. So now I have to make up for it on my own at the gym, and today I did speed intervals. I would go a minute at a light jog and then a minute at a decent sprint pace (probably not all out, but still pretty fast). I think I got about 6 or 7 speed intervals done, and then my ankle couldn't take it anymore. I had to stop the treadmill immediately and I limped all the way back home. Even on our warm up run, which was not that fast (well, I didn't think it was but some others did I guess), I ended up limping for a little bit after. I took off three days of running before today, so I don't know why my ankle is absolutely dying! And, it's the ankle that I have in a brace! My other ankle started to hurt a lot recently as well, so today I ordered another ankle brace for that one too. I hope that it comes before our tournament this weekend because I want to play really well. 

I emailed the coach and other officers asking them if I could play some scrumhalf this weekend, and I'm really not happy with the response. They told me (and constantly told me before, and this was apparently why they didn't want me to play scrumhalf in the fall) that they might vitally need me at flanker, but I'm starting to believe that it may not be true. Are they making up excuses for me to not play scrumhalf? I feel like we have a bunch of flankers; before every game I still get super nervous about how much playing time I'm going to end up getting (even though I started and played the entire game for every game in the fall, and I don't only feel nervous because of the number of flankers we have but for many other reasons too...that's a whole other story, haa....). At the same time, the team is always complaining about the lack of back players we have on the team. Our current scrumhalf used to be a back, so I don't understand why it would be such a big deal to put her at a back position, me at scrumhalf, and one of our other flankers in my position....at least for a little bit?! I don't understand why people would be so opposed to the idea of me playing scrumhalf; I'm a decent runner (I think!), I've practiced a ton of passing and kicking, and I have definitely developed a voice and I'm not afraid to communicate on the field anymore. When I had to go in for a half of a game because our regular scrumhalf got hurt, I got so much good feedback about how I played and I thought I played it pretty well for never having been able to practice it at practices and being thrown into the position in a game. I don't know, I'm not really sure what more I can do at this point.