Your Scrumhalf Connection - Women's Rugby Blog

Last night the Valkyries practiced in sprinkling rain, downpour and large puddles of mud. Our coach made sure to take advantage of the softer ground and we did tackling practice. I will admit that the ground was remarkably softer last night, but the mud smelled horrible!

Practice was good as we worked on ball handling, tackling, and then we had a ton of split time. We have a few new faces in the pack so Meg was working all the combinations and they hit the sled again and again. Then the forwards worked on line outs and I headed over to the backs. They were doing back line plays and working through a couple different lineups. The challenge this weekend is we have a few people out of town or can't go to our league match...so our lineup will be a little different this weekend and in Colorado.

We have our first game/scrimmage this weekend against Texas A&M. If you recall they made it through to Collegiate Sweet 16s last year, so we are excited that we can help them train and they can help us train. We have several alumni A&M girls on our team, so this game is always a fun one. We give them a hard time and they give us the same. Also when I was in college at the University of Oklahoma we had a pretty big rivalry, so its fun to rub that in as well.

I am excited because the season is finally here! All summer I trained for ITT's or NASC's for 15's with the West and then the last part of the summer was training for the NA4 or NA2 (haha). It was good to get on the field with my old teammates that know my running style and I know their style as well. Don't get me wrong, I love playing for the West and for the USA, but its comforting to be back at your club. Your mates know your running style, timing and more...

Austin has a few tough games this season, but for the most part we have a pretty short and simple season. We have been talking as a team about playing through November and possibly going to the Ozark Tournament in Arkansas. I loved that tournament when I was in college, TONS OF FUN! Plus the last two times I played in the tournament we lost at the last minute and placed second. It would be nice to go and take the title. :)

Good luck with your games this weekend everyone.