Rugby

So my Mom's been bugging me to post something about by newest passion. So at the end of December I joined a Rugby team here in Arizona. I'm playing for the Tempe Old Devils. Actually as I'm writing this I am looking only through one and a half eyes, as I took a solid shot to the eye last night at practice. It has turned a beautiful purple hue (some of the girls in the singles ward have expressed their jealousy of it's gorgeous deep shade) as you can see in the attached picture. We have has a solid season going 12-1 in the regular season and clinching the Arizona State Championship.  

As it was my first season I spent the beginning of the season as a substitute for the B-team, moved my way up to a starter and soon began playing three different positions during the course of the game.  So while most people were getting substitutes I just got shuffled to different positions.  This proved especially exhausting during our last tournament when I played 3 entire games with the B-side and played in the last half in a scrimmage against Arizona State's Rugby team with the A-side.  One game is bad enough but I had never been so exhausted in my life at the end of that day.

(Update)

Ok so I never ended up posting this when I started writing it a long time ago, but now I'm determined to finish it.  The regular rugby season is over for our team we advanced through the regional playoffs and qualified for the sweet 16 in Austin, Texas, and won the first game their and lost the second.  So in the end we made it to the Elite 8 in the nation for our division.  The semi-finals and final matches will be in Gledale, Colorado May 30th and the 31st.  Our team is always getting better and unfortunately we were missing alot of our best players for the playoffs for various reasons.  One of them got called up to play on the U.S. Men's National Team (if you hit the link there is a picture of him his name is Tai Enosa) so he was unavailable to play with us.  It was a pretty good season though and I feel really good about how our team did and how I did as well.  I made the playoff roster, which I feel like is a good accomplishment for my first season on such a good team.

Now I'll be playing Rugby 7's (sevens is played with seven players instead of 15 and is faster paced) in the off season to stay on top of my game and continue improving in a sport.  I look forward to next season, I love the sport and the guys on my team.  I'm looking forward to no longer being the noob or rookie.