Rants, Frustrations, and Ridiculousness.

Fish n Chips -Spring Semester of Freshman Year

Today we played Elon and lost by about 75 points or so...yes, 75 points. Our team completely disintegrated right on the field. In the last game, I broke my finger/knuckle (Em stepped on my hand, completely on accident). So, it's been taped up and splinted (much to my discomfort and protest) for the past week. However, today was our last game, so I just taped it up and figured I'd play as long as I could. I made it about halfway through the second half before begging to be taken out. I tried so hard to stay in as long as I could. At halftime my hand was HUGE and already turning reddish-purple. I tried so hard...

I'm not frustrated because we lost this game. Elon is a very good team. I am frustrated because instead of working hard to not COMPLETELY embarrass our team on the field, the rest of my team decided that it was the right time to begin talking AS MUCH shit on the field as possible, they decided to play dirty and completely unsportsmanlike. May I mention that our own captain was yellow-carded and sent to the sin bin (like a penalty box) for KICKING a girl when she was on the ground.

First, let me explain...rugby allows for the players to basically govern the game themselves. If someone is on the ground with the ball, they're supposed to let go of the ball. If they don't, the other team may "accidentally step on them" ... which isn't technically allowed, but no ref would really ever call it that much because instead of slowing down the game and blowing the whistle, the ref just lets the players kind of punish the wronged person instead. It's a nice perk of the game - unless you're on the mistaken end!

This is no means for ANYONE to purposefully kick another player in the stomach while they're on the ground - ball in hands or not. All of the sudden, my team decided that it was time to start screaming obscenities at Elon - as if that would make up for our 76-0 loss or whatever it was at the time (It probably became 81-0 or something..) ... I understand competiveness..I am a very competetive person. But I don't believe in playing dirty.

On top of being completely ASHAMED to play with my team today, they really let me down. My knuckle has been broken for a week. It's still very swollen and painful. Yet, my team let me and one other player pretty much do all of the sprinting...there were some other people tackling, especially towards the end of the game, but I ran my ass off the entire time I was in there. I was aggressive, I threw the best passes I could with a broken hand. I did my best. And everyone else gave up once they'd scored 3 tries in the first 7 minutes of the game.

I'm not proud that I came out at the end of that game, and I'm not proud of my team. On top of everything else, our captain had words with Em today that made me VERY angry. It was completely uncalled for, and Em had NOTHING to do with our ridiculous loss, there was no reason to take it out on her. It was so stupid, and so immature. Em had just played an entire rugby game herself, and then CAME to OUR game to support us! And that's how you treat her? Yell at her for water like she's the watergirl or something? Fuck that. Em does so much for G Rugby and she doesn't even play for us anymore. It makes me angry.

Besides all of these complaints, I love rugby. Our team is just falling apart in front of me, and I don't know how to fix it. I know how it could have been prevented, but at the moment, we're pretty screwed. And unless someone does something soon...G Women's Rugby will only continue in this downward spiral...

Love everywhere,
Kristen