Everyday is a Rugby Day!

Though I have given up the great sport of football (American), the desire to take the field of battle with comrades still remains; thus, my attention has now been redirected to football's rowdy cousin, rugby. To my amazement, rugby is remarkably similar to football regarding game flow, except that the game flow never stops in rugby.  There are miniature lines of scrimmage, there is a position that equates to quarterback that calls plays, the plays themselves are similar, and, of course, there is bountiful tackling.

We played our first game last Saturday, February 15, at home against Willamette University. As is shown in the pictures below, the weather was extremely volatile, swinging back and forth between pouring rain and sunshine, but always bitterly cold. We barely fielded the 15 men necessary to compete, and decided to play with rolling substitutions (which isn't typical in rugby. Usually a player cannot return to play once they are pulled out). Though we were outnumbered, we had a dominant victory. In total, we scored 8 times, to their one, and theirs was on a fluke kick that rolled into the try zone. I made my first ever rugby try in the 3rd quarter. I was in good position at the right time and beat their outside man around the edge. After the game, I participated in the rugby tradition called the Zulu Warrior Run. This is a tradition which calls for all players that make their first try (score) in a game to take a naked lap around the field. I have never ran so quickly, yet it was still the longest, coldest lap I've ever taken. On the way back down the opposing sideline, the opposing team made a tunnel for myself and the other first time scorers to run through. I felt just like a triumphant caveman coming back from his first successful hunt, being initiated into manhood with an embarrassing ceremony, yet somehow still feeling ecstatic.

After the game, we had the customary rugby social. A social is a tradition in which both teams come together after a match and drink way too much beer and sing standard vulgar rugby songs. It is the epitome of camaraderie and smelly, manly brotherhood. In total, 300 beers and 20 boxes of pizza were consumed. It was fantastic.

As handsome a crew as ever took the pitch (field)!

Pregame warm ups. In this drill you try to slap the other man's face with one hand while simultaneously trying to stop him from slapping your face with his other hand. It's actually pretty difficult.

Our two big boys, McGraw and Aaron. They had an amazing run during the game, bowling over most of the other team and covering 50 yards.

The big guys (forwards) taking part in a scrum on the far side of the field, while the small guys (backs) wait for the chance to pop the ball progressively further outside so as to spread the field and hopefully find a seam to run through.

We experienced the hardest rain I've ever witnessed in Portland.
We were soaked through and through by the end of warm ups.

I played flanker at the edge of the scrum, my job is be the eyes of the scrum and let my teammates

know when the ball gets out, and also to keep the scrum compressed and not spread out.

The Lewis and Clark Pioneers with the Willamette Bearcats. It's 3rd and the length of a bearcat.

Here is a link to the game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Brt4avJ-kvA&feature=youtu.be

I suggest muting the audio unless you want pretty colorful commentary and excessive heavy breathing as our vulgar camera man attempts to warm up his hands. My try is at 1:04:00, and there are plenty of great hits and good runs throughout the whole thing. We were significantly more athletic and tougher than they were, so there are a few skull crushers in there. There's one hit that broke one of their player's ribs, and you can hear an audible bone crack on camera, which is immediately followed by howls of pain. What a great sport!

On another note, I will be preforming in the Western European cultural dance at Lewis and Clark's International Fair next Saturday. I will be dancing the waltz with several of the Western European teachers assistants here at the college. More on that to come, but I can already say that waltzing is much more difficult than it seems!