Budd Bay Tournament

Yesterday we woke up bright and early to head down to the Evergreen State College for the Budd Bay Rugby tournament.  We had about 10 of us, and only two or three had played "sevens" before.  Sevens is rugby played on a regular sized field, but only 7 vs. 7 for 7 minute halves. Normally it is 15 vs 15 for 40 minute halves.  The game moves a lot faster because it is a wide open field, and more people get the ball than in 15s.

Our first game was against a really good team and we didn't score, but they sure did. It was good to get used to the game though.  I realized that I think I like sevens better because there is more to do.

The second game was the most interesting.  This girl on their team had a breakaway and apparently I closed 10 yards chasing her down but had nothing to grab onto her with because her shirt was so tight. When I grabbed at something right before the try line, she smacked me in the mouth (remember I have braces?) which isn't allowed anyway but she scored because I couldn't recover after that. I was so tired after all of that (it is a ton of running). Soon after though, I scored my first try! Here's the story:

One of our girls was tackled so I ran over quick enough and yelled for her to pop it to me.  I saw 2 girls from Portland ahead of me, but I decided for a quick burst of speed to try and get as much yardage as possible by going between them.  Apparently it worked, because I shrugged off their tackles, and apparently just took off. Andy said I had a fire trail behind me lol. I just ran (it was over half the field left). I had no idea if anyone was behind me or what.  I was running as hard as I could, hoping nobody was going to grab me from the back and yank me backwards for a painful fall.  I could hear our people and the men's team yelling.  About halfway there, my leg muscle that had been bothering me this week felt like it completely gave way. I felt like I was about to fall, and literally had to think "left, right, left, right" to keep running...it was so hard- especially after that long sprint after that girl earlier in addition to all the running involved with the game. I kept running and saw that a girl had run from the side and was almost at me. I was almost there though!  She got me about 6 inches from the try line, and I took the ball and scooted my body that extra 6 inches. SCORE!!! It was so exciting! We didnt win, but we scored twice that game so we felt a lot better :)

The third game didn't go so well.  I had been dropped on my knee sometime in the last game and went in warning our captain that I might not be able to play the whole thing.  Pretty much the first play, I was trying to lead one of their girls over so it would leave more space for our girl that was on the edge of the field.  Apparently she didnt know what I was doing and when I went to pass it to her, she had followed me in!  The girl tackled me super hard and right on my knee and head.  I was crawling around the field trying to get my bearings and stood up the second the ball came flying in the air at me. I put my hands up and just started walking off.  The captain was like "you should chase that" and I was like "I hit my head, I'm leaving".  And limped off the field. It was kind of funny, but not because I hurt.  I noticed a limb was growing out of my knee and freaked out, but a guy said it was just water because it could move around.  I watched the rest of the game from the side.

All in all, it was very fun and worth it.  I am pretty sore today, but it will get better!  In between the 2nd and 3rd game some hippies that looked like homeless train hoppers gave one of us some "rings" so we hula hooped for awhile.  I didn't realize that Evergreen State College was really as hippie-ish as they say it was. We saw some homeless looking train hoppers, some guys on a slack line, and a girl in a flowy skirt walking around with a guitar...and that was the representation of the students I saw. So funny.