Your Scrumhalf Connection - Women's Rugby Blog

Tuesday night my team had practice and we practiced in standing water! It had been raining for two straight days and when I say raining I really mean POURING. I mean really, Noah was building his ark next to our pitch and laughing at us! It was definitely an experience, luckily it was warm rain so we weren't chilly.

So of course we all turned into little girls and warm up quickly became who could splash whom the most! I never knew that the plyometric karaoke could mean I can splash Burns on every switch of my feet! We only made it about 30 minutes before the lightning lit up the sky, and so we were all drenched...but it felt good to get out and get some fitness in.

We finished up the night at Bagpipes a bar that shows rugby and had a chalk talk. Unfortunately their wasn't any rugby on, so we watched some soccer and then split into forwards and backs to do our chalk talk. I went with the forwards since we were going over line out calls etc, and I looked over at the backs who were playing HANG MAN!! ha ha...I was jealous for a bit, but then the complicated X's, O's and lines came out and they were concentrating.

And some e-news from my Inbox:

• SPRING BREAK! Most schools are on spring break or getting ready to have Spring Break. What is your team doing for Spring Break
  
  Texas A&M traveled to the Champagne Classic and made quite a showing! They defeated Utah State, barely lost to Army (15-12) and lost to UCSD. On Tuesday they played Army again and defeated them 13-12. Great work ladies! Looking forward to Westerns!
  
  Oklahoma is having their annual Alumni Weekend with a round of Golf this morning, matches tomorrow, a Pig Roast Saturday night and a Brunch on Sunday for the lady ruggers. Here is the schedule of games:
  
  Saturday, March 17, 12:30pm
  OU Roses versus Arkansas Iron Maidens
  
  Saturday, March 17, 2:00pm
  OU Varsity Men vs. The Prestigious Alumni Men
  
  Saturday, March 17, 3:30pm
  OU Varsity Women vs. The Prestigious Alumni Women
  
  Saturday, March 17, 6:00pm
  Pig Roast with all the trimmings
  OU Rugby Clubhouse, corner of Brooks and Trout
  
  Sunday, March 18, 10:00am-1:00pm
  Survivors Brunch
  
  *I will be in attendance ladies! Welcome back to Oklahoma Wendy!
  
  
• Online Rugby Magazine - DSM Rugby
  The new issue of Rugby Magazine is now online! Pass this link onto your friends, its a full-color online rugby magazine and its FREE!
  
  
  
• Collegiate Westerns @ Univ of Colorado - Apr 6-8, 2007
  The brackets are shaping up...the tentative schedule is posted below.
  
  Friday April 6, 2007
  Men's matches at noon and 2pm.
  
  Saturday April 7, 2007
  8:30am #2 Oklahoma vs. #7 ER3 (TBD)
  8:30am #3 New Mexico vs. #6 Wayne State
  8:30am #1 ER1 (TBD) vs. #8 Truman State
  9:50am #4 ER2 (TBD) vs. #5 Texas A&M
  
  Consolation Matches start at 2:10pm
  Semi-finals are at 3:30pm
  
  Sunday April 8, 2007
  8:00am Women's 7th/8th Place
  8:00am Women's 5th/6th Place
  10:10am Women's 3rd/4th Place
  1:oopm Women's Championships
  
  The brackets are updated almost every two weeks, so check back often! Here is the link.
  
  
• "Celtic con Carne" - the Olde Girls rugby club green chili cook-off fundraiser to take place on St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) @ Alexander's Mexican Restaurant. Kick-off is 5 PM with a cook-off start time of 6 PM. If you have any questions please e-mail Puff @ spuff76@yahoo.com.
  
  We would greatly appreciate any and all support for this event. This is a chance to show off your culinary skills and share good times with some ruggers working to raise funds to travel for the new West women's league structure. Hope to see you in Glendale soon!!
  
  
• iDiva
  A mother who is coming to grips with her daughter playing rugby. Very cute! Here is a little piece of the blog:
  
  "My daughter, who's grown (and...um...should know better) plays for the Memphis Women's Rugby Football Club (see action photo above). The women, all accomplished and bright, enjoy knocking the crap out of their opponents on Saturdays at Toby Park, then donning skirts on Monday morning to show off their bruises at work."
  
