Tumble in the Rough

I had a great weekend.

Friday morning I woke up at 6:30 w/ rugby on the brain. I couldn't get back to sleep which pissed me off cuz I usually sleep until 8.

I finally got to meet Brooke and Jack. Jeff picked me up at noon and we headed over to Pugzie's. Although Brooke and Jeff said that Jack is usually better behaved, I thought he was fine. A little fussy but he was feeling under the weather.

Plus, I work at Echo. I deal with people who are always crying or screaming over something. Believe me, Jack was a prince. He's even more adorable than his pictures!

Friday after work, I headed over to Ajo Al's. There we had dinner with the boys from the Atlanta Bucks. They were a great group of guys but I was kind of quiet. I wasn't much for socializing--feeling a bit anxious over the game. Here's Dave (the big Scott) and I. I love Dave--he's very funny when you can understand him.

Saturday's a rugby day!

Saturday was game day. We had a great turnout of supporters. Thank you Jeff, Charles, Chris, Steve and Ryan for coming out to the game!

And better yet, we played the best game we've ever played. We lost 13-3 but it was much closer than that. We were so close to scoring multiple times. We missed a few penalty kicks and we were within the try zone on many occasions but just never broke through. But that's okay. I think we all learned we can hold our own against one of the best IGRAB teams in the nation.

Personally, I think I played decently. The best part for me was learning that I could do some things I wasn't aware I could do. Every game is a learning experience. I also have some things I want to work on before next game.

The coolest part of the game was when they inserted bigger guys on the wings in the second half. I think they're wings were getting roughed up by us, so they needed to go bigger. It's a testament to our play that they had to make changes to what WE were doing.

The Atlanta boys were awesome to play with. I tackled some guy and he looked at me and said, "Nice tackle!" At one point, I cracked heads with another guy (my eye hurts REALLY badly today). He got up and asked if I was okay before running back to his side. Although we're trying to kill each other, it's nice to play with gentlemen who have that kind of spirit.

After the game we headed to Nu-Towne for the drinkup. It was a blast. The Atlanta guys were really cool to socialize with. And their coach seems almost as awesome as ours.

SJ won man of the match for the forwards!!! And Rickie won man of the match for the backs.

I was so happy for SJ. He really plays hard. And he's much better than he thinks. So I hope this shows him that he's got talent and skill and can kick ass on the field.

He and Rickie got totally drunk in about 2 hours. Kids these days just can't hold their liquor. I just want to state for the record that it took me 10 HOURS to get that drunk when I was man of the match. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.

Oh, I learned never to lend my camera out to John Alecca. It came back to me with a picture of somebody wearing a jock and another picture of somebody's hairy balls.

I also learned I hurt really badly the day after games. I don't think that will change.

Anyway, here's some pix from the weekend.
Ryan and I
Ludacris, Jose, SJ, Jay, Drew
Daniel "China Doll Barbie" and an Atlanta Buck
Andy, Jay, Steve, Joe, Todd
Dave, Chris, Don, Rickie
Jay, John, SJ, Phill
Sterling
Isn't he cute?