WOOF! I've got quite the turf burn on my knee from playing on Saturday; I can barely bend my knee without it hurting and I can only wear shorts right now! But it's AWESOME. A-W-E-S-O-M-E. Every time I play rugby it's just pretty much another reminder to myself that I am NEVER going to stop playing. My mom tried to tell me the other day that she expects my rugby career to be over once I graduate from college, but that's absolutely not happening. She can choose to either pay health insurance for rugby or for jumping off a cliff!! I think rugby is cheaper.
So on Saturday there was an annual Easter tournament held by the women's rugby team of the city for any surrounding college rugby players in the area to come to. We just show up and get thrown onto a team. When I got there, I definitely realized that I was a little fish in a big pond; there were girls playing not only from the city women's team, but also from super good Division One schools while I'm from measly Division Three! I was pretty nervous when I first got there, not only because I thought I was out of shape and haven't played in a game in a few months, but simply because I knew that these girls were better skilled and have been actively playing all semester (aka getting even better!!). I even thought for a moment that I didn't belong there, and that mayyyybe I shouldn't have come after all.....
But it was AMAZING! I keep forgetting how much of an absolute blessing it is to be able to play with players who are better than you. I learned so much from all of them! I got stiff armed while also dealing out some stiff arms. As much as my ass got handed to me on a platter, I tried to hand other people their asses on platters (pfft...haha). Rugby truly is a miracle to me; I ran about 2 miles the day before the game and I was DYING. I thought I was going to throw up a lung in the game just becuase of how atrocious that wimpy little 2 mile run was for me. But once you get into the game and start darting left and right to make tackles and get passes and support your fellow players, it all just RUSHES AWAY. I was BOOKING it left and right on the field without thinking twice about it (and then was heaving hardcore every time someone went out of bounds or there was a scrum, ha ha). When you think about all the different muscles it takes to be hit by someone full force and then have to get yourself up, run with all your speed and endurance across the field, hit someone else, and rinse and repeat for God knows how long - it's UNREAL! It truly is a miracle!
As you can also see in one of the pictures above, MY FREAKIN' CLEAT BROKE! And I don't mean just a little rip in the side (that's actually what it was before, the entire left side of the cleat ripped into a hole and attempted to be taped by duct tape...), like THE ENTIRE BOTTOM OF THE CLEAT GONEZO. I was running barefoot in the middle of the game (didn't help that my sock had 2 massive holes in it too hahaha) and still trying to play, but when I went in to try and tackle someone I realized it wasn't worth it to risk getting all 5 of my toes broken at the same time. Sooooo now I need new cleats, BUMMER. I've had those cleats since the beginning of my rugby career (and even before that), they're so meaningful to me! I don't even know where the obliterated cleat is, so now I'll just have to make that one cleat into some sort of memorabilia.
And rugby people are still some of the most awesome people I've ever met. I know that's a stereotype, but by the end of the game I found myself laughing and joking the same way I do with my best friends except it was with people I had never even seen or met before. Even if I screwed up in the game, nobody cared! Someone else screwed up later and I didn't care either. There was this crazy awesome comrodery on the field with people I had NEVER played with before nor even talked to before! I know not ALL rugby players are awesome players, but I'd say that there's definitely a major amount of them that are that could cause a statistical significance (holy crap...did I just say statistical significance? I've been in school for WAY too long).
I'm just so so happy with how it all went, but like always, it made me hungry for MORE. I hope we can get a scrimmage going with one of those teams in the next few weeks. They seemed pretty interested in playing with us so I think it would be such a great experience for the girls on my team, especially the new players! Every single time you can be exposed to rugby (playing OR watching) you definitely improve. It's especially beneficial to play against teams or players that are on a whole different level than you so you are forced to step your game up and get on their level.
I wish I knew for sure where the heck I would be after graduation so I can get started on finding another rugby team to play for!! ALL RUGBY TEAMS IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD (none of which are going to see this, ha ha): I'M READY AND OPEN FOR RUGBY BUSINESS!!