  My Favorite Comment:
  "A true rugger has to think on their feet to escape an attacking defense. A true rugger has to learn every position so they can benefit their team in any way needed. A true rugger must be able to make a big hit or stop. Lastly, a true rugger must learn to rise again off their butt after taking a big hit. Intelligence, aggressiveness, determination, and strength are all things a mother tries to teach their daughter to prepare them for the world. Being apart of a rugby club, team, or organization can enforce all those things "mama said" as a child. I, a proud rugger, know my mother instilled these characteristics in me and to see her cheer vibrantly for my team lets me know this is true. It could be the fact she wears our team sweat shirt all the time too but she is my mom."
  
  
• Rough Stock 10's - Boulder, CO
  We are excited to announce the first annual Rough Stock 10s tournament in
  Boulder, CO!
  
  The inaugural event invites women's teams to play on Saturday, May 12 at the South Boulder Recreational Center.
  
  The matches will be followed by fun and celebration in the heart of Boulder. Denver's Black Ice as well as the St. Louis Sabres will be playing a league match that day. So come out and support women's rugby!
  
  Registration is just $150 per team, or $15 per individual if you are looking to fill in or play on a motley team. Space is limited, so sign up now to confirm your attendance! Email rugby@mediatorh.net for more information better yet check out our website at http://boulderbabesrugby.com/roughstock
  

• The UK petitioning the Prime Minister for more Access to Women's Rugby
  Interesting little petition...simple but to the point!
  
  
• Nash Bash update! We are traveling to Nash Bash next week and I am getting more and more excited! The last time I attended Nash Bash it was FREEZING and we had to pray to the Sun Gods for a beam of sunlight. Hopefully the weather will be better this year as the competition at this tournament is high caliber, like the top 10 teams in the nation will be in attendance! Great job Nashville!
  
  
• Western Rugby All Star Senior Tryouts Info
  A reminder that planning for the West Senior Women's All Star 2007 season is underway! Please note the warm up weekend has been moved from Boulder to Kansas City.
  
  PLEASE FORWARD THIS INFORMATION TO YOUR TEAMS!!
  
  The West Senior Women's All Stars welcome back our head coach Mark Bullock, assistant coach Geoff Olde and myself, Susan Stabler, team manager. Our trainer is Amy Valenta.
  
  For the 2007 season we will have an LAU tournament replacing the local camps and try out weekends. The West has invited us to hold the tourn in Ft. Worth April 28 & 29, in conjunction with the men's DI, DII and DII club championships. The West Men's Collegiate All Stars and the Boy's High Schools will also be there. It will be a big weekend- so plan to attend!
  
  There will be 4 LAU teams- ER, HOA, TX and MO. OZ will combine with MO and RG and GP will combine with HOA. These teams are beginning to have meetings and training, so join in SOON!
  
  The 4 LAU teams and their contacts are:
  Eastern Rockies- Karl Ohlsen, ohlsenk@hotmail.com
  Heart of America- KJ Abel, kjrstena@hotmail.com
  Missouri- Amy Gallop, gallop9@msn.com
  Texas- Rachel Suniga Osborn, rachel@austin.rr.com
  
  The other LAU contacts are:
  Great Plains- Curtis Cochran, sfcrowrugby@aim.com
  Ozark- Karen Monson, kmonson2004@yahoo.com
  Rio Grande- Paul Mullins, pgmm03@gmail.com
  
  Matches will be played on Saturday. If possible, Mark will meet with the teams at check in to express expectations for the weekend. I will also be sending out information beforehand.
  
  The intent of the matches is to observe players in a competitive situation for selection to the West All Star pool. Saturday night there will be a get-together to announce selections. Selected players will have training from 9:30 am- 1 pm on Sunday Please make your travel plans accordingly.
  
  The 24 selected players will participate in training and two warm up matches vs the Midwest All Stars on May 19 & 20 in Kansas City, MO.
  
  The 24 selected players will participate in training and the NASC tournament June 13- 17 in Blaine, Minn.
  
  Please contact your LAU rep listed above or myself to participate.
  Let's have a great season!
  See you in Ft. Worth!
  
  Susan Stabler
  Manager, WRFU Senior Women's All Stars
  sswest04@aol.com