This past weekend the NOVA WRFC traveled to Ft. Lauderdale, FL to
participate in the 30th Annual Fort Lauderdale Ruggerfest. By all standards
(rugby and socially and geographically:) this was a very successful weekend
for the NOVA Women!! They traveled down with 12 NOVA players, 1 NOVA
Alumni, and 4 great-pick ups from clubs on the East Coast. There first game
on Saturday was against the Boston Women. The NOVA-Boston Match-up is one
of rivalry and the NOVA women game out on top 31-0, dominating in defense
and scrum downs, which helped them generate their successful offense. The
second game was against the Frost Giants - a Midwest Select Side team. The
NOVA Women came out strong in this game, only down 12-0 at half, but also
had two tries held up in the first half. The second half was more
disappointing, as the Frost Giants scored two more times before the ref
called the game with 15 minutes to go because of an injury to NOVA's
starting tighthead prop, Kaitlin Joerger*. On Sunday morning, the NOVA
Women played in the semi-finals against Berkeley, the perennial #1 team in
the Nation. The NOVA women played strong-willed defense, but were not able
to stop Berkley's fluid continuity and speed in rucks. However, NOVA was
able to put up a good game and Berkeley was forced to change their game plan
to adjust to our strengths.
And now for the fun stuff.....
The NOVA Women then continued to represent off of the field! They Sparked
it up starting at 10am....and never quit! There were tackling
demonstrations, police busts, and serenades all caught on tape. At the
field on Sunday, post Berkely match, the NOVA Women were able to make a lot
of friends...with the referee's tent during the afternoon rain storm, with
the Wisconsin men's team staying at the same high quality Tropic-Cay Inn,
and with our pick-up players from the weekend. We then stopped off at an
old-school McDonalds. Besides an unfortunate incident where Snickle (Stacy)
ate a french-fry off a man's tray, the meal went by rather successfully. We
all headed back to the lovely Tropic-Cay, where we said good-bye to our
teammates Boobie (Mel) and Dorky (Meg), but we were lucky enough to pick up
a new friend - The Lady Friend. She provided quite the entertainment
(hopefully you've seen Zippy (Liz) drinking from The Lady Friend after
drawing the unfortunate 4th King during Kings). After that we headed out for a night of
drunk revelry....I'm not sure if those stories are allowed over email :) Ha
ha....no it started off slow, but then picked with Crusty's (Cheffie) tattoo
and Rookie prancing around in the sexy red get-up. It was sometime at the
next Irish bar that Zippy was serenaded, Slimy (Chobot) arrived, trouble occurred, and pictures were
taken! I am proud to say that the Toe Tags do work, as we were able to send a NOVA
Friend safely back to our hotel using the power of the toe tag address.
Alas I think the entire rugby community was thankful for the hamburger/pizza
joint that was still open after the bars closed - it was quite the needed
haven.
The UnSuccesses....yes there were some....
The Friday night dinner at The Deck (not recommended)
*Patch's wound and the ensuing ER wait....Patch severely cut the skin
beneath her knee...really quite disgusting..the good news is that 17 stitches later,
everything is closed up and should hopefully only take a couple of weeks to
heal.
The 1 hr wait for our luggage to come after arriving via Spirit Air into
National last night
Thanks to everyone who helped make the weekend a success.
NoVA
Hotline: 703.715.6888
