Your Scrumhalf Connection

For more, check out Day 1, Day 2 or Day 3….

Day 4 is being written by The Girl…here we go!

The one thing I really wanted to do was see the changing of the guards.  So, we got up early (9am hehe) and headed to town to hopefully beat the crowd and get a good spot.  Once we got to town we waited for a bus to take us to the palace, but in turn and n very American fashion we were impatient…so we decided to walk.  Boy did we learn a lesson!  The first task of the day and we had already walked approximately 5 miles!  Sore and sweat soaked we finally made it to Buckingham Palace and needless to say, we did not beat the crowd.  We found a pretty good spot along the gate and were able to watch the whole ceremony.  There was a matching band that played music as the guards presented arms and prepared for the change.  It was a very unique experience.

From there we went on to Westminster Abbey the church where kings and queens get crowned, married, and buried.  Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take pictures inside the Abbey.  Let me just say, it is beautiful!  The architecture is unbelievable; to think this building was built 100s of years ago is sometimes hard to imagine.  If you are ever in London it is a must see.

Next we headed to Wendy’s must see, the Holocaust exhibt at the Imperial War Museum.  Wendy is a bit obsessed with the Holocaust; she reads every book there is and must see each museum whenever we travel. Again we were not able to take pictures, but it was a great exhibit.

After the war museum, I needed a bit cheering up so we headed towards the London Eye.  There we got ice cream along the Thames river and saw many street performers.  We then went to the London Aquarium.  We love animals and LOVE going to zoos/aquariums.  The London Aquarium has a HUGE shark tank and we really enjoyed that.  We honestly sat for like 30 minutes just staring at the sharks.  While we were walking around, the fire alarm sounded and we were ordered to leave the building.  Wendy and I love aquariums so much our response to the “there is an emergency please head to the nearest exit” was “BUT we’re not finished!”.  We didn’t heed the warning (who knew if the world was ending outside) and soon a staff member found us and told us there was a fire trip in another building, but it had no effect on us.  SWEET!  We were able to stay and there were NO people in there anymore!  We had the whole aquarium to ourselves.  This is definitely another must see.

It was now close to dinner time, so we found a restaurant along the river and grabbed a drink and bite to eat. The place we chose was Giraffe and it was very good! It was quite a long day, but it was full of great sites.

For Day 1 or Day 2….

We were feeling a bit better and not so jet lagged so we decided to venture out into the big city of London. We are staying in Twickenham which is about 20 minutes away from London and is considered a suburb. We had some nervousness about travelling on the trains and then navigating around London…but we did pretty good! With some help from our hosts they directed us to take the right train and we were on our way to London.

We had read in all the guide books that travelers in the trains are unusually quiet, so we were sure to talk softly and not act too “American” if you will…hehe. We have quickly become affectionately known as “The Americans” so we often joke about note being too American… Once we arrived in London we wanted to get on a bus tour to see the sights of London. We found a bus company and then boarded our double decker bus for the tour!

The tour hits all the highlights of London including Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Westminster Abbey and so much more. The architecture and of these buildings is so beautiful and I was just staring at everything around me. The tour guides on the buses are great as they give lots of fun and juicy details. They are also really helpful when you are lost too!

This bus tour allowed us to jump off and on whenever we wanted so we picked a few places that we wanted to see right away. The first thing we saw was St. Pauls Cathedral and it was amazing! After that we stopped at Piccadily Circus and Trafalgar Square. These were excellent people watching areas and the street performers were pretty exotic as well.

The coolest place we visited was Harrods, its a HUGE shopping center/mall that has 5 floors of everything you could ever want to buy. Floors and floors of perfume, clothes, sports apparrel, and food! The food floors were pretty great as there was Mediterrean, Italian and more. We were amazed at the huge cuts of meat, fudge and seafood. We could have stayed for hours but it was getting late and we wanted to get back…it was hard to leave!

When we got home our amazing hosts had invited a few friends over and prepared dinner with a cake for my birthday! It was hard to celebrate my birthday away from my Austin friends, but the new friends we have made here made it just as special.

For part 1, go here!

After our really long flight and then all day at the fields on Saturday, we slept in pretty late on Sunday to get our wheels back under us. I think we were also pretty jet lagged and still working on Texas time. The difference is 6 hours, so its hard to go to bed when its still daytime in Austin.

