I had rugby practice with the Furies tonight. It was the third practice of the season - a scrimmage vs. Georgetown. Tonight I remembered all those things I'd seemingly forgotten (except for organizational skills, as my playing still resembles that of an extraordinarily gun-shy rookie who can't recognize a place in the ruck; some things can only be re-taught over time). I forgot how nice it was to go into work with bruises, everyone on the Metro thinking I was beaten at home, and everyone at work wondering how in God's name I'd gotten such a large purple bruise on my forearm (someone stepped on it in a ruck, it happens).
I forgot how much pain is involved, and how the pain factor exponentially dissipates over the practices until the running is considerably more onerous than a forceful tackle (that would be where I'm at right now).
I forgot that I'm one of the only people on most teams who loves pro rugby so furiously that I will skip playing a game to watch my team. I have absolutely no regrets about how much I love Wales, and I will not apologize - it's SIX NATIONS, people, and it only comes once a year!
I completely forgot about the camaraderie. I mean, I remembered in theory, but the drink-ups are by far the most friendly portions of my life, where everyone gets along, even if they don't necessarily like each other. The fact is, we all play rugby, we all like the big hits, and we'll all skull our pints at the end of a match.
Now I just need to remember to run sprint drills!
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This made me feel all warm and fuzzy. Yay, rugby!
ReplyDeleteI totally think some of the lack of organizational skills is just not being used to the team yet. At least, I hope so, because I haven't taken a season off from rugby for ages, and I was definitely running around like a confused rookie last night, too.