My two top tips for newbies

If you have to panic - do it right!

Nothing cramps your style like a shitty panic pass half way through a tackle. Teach your mind that the best way to panic in an uncomfortable situation isn't to fling the ball towards your own team and hope for the best - you hold on for dear life! If opponents are everywhere and it looks like they're gonna rip your throat: run into them, assume fetal position and pretend the ball is your teddybear - help will come. If you hit the ground that's great, just place the ball towards us, your friends. If the other team steal it from you, at least you didn't look like an idiot.

 

 AND

If you screw up - make it right!

Everyone drops the ball once in a while, even the captain, the national team players or (dare I say it) the coach. If the ball is loose on the ground, someone needs to dive on it. Take the opportunity to redeem yourself: if YOU dropped it, I suggest you make sure that someone is you. It might seem pointless to fight for a ball that the ref will give to the other team, but have this in mind: 1) maybe the ref didn't see anything, 2) maybe the ball went backwards, not forwards, or 3) maybe the other team will quickly pick it up and score if you don't.

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ps. This isn't just match rules - do it at training too!

Comeback!

It's so close now!

Decay?

PREVIOUSLY:

My poor thighs have just recovered after last week's comeback at the gym. Looking very much forward to a session tonight, even if I mostly resemble Barbamama on steroids when doing my squats, and not the Wonder Woman that is the ultimate goal... 

CURRENTLY:

Have given up on: running, squats, leg press,  sit ups (I mean hello!) and several yoga excercises that might sound like they'd be good for you (the happy child - now doesn't that sound promising?) but really just make your pelvis go KILL ME NOW! and prevent you from sleeping the next two nights. Not to mention the duck-like walk you have to surrender to during the day.

Hence my upper body is benefitting from this being big malarkey. Watch out next year!

Come what may

The ladies' meeting on Sunday was strangely comforting. Despite the sad number of players available (of which two was brand new rookies and two was increasingly pregnant) everybody seemed to agree that we'll play in whichever form the union decides. We'll play as Uppsala - come what may (saying that - we DO have some suggestions for league structure tho).

On my way home I cruised by a guy on a MTB. This was clearly offensive to him - he got so annoyed he had to overtake on the uphill, pedalling furiously, and then block my path all the way home. Congratulations you retard - you just won against a six months pregnant woman riding a bike without gears!

The escalating want for contact

As autumn is creeping upon us so is darkness. This effectively cuts down our training time at Fyrisfjädern, where the local council hasn't yet bothered putting any lights up. The hour that we spent yesterday evening was however used well - the ladies practised some unopposed back line reforming during multiple phases, and pod movement for us forwards. I hope the newbies felt it was worth all the shouting and confusion - I might've sounded more murderous than usual in my struggle to get to the ball in time. (There seems to be a direct correlation between the amount of frustration over lost mobility and the escalating want for getting involved in every contact situation possible!) The trip home from training was less enjoyable as my body was screaming for a painkiller and a hot bath. This little comeback maybe wasn't the best idea - but at the time it felt worth it!

I'm very much looking forward to this saturday, and might even squeeze myself and the bump into the smart dresscode with dress, heels and all later in the eve. For all rookies that want a bit more understanding of the game AND a bit more socialising there's a chair down at the club house with your name on it!

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ps. The bet is STILL ON at the club - when will rugby baby Devine arrive? 20 sek for each date you want to guess on. Everyone that bets on the right date gets to share the pile of money!

Clenches

So I've temporarily stopped playing rugby and found another tuesday hobby... Instead of lying semi-paralysed in bed after every session, not being able to sleep because of the weird pains in my loosening pelvis, I'm now losing sleep because of italian grammar (or rather, because of my feeble grasp of it).

I have not yet gone so far as to sign up for a yoga course...which otherwise seems to be "the thing you do" to stay active and flexible in preparation for childbirth. I'm just not ready for the total lack of action and serene faces. I did experience something training-like today tho that was defo on the far end of the surreality scale - synchronised vagina clenches with six other strange women and a nurse. (No, we weren't naked and no, I don't think anyone enjoyed it much...but thank you for asking). Won't be going to any more of these group meetings me thinks...

Despite the bump

I have to say, you're still pretty fast - despite the bump someone told me last week. Bloody right I am. My legs are still fond of crashing into a defensive line, just like they used to. Let's not even mention the twitch in my shoulders every time I see the opportunity to ruck someone in half but have to hold back. It's just as well we had to withdraw from the league as I would've been unbearable on the sidelines...

So I can't tackle, but I can still run. When I lose that to this baby cracking up my pelvis, what do I do then?  

(Retorical question, my plan B is already in motion. Practical Italian 7.5 hp at the Department of Modern languages. Davvero!)