I am increasingly amazed at how fast things are coming to a close here in Oxford. This next week begins 8th week (out of 8), which means it's all ending sooner than I thought.
Tutorials are beginning to reach a conclusion as well, but dear Dr. Hurst wants to push it on as long as he can because he knows I'll still be around waiting for my family to arrive December 15. Disappointingly for him, (fortunately for me) my Bodleian card expires sometime around Dec. 8 so my tuts can't carry on forever as I can't study without research materials. My last paper covered the entire four years of WWI in general study under the thesis "Why WWI lasted so long". It was one of my most fascinating papers to study and read up on, and I am impressed with many of the ideas I came away with. One that struck me with a resounding blow was the concept that WWI introduced the accession of material supremacy over the individual. The buildup of numbers and power in armaments and weaponry became the greater focus and the story of the individual soldier on the front blended away as just numbers in a trench. My next essay may not be as thrilling, but I'll push my way through reading about more Great Power relations 1923 to 1930.
Saturday was one of the most exciting days I've personally had in a good while. After my tutorial I seriously ran a good two miles through into town and over to the New College sports ground. I had to miss the first match of the Rugby Cupper 7's tournament, but arrived in time to spend another 5 hours of rucking, shivering between matches, and covering myself in dirt with pretty much half the pitch. In total we played 5 games and did reasonably well with no subs. I can't remember if it was 3 wins- 2 loss, or the other way around, but we came away 5th place out of some 14 teams or so and won a silver plate for our team! In all honesty, it was the most fun I've had so far. I loved every shivering moment out there, loved every punch, and still love every bruise and ache I feel throughout my body today. It must have been around the high 30's Fahrenheit, but while we were out there in the middle of a match, you couldn't feel the cold at all.
I was honestly surprised how well I was able to bring it together and contribute to the team as well. Sadly, I've had to miss the last two practices out of necessity, both of which were important because they practiced further tackling techniques. I fortunately soaked up every ounce of information I learned at that first tackling session, and at least knew how to approach it correctly and relatively safely. In all, I would say that my contribution to this tournament was 20% knowledge of the game & techniques, 80% passion & adrenaline. My dad is in humored disbelief that his eldest, most "academically driven" daughter is turned on by violent sport. It's a true fact, however, and have found it's the best way for me to release any energy, aggression, or enthusiasm I have.
I was put in the position forward, and our job is to carry the team's mobility forward through strength, power, and fateful blows delivered to the enemy. Carly & Ann, our captains and the experienced OUWRFC (Oxford University Women's Rugby Football Club) players played back where they were to carry the ball to the try line with swift mobility & sprints. In short, we do the heavy work, and they score the points. I like it that way, and found it much easier to just focus on my one job and the laws guiding my position, unlike other sports where some players have to know and do it all. In more competitive & professional teams of course everyone must know everything, but for small college amateur leagues thats not so important.
The time flew by on the pitch, and every game was a new exciting challenge with different techniques applied to overcome the enemy's weakness or at least avoid them pinpointing ours. As I said, Carly and Ann scored the points, but Senna and Caitlin also contributed a couple in there as well. I spent lots of my time either in the sweaty heat of a half-scrum (to be described soon), on the ground, stuck in a maul, laid flat out sometimes with people stacked on top of me, or either scrambling on top of the pile myself trying to get control of the ball.
One of my favorite descriptions of the drama of rugby, I discovered yesterday occurs in the silence of a half-scrum before the ball is touched into play. I am not exaggerating here either, as those moments are filled so much with athletic tension and heightened senses. A half-scrum is a restart of play where the forwards (me & 2 team-mates) interlock shoulders and heads with 3 opposing forwards. We create a tunnel like formation with all six players crouching low, leg muscles contracted at the ready to either push or run. The few moments before the ball is placed in the tunnel, fingers are grabbing at loose shirt on opponents', your ear is level with the mouth of your rival whose head you are locked against. Her heavy, bated, almost growling breath is clearly audible with a constant background chorus of six cold runny noses sniffling. The ball is placed into the middle of the half-scrum and the team with the advantage foots it through their players, and play is in action once the ball is touched with the hands of one of the runners in back. Other moments of play like rucks and mauls can be twice, even three times as intense as the quiet moments of a half-scrum, but during those everything moves faster than the mind can think, and players are acting on reflexes and instant decisions. In a half-scrum, those 3 maybe 5 seconds of silence, lets one concentrate on the moment at hand. The repetitions of those few brief moments of film-like drama explained everything to me without the utterance of a single word. The passion and energy that was exuded in the sweat and heavy breath of all those players in the half-scrum, instantly told me why that is one of England's most beloved sports. That same energy is carried on in the rest of the game, and I think what encourages it is that play doesn't stop when a player is tackled or the ball touches the ground like in American Football. You just keep going, no matter what. It may take a while for me to appreciate it the same as a viewer, but as a player that energy instantly captured the love of my athletic heart.
