Austin Valkyries at St. Louis Sabres

Congratulations and a big 3 Cheers for the Valkyries who demolished the St. Louis Sabres this weekend by a score of 25 to 14. I didn’t take a huge amount of notes this time but will do my best to sum up the game.

17 Valkyries braved the University of Texas/University of Oklahoma traffic and headed to Dallas Friday night. Then that Saturday morning we flew on Southwest to St. Louis , MO. We had everyone show up on time for the flight and we had a good spot in line for the cattle drive that is Southwest’s airline seating policy. We were all seated on the plane and ready to take off when the flight attendants noticed water pouring out of some of the passenger units above the seats. So we sat on the plane for about 30 minutes while they tried to assess the problem…all the while we are knowing that we HAVE to be in St. Louis as soon as possible! Finally they moved us to a new plane (fastest de board ever!) and they moved all our luggage and passengers over to the new jet. The pilots were very considerate and hurried the takeoff procedures, taxiing and even made up considerable time in the air. Finally we touched down in St. Louis an hour behind schedule.

After flying in Sat. morning for an afternoon game, the first 5 minutes were a little rough for a sleepy Valks team. St. Louis took the ball down the field early to score an initial 7 and take the lead while the Valks didn’t seem able to tackle, ruck or play defense. Fortunately, the early shock woke up a team that had been working on these very skills with a single minded determination.

The team attacked the ensuing St. Louis possession with fierce pressure defense and strong rucking to regain possession and prevent the Sabres from entering the Austin half of the field. At approximately the 10 minute mark, Austin put together a series of two crashes off of two dominate rucks to set up a back line that was itching to display their talent. Bags (Meredith Bagley) , Roz (Rosalind Chou) and Kitty (Stephanie Dorsey) (Fly, Inside and Outside) earned a triple nomination for the Oscar award with their incredible performance in convincing the opposition that the ball was going either way outside or back inside on a crash. Fullback Heidi Whitman could have driven a Mack truck through the 15 meter wide hole created in the middle of the defense. Just to prove that she had the moves as well, Heidi proceeded to literally juke the St. Louis fullback onto her ass on the way to a center try (the girl fell over in her attempt to get into position to tackle and didn’t lay a hand on Heidi). Austin tied the score on conversion by Scrumhalf Wendy Young.

Having reminded themselves that they had come to win, Austin proceeded to dominate the next 15 minutes of play with strong ball retention – setting the ball properly and rucking hard while the Sabres attempted unsuccessfully to poach – combined with crashing, supporting play from the backs. The backs truly shone in their own rucking efforts and illuminated an incredible inability of the opposing backs to ruck at all. After marching down the field, the scrummies pulled off a technically perfect slow ball roll from 5 meters out which they pushed all the way in and put down for a try.

My sincere apologies that I cannot name all five of the scrummies involved in the push and score (ball started with Traci Schmidtke, Rachel Kraft sealing the ball with Alex McCarthy, Ashley Mefford & Jennifer Degroot supporting). I would also like to point out the discipline of the scrum: the initial slow ball roll involved 3, Wendy called for 2 additional players to help and they crashed hard to create the strong push over while the other 3 forwards remained in perfect position to either join or crash as needed – awesome display of discipline and determination. At 20 minutes the score is Austin 12 – St. Louis 7.

At this point in the game, Austin has taken its first Cup match lead of the fall season and seems to have shocked themselves. As a result, the Valks proceed to lose the ball to a poach (lack of support for the ball carrier) and start sitting back on rucks and not attacking on defense. Within 2 minutes, the Sabres have pushed the Valks back 30 meters and then broken through several missed tackles to regain the lead at the 22 minute mark:
Austin 12 – St.Lo. 14

Having now been reminded that the game is actually 80 minutes long as opposed to 20 minutes, Austin rededicates themselves to hard hitting, hard rucking and supporting rugby. The scrum not only wins its own puts, but steals an opponent’s put that shoots out under the flanker (Tiffany Hall). The backs start to dominate by crossing the gain line on every play with the wings coming in to support, pass and ruck like crazy. Austin drives all the way down into the try zone on strong crashing by scrummies and centers (many kudos to BK (Jennifer Degroot) and Roz (Rosalind Chou) for punishing punches and proper sets in the rucks) leading to 3 restarts for a ball held up, a ball touched down by St. Louis and a ball kicked for touch from in-goal.

The Valks finally put down another try by crushing the opposition in a ruck which causes the ball to squirt out the back. Apparently, the entire Sabre team missed this occurrence as Scrumhalf Wendy Young ran right by several opponents and leaped on the loose ball in the try zone. (I remember finding myself in the post position because I knew that they were going to attempt to kick, so it didn’t matter who was at the post. Next thing I knew the ball had squirted back into the St. Louis try zone and I was throwing myself on the ball. The ref watched the whole thing and with a large grin on his face…granted me the try. I leaped up and couldn’t believe I had such an easy try!!) At 35 minutes: Austin 17 – St. Lo. 14

HALFTIME

Starting the 2nd half with renewed determination and a hunger to prove itself, the Austin team came out and dominated. Fitness (or maybe just an acclimation to playing in 90 degree weath
er) began to show as a Sabre team with two sides and multiple subs began consistently giving ground to an Austin team that travelled with 19 and had several injuries and illnesses (I really think Jaspers (Jennifer Hansen) should have attempted to projectile vomit while running). A quick note on the projectile vomiting…in the rush to get to the fields and warm up, we were forced to stop at McDonalds for breakfast and that proved to be a VERY poor choice! Jasper and myself had the breakfast burritos and ended up with a slight case of food poisoning the rest of the day. We were often seen to the side of the field trying to make ourselves vomit so we would feel better. Not good at all! One more reason to never eat McDonalds.

Team support and strong rucking led to a 20 minute mostly offensive possession in the St. Louis end of the field. Some important notes: when the opposition did gain the ball, they never kept it long…we won every scrum down and Krafty had two excellent pick and pops…the backs and loosies had an incredible 50 meter run/pass/run/pass…etc. support down the sideline (Kudos esp. to Kitty (Stephanie Dorsey), Lisa (Lisa Huoy) and Jaspers (Jennifer Hansen)) and at one point after a knock by Austin (rare, but it happened) I personally stood at the gain line for the scrum down and watched as our defense from scrum to wing pushed them back 20 meters and finally regained possession.

From this point on, St. Louis seemed to be losing steam. Both the scrummies and backs were attacking and gaining ground with every play and Austin won just about every set piece. A great line out combo of Shalay (Ashley Mefford) throwing to T Hall (Tiffany Hall) jumping retains Valk possession while the lifters also manage to position Tiff to steal several Sabre balls. The backs are punching through or passing out and rucking hard when caught leading to ground gained at every opportunity. At approximately 20 minutes after having been set up by strong rucks, Fullback Heidi Whitman took the opportunity to embarrass the Sabre back line and put down the fourth try of the day. (This try came off of a beautiful scrum by the scrummies and an 8 man pop from Jaspers to me to Heidi. The hole between the flanker and the wing was like the red sea! Heidi threw a shoulder move into her sprint which juked the defense and touched it down easily. Austin 22 – St.Lo. 14

The remainder of the game went pretty much the same way: Austin dominated in every phase and remained down in the opponents end of the pitch. With 2 minutes left, the Valks opted for a penalty kick (Wendy Young) leading to a final score of Austin 25 – St.Lo. 14