I didn't get a chance to post this last night, but here's my blog from yesterday:
12:30pm
We play England in about 6 hours. We had a walk through this morning and are now just hanging out. Everyone seems to be very composed and ready for this match, but underneath there is this intensity and tension that is just chomping at the bit to be released. If you were here, you could feel it in the air (i.e. there was some really over zealous cheering during “The Price Is Right”), and you could see it in the impish grins players are giving one another.
This is the proverbial quiet time before the storm that is rugby. I’m thinking now about a line in a poem by James Wright. At the end of “Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry Ohio,” there is a line describing a high school football game (I think it more aptly describes rugby): "Their sons grow suicidally beautiful at the beginning of October, and gallop terribly against each other's bodies."
Post Match
We certainly handled our own against the #2 team in the world. Of course, we didn’t play our best rugby, but we played well enough to win, and that is encouraging.
On a personal note, I had fun. I know that’s such a stock phrase, but I did. It was fun running against and with some of the best rugby players, it was fun playing that amazing fast-paced game, it was fun hitting some of those top-notch players and it was even fun getting hit. It was the best rugby I’ve ever played (maybe not personally), and it can only get better.
After the match, after our de-briefing, after our ice baths, we rookies got capped. What this means is that we were presented with these little beanie caps, complete with tassel (just like the one you see in the picture, only navy blue and gold), and had to “dance” (or our interpretation of dance—skipping is a more appropriate term) around the room. While the experience of earning that cap (the actual rugby) was very gratifying, the ceremony was amazing—I mean who doesn’t want to parade around a room in a little school-boy cap.
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