Day 5
The alarm went off at 8:00am and I decided to forgo breakfast. I decided that sleep was more important to my body at this point and I had enough snacks to cover me until lunch in case I got hungry. I finally woke up at 10:30-10:45am and started to pack my stuff for the game. It seems like we’ve been doing a lot of packing and unpacking, but now that I have all my unnecessary things back in my big rollerbag, it makes it a lot easier. I finish packing just in time for lunch at 11:15-11:30 and they have some chicken fajita-type stuff and hot dog/sausages with sauerkraut – quite a gamble to eat on game day, so everyone passed it up. We eat a quick lunch and load the bus at 12:15. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it yet, but Shouse and Katie P. (our managers) have been doing a great job of telling us when/where to be and making everything happen smoothly. I was especially impressed that they remembered gifts for after the match today. But now I’m departing from the chronological approach I’ve been writing in.
After a 1hr 15 min bus ride, we arrive in Gala Shiels to play in a pretty nice rugby stadium after a pretty good men’s match. As we descend from the bus, none other than Keenya’s friend (snaggletooth) greets us in his full kilt regalia. We are laughing and in shock that he showed up, especially since we didn’t even tell him where we were playing! He gives Keenya a kiss on the cheek but must have been eating something and said “excuse me for the crumblies” which was really funny. How crazy that he came out to see our game (and was wearing a full kilt)! Unfortunately because we were in game-mode we didn’t really stop to talk to him and didn’t even get a picture with him ☹ Any description I try to give wouldn’t do him justice.
We’re shown through the grandstand into the locker room where we drop off our stuff before watching a few minutes of the men’s match. Just as we’re getting comfortable, the kickers are told to get ready and a few minutes later we’re all back in the locker room deciding where to put our heat-packs and what we’re going to wear to stay warm. It’s a bit chilly, but not downright cold and not too windy or wet. The ground was wet and mushy, so I was glad I bought those expensive cleats.
We walk to the warm up field and have a very short warm up from Michelle Carrone (strength and conditioning coach), which actually wasn’t enough of a warm up, and then started doing a few kickoff receptions and lineouts while Kathy and Candi watched Scotland’s warm up to see what plays they’d be running. After only 15 minutes of that, we head back inside for last minute prep. We line up in the hallway and walk downstairs onto the field in a line, led by our flag. The Scottish team comes out and we sing our anthem first – usually I don’t sing the anthem and just think strong and positive thoughts during the anthem, but I heard Hedwig singing behind me and it moved me to sing. We sing the anthem proudly in unison and it makes me feel excited and privileged to be on the field. It’s pretty cool that we get to represent our country and are about to do battle with the best of Scotland. After their anthem, they announce the line up and the game starts.
I’m not going to go into detail about the game, but they have some tough forwards and challenged our set pieces and contested the rucks. We didn’t get to run too many wide plays, but whenever Ellie got the ball (often from a kick) she was unstoppable. She scored our 2 tries for the day and played like a rockstar. They put some points on the board through penalties but we beat them 16-3 During the second half, Keenya is called for offside and it must have been the last one in a string because the ref sin-binned her. She was pretty upset about it and at first we thought that he mistook her for Phaidra (which has been known to happen) but we don’t think it was.
Very close to the end of the game, Phaidra is lying on the ground after a play. She wasn’t moving much, so it couldn’t be the contact lens issue but she comes off the field with ice on her eye. Doctor Bartoli and our liaison take her to a hospital in Edinburgh to a plastic surgeon specialist. It turns out that her eyelid had a cut all the way through it (we later found out that she broke her tear duct and would have to get surgery to fix the duct). Her eye looked really swollen and a bit scary to look at. After the game, we shook hands and they made a tunnel for us and we did for them after that. Kathy tells us that we did several things well but can improve and must hold ourselves to higher standards. We get changed and showered and put our bags back onto the bus and walk to the dinner. Once we got there, there was a little bar but none of us brought pounds with us so we couldn’t drink. There was a bottle of wine to share with the table (our table was mixed with US and Scottish players). Annie’s friend Chris is playing on the Scottish National Team and we talked to her a lot along with the other Scottish players that were around us. We exchanged pins (Shouse had a bunch and we just swapped with our corresponding number). After that, both sides recognized their new caps – for us, Chris Trucano, Claudia Braymer, and Ham all got Scottish plaid hats and were told to skip around the room (which Claudia did quite enthusiastically!). We gave gifts to the important people (refs, coaches and captain for their team) and I think they were plaques or USA Rugby coasters.
They had one cap and gave her a fabric napkin hat as a joke because they didn’t have one. They chant this song that says skip around the room for their and our caps so it was fun. Then their cap had to sing a solo song and then we all got up and performed our masterpiece. It sounded really good (the SHs were great, of course). We finish our food, which was really good and get back to the bus for an hour and a bit and I sat with Keenya (my typical bus-mate) and Pam came over and we talked for a while about her obsession with “Bear” and other stuffed bears. I talked about my stuffed dog from childhood and how my mom fooled me for many years about how she would just replace it when it got old and I thought it was “inside” the new dog. We talked a little about marriage and our relationships and the bus ride was over. We had a 5 minute meeting where the managers told us what would happen for the next day and how to clean up the rooms. We break for more packing and some other people are doing their laundry. This is another late night, so I’m ready to turn in.
I was a little bummed that I didn’t get to play, but it was OK because I expected it. Hedwig also almost went in as the whistle blew, but we got to warm up 6 times today (warming up is Hedwig’s least favorite thing to do). Tomorrow the bus leaves at 8:15am.
