Lund blackouts

There's a special club for us ladies team players who've done it. I joined yesterday. How can it be so hard to recognise the lines on Lugi's pitch? Maybe because they deliberately try to confuse you and 1) paint the half way line dotted, 2) paint the 10 meter lines solid, 3) don't have 22 meter lines or 4) have a try area smaller than my bathroom...! Or maybe there's no excuse and we're just all too eager, diving over with 5 metres to go? I believe I am in good company with a winger, a number 8, a fullback and possibly someone else too?

All new or half-new players got good game time and especially one second row was desperate for a try. She was a couple of inches away but the opposition squeezed in beneath the ball and it was declared held up. Despite that the atmosphere in the minibus on the way home was high spirited to say the least. Credit must be given to the Bergvall sisters for knowing the lyrics to every song ever written, to Lisa and Sara for quoting Yrrol endlessly and to the skinny people sleeping in the back for not snoring!

Picture stolen from Mikaela!

The Dam of Amster

Tour rule number one applies, of course. But ok, here goes:

1) Awesome as usual. I love you Saints.

2) No need to mention any match results since most teams were national sides NOT there to socialise but to scorn at and (trywise) humiliate those there to have a good time.

3) Evening activities include trying to swap your wizards hat for an Italy tracksuit (didn't go too well, did it Brinsley?)

4) Did you leave your room in a good condition? Eeeh, of course... (Blatant lie)

5) Words of wisdom passed on by Ellis, on the subject of prop positioning in the scrum: You're a happy cat going for a shit.

I think this pic sums up our feelings for tour pretty well. Bliss.

KLM 13.10

I'm outta here!

Fyllehybris?

Efter en seriepremiär är man lagom mör i kropp och själ. I kroppen av naturliga skäl (om nu 14 skåneflickor som kastar sig över en är "naturliga skäl"?) och i själen då coachen kallat en för idiot (förlåt, långsam idiot ska det vara). Det som allra mest behövs då är tydligen ett par öl på klubben. Det kan, de facto, vara så trevligt att man glömmer sina sorger och lovar bort sig till B-lagsmatch med herrarna dagen därpå! Nu var det ju dock inte jag som glad i hågen satt i en fåtölj med en Andersson och hade fyllehybris, utan någon annan. (Det var faktiskt fler som uppvisade klara hybrisdrag på lördagen, men nu handlar det om Ingrid.) När söndagen kom visade det sig inte vara hybris alls, det var en sjujävla envishet och tacklingslusta som tog sig uttryck i en jönköpingska på Årstafältet! (Hon är nu min hjälte.) Brave display, min själ!

Match morning

Wake up early. Belly unsettled. Hungry but cannot eat. Thoughts keep coming back to rugby. Must be first game of the season!

B game

If you're only interested in great rugby quality, then maybe you stay at home and watch a pro game on tv instead of going to Fyrisfjädern a Sunday afternoon. But lower levels of local rugby has most of the qualities that matters, and offer MORE! There's the young and promising home grown player doing his senior debut...fearless tackles by players half the size of their opponents...drama (injuries and ambulance)...people having their dream come true (right, David?) and something you rarely see in Super 14s (but rather on tv1000): twin on twin action! I say give it a go, Uppköping deserves an audience!

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Friendly Exiles?

Despite the fact that both teams were missing quite a few players currently showing off in Spain, Uppsala decided to go to Årsta for a pre season friendly. What better way is there to spend a sunny saturday anyway? Since the number of girls available was low we decided to play 10 a side, but 3x20 minutes. Welcome to hell! There's a reason we only play 10 a side once a year you know...

Ref insisted on applying 10s rules as well, which confused several of the new players and effectively prevented our kicker from actually practising her thing. Oh well. I think we all enjoyed the space in attack, where especially our hands were good today! Some great passages of play with support and off loads proved successful and we scored a fair few tries.

In defense we tried to have an organised line, lots of screaming and shouting from some players helped but we seemed to be vulnerable 1) around the fringes, because more often than not, we'd left a poor prop alone on the wing, probably quite foul-mouthed as she tried again and again to chase after a quick little Exiles runner... And 2) in the middle, since a lot of the tackling seemed to be done at chest height and not around the legs. Reason no 1 we can blame on not being used to playing 10s, but there's no excuse for no 2 and we'll have to work hard on that during training in the weeks to come.

When the game was over, we'd officially won with 25-17 (although 25-22 is more likely?) and since it was still pre season, we treated the home team with a special performance - our tour haka. Thanks to Exiles for organising the ref and great food afterwards! Myself will also have to apologise for being a bit confused during the last 20 minutes - after being swapped round between second row and center a few times I simply couldn't remember where I was supposed to be, and left the back line quite deserted as I happily joined the scrum. The poor new girl who was supposed to be in the second row didnt have it in her to protest, so she stood on the side and was probably even more confused than I was! Sorry!

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Junior training

'Poor kids' I thought when I arrived down to the pitch and saw the juniors doing push ups, wearing shorts and tshirts in freezing weather. They all seemed quite happy though... I recognised several faces from last year and counted just as many unfamiliar ones. The spectacular thing today, and the reason I was down there in the first place, was that Uppsala (maybe for the first time in history?) this year can field a girls only junior team! Admittedly, more than one was new to the game, but nevertheless showed valuable rugby skills like speed, communication and a certain flair for stealing the ball whenever it was loose in the vicinity.

These girls will play against teams like Enköping during the season and matches will be 7 a side with 3 people in the scrum. All girls were promptly invited to attend the senior ladies trainings should they so wish - and vice versa! Myself will be down a few times to give the girls a chance to practise on their own and I hope I get some company. The mixed juniors team also have a game on the 14th of May, before both the senior games, so it's a big day for the club. Show your support and cheer us on! See you there!

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