Yesterday was a fun day. We got up and had a little short practice to work on some subunit stuff, which entailed for us forwards a bunch of lineout work. After that we got a chance to eat a light snack before doing some controlled scrimmaging against a Minnesota select side. For the first hour we forwards worked lineouts and scrums against them before coming together for the last hour and actually playing through. It was a bit of a surprise on the first play of the scrimmage when we looked up and realized that their backline had 7 more people than normal. After getting over that initial shock we pulled together and still were able to put together some beautiful offense and high pressure defense despite being seriously outnumbered.
Phaidra and Tonka warm-up with Dancing
One thing I want to write about is this fascinating tackling drill we've been doing that has been very enlightening for me. So we've been doing one-on-one tackling in a small space, with a catch. The defender has to hold a tennis ball in each hand while making the tackle. It really shows how much we rely on our hands when tackling and forces you to use your legs, shoulders, and full arms if you really want to take the ball-carrier to the ground. It was really hard at first, but now it's awesome to feel how much power we can generate when we don't rely on our hands to do the tackling.
Team Pic after the scrimmage
After the scrimmage we had the entertaining task of getting the scrum sled back onto the trailer and onto Jane's car, Stubby. This resulted in a near-death experience (I may be being a bit dramatic) when the weight of the sled caused the trailer to come off the hitch and come flying up towards my face. A little remaneuvering and we were able to get everything set, though I do think that Stubby's rear end was not actually touching the ground.
We went to Jane's house for a BBQ where we lazed about and ate lots of food. We even got cake because it was Ashley's 30th birthday so we celebrated her entering her dotage. One of the more interesting parts of that was watching Mari work her art major magic on a watermelon to create a masterpiece.
After the BBQ we came back to the hotel to shower and then head to the Mall of America (MOA for those in the know) to watch the movie 'Invincible'.
We laughed, we cried, we applauded. Definitely a good team movie and pump up film. I mean come on it's all about The Eagles. How much more appropriate can it get!?!After the movie we came back and had a brief team meeting to announce selections for the England match. I was named as Loosehead, which is just awesome. It's so funny to me sometimes to think that for so many years in college and playing at the U-23 level that this was my dream, and now it's but days away. I remember so vividly during the Chula Vista camp in 2004 having my one-on-one meeting with Kathy and her asking me what my goals were for playing rugby and telling her that I wanted to play in the 2006 World Cup and that's what I was working towards. Now it's here... And we only have one training session left until we get to show the world what we're about. The full selections for the match are 1. Jamie Burke 2. Mari Wallace 3. Meredith Ottens 4. Erin Carter 5. Jen Crouse 6. Phaidra Knight 7. Ham 8. Tina Nesberg 9. Claudia Braymer 10. Heather Hale 11. Ellie Karvoski 12. Pam Kosanke 13. Keenya Warner 14. Laura Cabrera 15. Ashley English 16. Danielle Miller 17. Annie Collier 18. Kate Pope 19. Kelly McMahon 20. Lee Knight 21. Kristin Baja 22. Patty Jervey
Today is a lazy day. We have the entire day off. Our only instructions were to take care of ourselves and not be on our feet all day. It's actually worked out perfectly because it's a grey day and drizzly, so my plans of staying here reading, drinking water, perhaps doing a pool recovery should be the perfect pace. Then tomorrow it's off to Edmonton.
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