Your Scrumhalf Connection - Women's Rugby Blog

Once again we have an eye witness to Cape Fear 7s in Wilmington, NC, our very own Heidi Whitman:

Right, so, bad wifi at our hotel, no pool either,what's a girl to do?! And here's the rest of the story: Anything else that happened Saturday is a blur. I know that our spirits did not match our record, that is to say that the west girlie's were gellin' and finding our game and loving it! We started making connections, and had some lovely runs made by superstars Melissa McKibben and Jenny Kuchar (or cooch, love it!). Meredith Bagley was voted by the team as player of the day for her steadfastness and scrappy play at scrumhalf. We were in high spirits and couldn't wait to get back onto the pitch Sunday morning.

Hooo-ee! Sunday morning we were still in a position to make it to the finals. First we just had to beat Northeast, defending champs, to move on. We were ready for the challenge! We came out fierce, the Northeast definitely did not know what hit them. How you gonna bench eagle starters when everyone knows West is the dark horse at these events! That's alright. The game started off great, real back and forth. The NE hit the rucks harder than any of the other teams this weekend, but you know what: we hit back. I don't know if we lost any balls going into contact. Our defense slid, and our offense sliced and caught them on their back foot. Finally we make a run at it and we are so close we can spit on the try line. There's a ruck here, another there, and Meredith Bagley picks up the ball...the NE defense is already running to the support, to the people she is going to pass it to. Ok, Mere says; she hops over the ruck and untouched into the try zone with the first points of the day.

Before the half is over, the NE capitalizes on a mistake and scores to tie the game (don't ask for details, I've blanked them out). Second half is more of the same, one more mistake by us that the NE used to their advantage. One missed tackle, man. L 7-12, but that was a hot game. Final game of the day pitted us old ladies against the spry wiles of the Atlantis 7's team. That game featured the crazy verticals of Angie Hurt disrupting line outs, McKibben scoring on sudden death overtime, and I got to level 3 tackle a gal so hard her kids are limping around! Cooch received Player of the day for Sunday.

West players were: Karla Orellana (Austin), Meredith Bagley (Austin), Heidi Whitman (Austin), Rosalind Chou (Austin), Melissa McKibben (KC), Jenny Kuchar (St Louis), Angie Hurt (KC), Katie Thoreson (Glendale), Sonrissa Lucero (Glendale), Chrissy Carpenter (KC), Kate Wolff (St Louis), Emily Bock (KC), and Breann Walas (Little Rock).

Great Job Ladies, can't wait for ITT's!!

Other Cape Fear Results:

First Place: Midwest ($800 dollar prize)
Second Place: Mid-Atlantic ($200 dollar prize)
Third Place: Northeast
Fourth Place: South
Fifth Place: West
Sixth Place: Atlantis/U23s