It all moved so fast though, I can hardly remember everything I did on the field, not to mention remembering 5 different games in one day. I know though that I did some good tackles, some poor attempts, and some confusing moments when no one knows what's going on so you all just jump for the ball. One good tackle I do remember, is that an opposing back was running with the ball straight towards me. I remember positioning myself for launching a tackle and thinking at the same time, "she is so stupid if she keeps running straight at me". Well she did, but that was lucky for me. Not only did I gain the advantage for my team, but I also felt good especially because I pulled off something that looked like I actually knew what I was doing out there. She was much lighter than me as well and I hit her square on in the abdomen, grabbed her knee pulling her legs off the ground as taught, and seriously set her back a good 2 maybe 3 feet. I only know this because she was light enough that I had to get up off top of her. Usually when you tackle you both fall to the side, but she was so light she just kept going back! I felt badly though when it took a couple minutes for her to catch wind and get up again. Coach Scholl from MI would be proud of me though...I did not show any weakness and say "sorry".
My team-mates were so supportive of me (as we all were of each other) and encouraged me after every good tackle I made. One such tackle they told me about at the end of the last game, I didn't remember, but they said that when I hit the other girl, Ann said it was "right on brilliant" and Helen mentioned she even her a "wham" type sound at contact. I knew then that not only was I having fun & contributing to the team, but I was helping make it fun for them too. I'm glad I didn't hurt anyone though, just as much as I am relieved to have not been mortally wounded myself. There were some serious injuries that occurred in the matches going on around us. There were medics on site throughout the day, but in addition, there ended up being three separate ambulance calls. One for a messed up neck, one dislocated shoulder, and one broken leg. Funny story, I overheard a recent conversation from the broken leg lady and she mentioned that while in the ambulance on way to the hospital, the paramedic told her "If you were a real rugby player, you would have bitten your leg off and continued playing".
So, in conclusion, rugby is finished. They actually continue the season next term but I won't be here anymore, so that's it for me. Ann and Carly encouraged me to keep up rugby though, and said that I picked up really fast and play well for someone who's never touched a rugby ball before this term. Suggested even that I start up a rec league at Hillsdale due to the fact that there's no more rugby for me back home. That idea was definitely intriguing, but will currently sit on the back burner of my mind until the appropriate time.
To Wrap up a rather lengthy description of Saturday, I came home utterly knackered and achy with 3 hours to shower the layers of mud off and make myself presentable for a footy social. The New College boy's football teams and our girl's team were to spend an evening together full of fun, curry, lots of drinks, toasts, and quality time together. Well only 3 of the girls from our team ended up showing, so it was a little awkward, especially because the boys gravitated to their natural division of footy friends leaving us girls to ourselves. Optimistically, it turned out perfect, and I got to spend a wonderful night bonding with Nicky and Lydia. Other excitements include witnessing the men's team hazing of the fresher boys making them drink a rather nasty booze/milk/cereal concoction, and an R-rated Trinity college Crew team social at the other end of the restaurant (they had a little too much to drink, but I have heard crew socials are crazy), and an endless round of toasts that seemed more like a drinking game. It ended up becoming something like "To those who've never scored a goal from behind the goal-box line" or "to those who don't support their local football club" and the respective people had to stand and drink. I was fortunate they didn't pick on goalies too long, but I did hear the unavoidable "to you who play keeper and have never scored a goal". We ended up calling quits around 11:30 though, as we ladies had a match scheduled for the next day. Sadly though, that ended up being canceled the morning of! What was most disappointing was that it was Lydia's and my very last match with the team and we had very good chances of winning too. The other team was short too many players (they should suck it up! We won a cup match with only 7 players against 11!) so it ended up being a forfeit to us. So no last football memories, but we have all intentions of making up for this loss with a ladies' footy social sometime before end of term.
So that's about it right now. Rugby is over. Football is over, possibly one last hurrah together. Tutorial coming to a close soon & I should get working on this next paper. But that still doesn't mean the excitement is over yet!
Cheers,
Lindsay