Hard to believe, but the fall rugby season has come to and end. Its strange, not only for its brevity, but for the fact that it just picks up right where it left off in the spring. The guys finished the season in 4th, so that means they are the 4th seed for the playoffs in the spring.... strange. But, we will be hosting the 2012 Ivy League Rugby Playoffs April 14-15th, so any eager rugby beavers should mark that day on your calendar. With the regular season done, the team packed up a few of the guys at the end of fall break and headed up to Boston for the Ivy League Rugby 7's Tournament. So the fall season we played 15's Rugby, 15 guys per side (duh). There is another form of the game called 7's. This is played with..... thats right you guessed it 7!! This is actually the version of the game that will be an Olympic sport for both the men and the women starting this summer. I have never witnessed a 7's game, and to make thing more interesting, the team has never really practiced for a 7's game. They're plan was to just kind of wing it and hope for the best.
So Friday afternoon all 12 of us piled into the FULL bus for our trip to Boston. When I told Linnea we had a bus for that few people, her response was "Thats what 12 passenger vans are for". It is still hard for me to get used to having a bus, but hey I'm not complaining. The movie selection this week was distinctively more boy-stereotypical. "City of God" Brazilian movie with subtitles about the drug business in a Rio slum. Here's a synopsis for you. Someone gets shot, someone smoking drugs, someone selling drugs, someone gets shot, shot again, shot again, etc etc, all in Portugese. Then some "Die Hard", quick stop at McDonalds halfway so the guys could load up on the "EPIC" McRib, and we were in Boston by around 1030.
Bright and early Saturday we headed to the Irish Cultural Center for the tournament. Pretty nice facility, 3 rugby fields and a Gaelic Football field. Not entirely sure what Gaelic football entails, but we were threatened with firey death if we stepped on the field, so I guess its pretty serious..... Anyways, we had 3 games scheduled for the morning. 7's games are very short, 2 7 minute halfs with a 2 minute half-time, so playing multiple games in a day is more realistic than a full 15's game that takes 80 minutes. Its a very fast paced game, and quite a lot of fun to watch. I encourage anyone who has a chance to see a game either in person or on TV to take advantage.The guys started the day off with a win, and then halfway through game 2 I turned around to find 2 familiar faces:
Brynne and Mama D!! They were awesome enough to drive the few hours, and kept me company the entire day, it was awesome. Minus the fact I spilled Brynne's mocha chai non-fat latte all down my leg within the first minute, it was great being able to spend time with some great people. Just like being back at Maine with softball, except it was a bunch of sweaty guys running around, and spectators smoking cigars and drinking beer on the sidelines. All in all the guys played 5 games, won 3, lost 2 and finished 5th. Not too shabby for a group that had never really practiced 7's formally. At the end of the day, it was time to pack up and head back South (I haven't really ever been able to say that in my life, always seem to be headed back North, anyways.....). Said goodbye to the Davis ladies, thought seriously about stowing away in their trunk, and packed up on the bus. Fairly uneventful drive home, until 3 miles away from campus our bus broke down 5 times. Our awesome bus driver Stan somehow managed to always get her started again, and thankfully we arrived back on campus.
All in all it was a great first rugby season. No ER trips, I never got trampled on the field, and had quite a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to more in the spring. There may be some random travel for me here and there, but looks like everyone's gonna have to put their big girl panties on and deal with my prolonged blogging absence until spring, that means you Mr Majewski and Grandma.......... Until then, happy future fall and winter holidays everyone and see you again in 2012.