The alarm went off at 8:00am and I decided to forgo breakfast. I decided that sleep was more important to my body at this point and I had enough snacks to cover me until lunch in case I got hungry. I finally woke up at 10:30-10:45am and started to pack my stuff for the game. It seems like we’ve been doing a lot of packing and unpacking, but now that I have all my unnecessary things back in my big rollerbag, it makes it a lot easier. I finish packing just in time for lunch at 11:15-11:30 and they have some chicken fajita-type stuff and hot dog/sausages with sauerkraut – quite a gamble to eat on game day, so everyone passed it up. We eat a quick lunch and load the bus at 12:15. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it yet, but Shouse and Katie P. (our managers) have been doing a great job of telling us when/where to be and making everything happen smoothly. I was especially impressed that they remembered gifts for after the match today. But now I’m departing from the chronological approach I’ve been writing in.
After a 1hr 15 min bus ride, we arrive in Gala Shiels to play in a pretty nice rugby stadium after a pretty good men’s match. As we descend from the bus, none other than Keenya’s friend (snaggletooth) greets us in his full kilt regalia. We are laughing and in shock that he showed up, especially since we didn’t even tell him where we were playing! He gives Keenya a kiss on the cheek but must have been eating something and said “excuse me for the crumblies” which was really funny. How crazy that he came out to see our game (and was wearing a full kilt)! Unfortunately because we were in game-mode we didn’t really stop to talk to him and didn’t even get a picture with him ☹ Any description I try to give wouldn’t do him justice.
We’re shown through the grandstand into the locker room where we drop off our stuff before watching a few minutes of the men’s match. Just as we’re getting comfortable, the kickers are told to get ready and a few minutes later we’re all back in the locker room deciding where to put our heat-packs and what we’re going to wear to stay warm. It’s a bit chilly, but not downright cold and not too windy or wet. The ground was wet and mushy, so I was glad I bought those expensive cleats.
We walk to the warm up field and have a very short warm up from Michelle Carrone (strength and conditioning coach), which actually wasn’t enough of a warm up, and then started doing a few kickoff receptions and lineouts while Kathy and Candi watched Scotland’s warm up to see what plays they’d be running. After only 15 minutes of that, we head back inside for last minute prep. We line up in the hallway and walk downstairs onto the field in a line, led by our flag. The Scottish team comes out and we sing our anthem first – usually I don’t sing the anthem and just think strong and positive thoughts during the anthem, but I heard Hedwig singing behind me and it moved me to sing. We sing the anthem proudly in unison and it makes me feel excited and privileged to be on the field. It’s pretty cool that we get to represent our country and are about to do battle with the best of Scotland. After their anthem, they announce the line up and the game starts.
I’m not going to go into detail about the game, but they have some tough forwards and challenged our set pieces and contested the rucks. We didn’t get to run too many wide plays, but whenever Ellie got the ball (often from a kick) she was unstoppable. She scored our 2 tries for the day and played like a rockstar. They put some points on the board through penalties but we beat them 16-3 During the second half, Keenya is called for offside and it must have been the last one in a string because the ref sin-binned her. She was pretty upset about it and at first we thought that he mistook her for Phaidra (which has been known to happen) but we don’t think it was.
Very close to the end of the game, Phaidra is lying on the ground after a play. She wasn’t moving much, so it couldn’t be the contact lens issue but she comes off the field with ice on her eye. Doctor Bartoli and our liaison take her to a hospital in Edinburgh to a plastic surgeon specialist. It turns out that her eyelid had a cut all the way through it (we later found out that she broke her tear duct and would have to get surgery to fix the duct). Her eye looked really swollen and a bit scary to look at. After the game, we shook hands and they made a tunnel for us and we did for them after that. Kathy tells us that we did several things well but can improve and must hold ourselves to higher standards. We get changed and showered and put our bags back onto the bus and walk to the dinner. Once we got there, there was a little bar but none of us brought pounds with us so we couldn’t drink. There was a bottle of wine to share with the table (our table was mixed with US and Scottish players). Annie’s friend Chris is playing on the Scottish National Team and we talked to her a lot along with the other Scottish players that were around us. We exchanged pins (Shouse had a bunch and we just swapped with our corresponding number). After that, both sides recognized their new caps – for us, Chris Trucano, Claudia Braymer, and Ham all got Scottish plaid hats and were told to skip around the room (which Claudia did quite enthusiastically!). We gave gifts to the important people (refs, coaches and captain for their team) and I think they were plaques or USA Rugby coasters.
They had one cap and gave her a fabric napkin hat as a joke because they didn’t have one. They chant this song that says skip around the room for their and our caps so it was fun. Then their cap had to sing a solo song and then we all got up and performed our masterpiece. It sounded really good (the SHs were great, of course). We finish our food, which was really good and get back to the bus for an hour and a bit and I sat with Keenya (my typical bus-mate) and Pam came over and we talked for a while about her obsession with “Bear” and other stuffed bears. I talked about my stuffed dog from childhood and how my mom fooled me for many years about how she would just replace it when it got old and I thought it was “inside” the new dog. We talked a little about marriage and our relationships and the bus ride was over. We had a 5 minute meeting where the managers told us what would happen for the next day and how to clean up the rooms. We break for more packing and some other people are doing their laundry. This is another late night, so I’m ready to turn in.
I was a little bummed that I didn’t get to play, but it was OK because I expected it. Hedwig also almost went in as the whistle blew, but we got to warm up 6 times today (warming up is Hedwig’s least favorite thing to do). Tomorrow the bus leaves at 8:15am.
posted by Lee Knight at 8:22 PM
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