Hey there! I’ve been a bit of a slacker as regards this blog, but in reality, there’s been plenty happening for me.

Most notably, I travelled to New York for the NY7s tourney, which was one of the most positive rugby experiences I’ve had. A couple of weeks ago, I toured to Darwin with the ACT girls for the Darwin Hottest 7s, and I have a few more 7s tourneys coming up.
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7s · Darwin · NY7s

Didn’t we have a fun time! The Vikings girls ripped up at CC7s on the weekend, taking home the $1000 prizemoney and a bunch of Blackest Cat kit, including boots!

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sevens · Vikings

With the lull in proceedings before the various sevens tourneys, I thought now was a good time to look back at 2010 and take what I can into next year.

The video below is part of my 2010 review and the first step towards 2011. It’s also an opportunity to thank a bunch of people who made a difference to me, even in ways they probably think are insignificant (I didn’t think so!)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RVSE1ZiOgo

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highlights · reflections · video

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDwnz_ONBq4

The video above shows the tries from our convincing grand final victory over Unis. It should be noted that the try at 1:10 (or thereabouts) was called back because of an infringement (umm, mine) about 60 seconds earlier. A late tackle I was committed to. Alas and alack.

Our manager asked me to write the match report for the Vikings website. It hasn’t been posted there yet, so I’ll stick it here for the time being.
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The Vikings Women (the ViQueens) ran to a 31 – nil victory over the Uni-Norths Owls this afternoon. I can’t tell you how sweet it is, how very deliciously sweet.

Will post more tomorrow, am feeling quite unwell still and my nose hurts after copping a fairly decent whack in the first tackle (one I was proud of, nonetheless) of the match.

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The Vikings Women (The “ViQueens”) are ready for the semis next week after a convincing 84 – nil showing against ADFA yesterday.

We missed the minor premiership by 11 points on for and against, which is a little disappointing, especially considering we routed Gungahlin in a friendly the week before after they forfeited. But no matter, we’ll roll on to take the premiership proper.

We had thought we’d end up playing Royals – the long-standing local rival club – in the semi final, but funnily enough, Royals finished fourth and we’ll be playing Jindabyne, despite the fact that Royals smacked Jindy by 50-odd points a few weeks ago. Uni-Norths, the minor premiers, will face Royals for the second week in a row and will take confidence from the fact they beat the blue-and-whites yesterday by 14 points to nil.

I expect to win against Jindabyne, and want us to do it in clinical fashion. Essentially, there are only three competitive sides in the competition: Vikings, Uni-Norths and Royals, and it may be a disadvantage to us to have had so many easy games in the leadup to a grand final. I think it’s possible that Royals can beat Uni-Norths, but I don’t care who wins between them, particularly. I’m ready for either.

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httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gkvk6VAvllw

I found an old clip from 2007, my second game as openside flanker, and it features a lot of the usual suspects.

The clip is from the ACT women’s grand final between Royals and Vikings. I played for Royals that year, and was moved from flyhalf to flanker for the finals series. I did my best George Smith impersonation, although it must be said it’s unlikely an objective observer would have known that’s what I was doing, haha…

And things have changed a little since then. I’m now playing for the Vikings in the backrow. The referee in the clip is Drew Crozier, and he is the one who really convinced me to play in the backrow fulltime when he took over as the ASCT Women’s coach last year. He seems to have lost both weight and hair since 2007

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Even the ref was laughing.

We were defending. The ball came out to a rather large lass from Jindabyne and I jogged up to meet her. I saw it coming from the corner of my eye and I knew it was trouble.

The Stef Truck was coming at full clip.

I could only pity the hapless ball carrier. Stef smacked her something fierce and her not inconsiderable bulk was on the deck pronto and, well, lay strewn for some time. I think she left the field but I’m not totally certain because by that time, the ref had called me over and was laughing as he carded Stef for not using her arms.

In fairness to Stef, I don’t think she had the opportunity to wrap her arms around. she hit her front on, it wasn’t like a shoulder charge. She just hit so hard, the girl simply dropped.

Honestly, it was the biggest hit I’ve ever seen in women’s rugby. A very inspirational tackle, wish we had a video of it.

Rugby · vikings women