Size doesn't matter.

What a phenomenal weekend of rugby! On Saturday, the team drove 5 hours together to play in a tournament with two other teams. Normally during this time of year we're not really into fantastic weather yet, but we were given blue skies and mid 60s weather with a little bit of a breeze, the perfect weather for rugby. In the morning I tried not to eat a lot, I had a bagel but didn't finish it and a half a cup of coffee. I wanted to be absolutely sure that everything I ate would be digested before playing our two games, so I ate everything I wanted to eat before rugby at 5:30am when we were gearing up to leave. I think I kind of like playing rugby more so on an empty stomach; I feel a little lighter and a little swifter, nothing feels like it's weighing me down.

We won our first game and I'm really glad we did because it was certainly a pick me up that the team needed. I played flanker for most of the game, which I expected because of the minimal feedback I got when I asked to play scrumhalf. But of course I thoroughly enjoyed playing flanker anyway; I would say that I enjoy playing flanker and scrumhalf about the same but for different reasons. I think that as my confidence is growing, I am starting to run the ball harder. I scored two tris in the first game which is EXTREMELY rare for me, because before those two I had only scored one in my entire rugby career. And I scored both at flanker, which is not usually a scoring position. The way I scored both of the tris was also an accomplishment; for the first one, I ran the ball off a banger on about the 5 meter line into three girls playing defense on the goal line. I had to push my way through three tacklers and just barely get the ball to touch the ground. I don't think that is something I normally would have done or even tried to do in the past! The second tri I am really proud of because it involved quick decision making. One of our girls ran the ball and got tackled, but when she went to the ground the ball ended up underneath her. I was preparing to ruck over the ball but saw the other two defenders hesitating to ruck because they couldn't find the ball. When the ball was visible, still no one moved, so I immediately grabbed the ball and dove head first into the tri zone!

But enough about what I did in the game, our whole team played so well together. I really am pleasantly surprised because of how hard it has been to get people to come to practices and such. But I can tell that the tight bonds that exist between us all are still alive and thriving, and it's a major reason why we were so successful. Our pack was so incredibly phenomenal. Our rucks were tough and an absolute powerhouse. Our bangers were crisp and clean and for the most part we seemed pretty organized. Our scrums were also really dominating, but a major thing we need to work on are lineouts. We lost a ton of them to either jumpers not catching the ball, not straight throws (sometimes just a dumb ref's fault), or just sloppy play right afterwards. We have the potential to be great at line outs but we just need to tweak and perfect some things. What's funny is our offloading in the games was a strength and a weakness at the same time. When it was a strength was when we went into tackle and someone was right on our hip to receive a pass, those cases were mostly successful. But when it was ugly, it was uh-gly! I don't know where a large portion of our team got into the habit of throwing passes literally over their heads without looking behind them. It looks like we're throwing out garbage and we don't care where it goes! Those passes really were disgusting, and they've gotta stop, but obviously at times where we didn't make those ridiculous passes we showed how affective our offloading really can be. Our defense was also pretty good considering that we didn't let up any tris in the first game and only led up two in the second game to a team that has always been pretty tough to beat. Overall, I am very satisfied with the way our team did, and I am very optimistic and hopeful for the future.

I am also seeing little developments in myself that I am really happy about. But over this weekend, I think that many of the developments I had were much more psychological than physical, which are just as important. Physical developments are actually probably easier for me than psychological, so this was a big step in the right direction. I tried hard to be a leader and be positive at the same time, and one of the all star coaches that came to watch us even commented on both of those things after our two games! It's really great to realize that I have this inside of me, and I think that this is why rugby is such a great sport. It can bring out the leader and the best qualities in absolutely anyone. Someone could think they're not good at anything and don't have anything to be proud of, and then play one rugby game and realize the true inner strength they contain.