Rugby Updates

Well the last three weeks have involved some big games. We have played Oxford, Loughborough, and today Staffordshire. Oxford was away and we had the great privilege of getting lost and ended up in the middle of their campus. Absolutely stunning. It was probably, up to that point being the weekend before London, the coolest thing I had scene yet. We played a team that we were expecting to give us a bit of a challenge. We did not arrive until 4 minutes before kickoff and so our warm-up consisting of rushed stretching. We ended up winning 32-4 but in a very rough game. I cam out with a horrendous black eye that was actually fairly earned. I was hit by a player’s knee while attempting to tackle him. However, the rest of the game, Oxford, upset by their performance, began playing dirty and one of our players was punched and then kicked in the face after he had run the ball. I was punched on 5 different occasions, however, unlike previous weeks, I kept my cool, barely, and we outplayed these guys and showed them up with professionalism too. I was voted by my team as Man of the Match, a great honor having played with the first team.

Last week we played Loughborough, a game expected to foreshadow the entire outcome of the season. Apparently, if any person wants to pursue athletics, they attend Loughborough and the school is nationally known for almost always being very strong in any sport. They came into this game with an undefeated record like ours, but with a weeks rest as well. The team was very strong and their team was well drilled and ran effective plays like us. However, our defense remained strong, and we nearly held them to only one try until the very end of the game when they scored another. We scored on them five times, however missing most of the extra 2 pt conversions (kicks). The final score was 24-12. The win was not nearly as glorious as we had expected, as we did not feel that we played even close to our potential. But, alas, a win is a win and we are still the top of the league.

My infamous Black eye.


After the Oxford victory, Al(vin) and I, "American Al", cheezin

Today was Staffordshire, who had a reputation that preceded them of not being necessarily a strong team, but maintaining at least one player "fabled" to be 6'4" and weigh 14-15 stones, or 196-200 lbs, and be fit to play a whole game. Well he was around 5'11" and 180 but he was nevertheless a very strong player. We beat them some 52-10 but only let them score off missed tackles, one of which I am ashamed to say I missed. I missed a tackle and the infamous giant of a player scored on me. Between that and a dropped ball, I was quite in the dumps, knowing I had to somehow make up for my errors. Luckily, I picked up my game, made some strong runs, and eventually scored a try. I ran the ball on the first play after we received a kickoff and soon was being tackled by the "Giant". However, I was able to spin out of the tackle and seeing that their top player was tackling me, the other team began walking back to prepare for the next play; not expecting that he wouldn't finish the tackle. When I was free every player had his back turned to me so I just ran like mad and went about 75 yards for a try. That giant of a player however did get up and chase me and the whole field all I could hear, above my own breathing, was his huffing and puffing which sounded like a freight train bearing down on me. He almost caught me but I scored nevertheless.

All in all, Rugby is amazing. However, I am very excited for the next week as we have a bye, receiving a much-needed two-week rest to heal and do coursework.