Your Scrumhalf Connection - Women's Rugby Blog

I totally forgot that I never blogged about the Valkyries trip to Atlanta, read the recap from Bags below:

The Austin Valkyries closed their spring 15's season with a successful trip to Atlanta this weekend, earning a split decision against a strong Harlequins squad and having our usual bevy of adventures and mischief-making. Game & social reports are below:

Game 1 (Atlanta "A" v. mixed Valks side): 32-24 Atlanta

Austin showed the effects of travel and dispersed housing arrangements by starting the match awfully slowly...then again they don't call it HOT-lanta for nothing and the ref's HARC socks should have tipped us off that we'd be playing in a pea soup of humidity. Needless to say, Atlanta outweighed our pack by about 15 lbs/player and figured out they could maul on us...which set up several breaks of the overloaded Valkyrie backline. However, after about 20 minutes of that nonsense the Valkryies roared to life, dominating the final ten minutes of the first half to put up 12 unanswered points thanks to two tries from Heidi Whitman -- one up the weak side set up by a stolen scrum & pass from Meredith Bagley, and one around the outside corner showing her classic speed & swerves. Buoyed by this result the Valks played with a keen fury in the second half, finally hitting low and poaching the ball in rucks to narrow the Atlanta lead. Tries were scored in two classic Valkyrie styles: a kick from Meg Pace off the back of a ruck (under which your author was lying...) that was nimbly chased down by rookie wing Fanni who found Heidi in support, then hooker Shalay Mefford unleashed her slippery moves by squirting through a gap near a break down, popping to T-Hole, who found Heiny for a gorgeous try that elicited several "whoops" from the sidelines.

Game 2 (Atlanta "B" v. mixed Valks): 24-0 Austin

Having mastered the heat and withstood the initial Atlanta attack, the Valkyries dominated the Harlequins B side in our second match of the day. The Valks were camped out in the Atlanta end much of the first half, maintaining possession with strong pod play and direct pick-and-go's, forcing Atlanta to kick out of their own try zone a half-dozen times. Highlight try of the first half again involved the slick maneuvers of Shalay Mefford who, after a poached ruck (which, again, your author found herself underneath...) at about half field, found herself in the open on the far wing. Panic? No. Run straight into contact? No. Shalay, drawing on our 4 months of ball line warmups, cut directly at the defender marking Heidi, drawing her attention & flipping the ball to Heidi at the perfect moment for a flawlessly executed switch (or so I'm told, from my face-in-dirt ruck position). The second half continued apace, with a fun switcheroo between flyhalf Bags and scrumhalf Meg, as the Valks fought through heat exhaustion and Georgia fire ants to maintain their shutout of the 'Quins. Best try of this half had to be a gorgeous series of back line continuity that included about 5 players running close support with Bags feeding Meg at the 5 meter line for an untouched try. Atlanta defenders were literally left hanging at our ankles and even the ref complimented the play.

Kangaroo court & Costume report:

As we all know, the off-field activities are just as important, especially on road trips, as game scores and here again the Valks did not disappoint. We had 100% participation on our theme of "Creative Rugby Shirt you Always Wish you Had" with special acknowledgment to Meg's safety pinned nostalgia collection, Angela's use of Mona Lisa, Alexis's re-bus & drawing skills and Kitty's nod to presidential politics. Even Vaden, who ran into a touch of legal trouble about her shirt, made a great effort to win the drink up...And win we did!

Only about 25% of Atlanta have their costume on, and we also won a boat race AND sent more singers to the circle for rousing verses of our old favorites. Court commenced after the singing, with Rachel Kraft, Esq. rounding up all the Valkyrie criminals and Judge Bags overseeing punishments. Guilty parties entertained the crowd with interpretive dances, swing dances, 5 reasons rugby is the best sport ever, and 5 reasons Texas is better than France. Valkyrie court is in recess til next fall, and Beaver court will assume jurisdiction as soon as practice commences. Crimes & heinous violations at Men's Super 16s and Rookie party are eligible, however, for future prosecution...

All in all, a fantastic trip, a successful result, and a great cap to our spring season. We missed our absent teammates, be they stuck at work, healing from injury, or playing for the West 15's all-stars. We should all feel very optimistic for the fall 15s season -- we have depth, talent, commitment, leadership, coaching and vision for WINNING THE WEST and making nationals. Go Valks!!!

Yours in Rugby,
Bags

Pictures from Atlanta by Shalay Mefford here and here.