USA vs Canada Day 3 (Game #1)

(*UPDATE* The ending score was Canada 18 USA 5.)

This morning we woke up around 9am for breakfast (what a glorious sleep it was!!!). The night was punctuated with a massive thunderstorm and lightening storm around 3am. Those of us that were sleeping with the windows open (unheard of in Austin!) were awoken by loud thunder
and plenty of rain.

Since we knew we were playing at 3:30pm and we had already gotten our jerseys, everyone was pretty nervous the whole morning. The starting team and reserves got out and moving around 10:45am, the forwards did some live scrumming while the scrumhalves worked on their passing Meanwhile, the backs did some passing and plenty of counterattacks as we knew that Canada likes to kick.

After that we ate lunch at noon and then had the afternoon off until 2pm. That was the longest two hours of everyone’s lives it seemed. All was quiet until 1:30pm when people were getting so antsy that we were running up and down the halls yelling. We even had a traveling ipod that visited each room to pump us up.

Finally 2pm rolled around and we hit the pitch. We had 30 minutes of individual warmup and then team warmup was at 3pm. Team warmup was pretty intense as Michelle the strength and conditioning coach was in charge. It felt like our fitness was being tested, like we were running the bleep test or proving we had the guts. Very very intense and almost everyone was sweating profusely. Then the reserves jumped on the bags and we did some contact and some defense.

All too soon the game was set to begin. The whistle was blown and we kicked off…and Canada promptly knocked the ball on. We were hoping that this would be how the whole match would go…but unfortunately it didn’t happen that way. By no means did Canada blow us out of the
water, we kind of blew ourselves out of the water. We didn’t seem to wake up until the 2nd half and by then we were down by 5 or 6 tries. (*UPDATE* The ending score was 18-5.) I don’t know the ending score but it was definitely 20 something to 5.

All in all we played very well and worked well as a team. We had moments of brilliance, mind-blowing tackles and butter finger balls that were actually caught. We just couldn’t finish when it came down to it…a penalty 10 meters out and we can’t capitalize. I’m not trying to be a downer, but it’s what happened. However the team is very positive tonight and we are excited about getting onto the pitch again on Wednesday. We definitely have a score to settle.

As for me…I got to PLAY! I played for about 10 minutes in the 2nd half and was told after the game that I really made an impact. It is almost a blur now but I kept up, made all my tackles and managed the forwards. So in my book…a success. And the cherry on top? I get to reserve on Wednesday!! Originally I was told that I wouldn’t get any playing time, but I think I have proved myself. I really do belong here.

And I finally did it. I’m an Eagle.