Once we finally got up and going our hosts Ali and Sarah drove us around a Bushy Park where there are lots of wild deer. It was raining pretty hard so we just drove around in the car, but the park was really pretty and SO GREEN! After that we had some lunch at Brouge which was a really cool restaraunt with lots of meat! They have a deal on Sundays where they have a huge carvery with pork and beef and so The Girl was in heaven! I tried something different though and had butternut squash Risotto and it was really good.

After dinner we left Twickenham and went to a nearby town of Richmond for 2 for 1 cocktails. The place was called Be At One was really awesome and the cocktails were about 12 oz which is rare for happy hour! We met a ton of our hosts teammates (Teddington RFC ‘The Antlers’) and drank a few drinks with them. After awhile the bar was getting full and relieving itself all over, so we moved on to a quieter bar. At the 2nd bar we played a pretty cool game that we had never played before that I was really really really bad at, but The Girl dominated! Basically you put your hands in a big circle and then put your hand on the outside of the person next to you. A certain amount of taps on the table indicated which way it went around the table and if you messed it up, you were out. I was out in the 2nd round (the 1st was a practice round…hehe) and so that was that for me. The Girl ended up beating everyone else though!

We then went to a 3rd bar and by then we were getting a little tired so we quickly retired after that. The trip home was in a cool little cab and then we hit the sack pretty hard!

Oh and here is a funny picture of The Girl in the car…she was obsessed with being on the left side and not having a steering wheel. LOL.

The Girl and I landed at Heathrow around 11:00am on Sat Morning (8/28) and headed straight to the fields at Surrey University. The drive in was quite long as it is a “Bank Holiday” (UK workers get random holidays off from work!) but it gave us a good oppurtunity to get to know one of our hosts quite well. Ali and Sarah of Scrumqueens are graciously putting us up for the duration of our trip and since we have never “officially met,” only virtually it was a good time to get to know Sarah. We met Ali later at the fields, she was diligently taking notes for the Canada vs France game.

Once we arrrived at Guilford Park at Surrey University we quickly picked up our media passes and made our way towards the fields. We missed the first game of the day but were able to watch everything else. The facilities and fields here are amazing, but the ability of the crowd to participate is seriously lacking. There are 2 beautiful fields and the tickets were sold with the impression that there were stands, but in reality field 2 only has one stand that will seat about 50 people and field 1 has seating for about 150 people. With an advertised capacity of 3-4,000 fans, fighting for a seat or a good view along the field became a pretty big problem!

Photo courtesy of RWCWomens.com

So anyways, lets skip right to the good stuff, the USA vs England game (go here for the official release from USA, read below for my version). First off, the fans were awesome with some lingering DC Furie bikinis, and plenty of noise! The USA vs England game kicked off and you could feel the tension in the air. The Girl and I were sitting in an enveloped English crowd and so we had to cheer extra loud for USA, but we were cheering!

We looked great in our blues…I think we play the best in our blues! As soon as I announced that we play well in our blues all the Englanders around me responded that they play their best in the white….so it was even on fashion! The first 30 minutes of the game was incredibly close as USA put up the best defense I have ever seen. Unfortunately the first half ended with the score of England 25, USA 5.

Photo courtesy of The Girl

But USA wasn’t going down without a fight, they came out in the second half with even more fire. Unfortunately England scored early on so that seemed to take a bit of the wind out of our sails. England was having major issues with their handling during the whole game and USA was quick to jump on that transition ball. Our second try was because of great transition ball by our forwards who spun it out to the backs. Kim Magrini was following the progress of the ball like any good scrumhalf and was able to dot it over the line for a score. Overall I think this was the best team that USA has put on the field yet (minus Beckett Royce) and they played an excellent game. The HITS in this game were unbelievable by both teams! If you got to see the broadcast on Universal you will surely see the big hit that Maggie Alphonsi gave to Farrah Douglas…

Photo courtesy of The Girl

USA faces Ireland tomorrow (9/1) and the game is NOT being broadcast. I will be on the sidelines (with Internet this time!) and will provide updates on Twitter, Facebook and of course here on the blog. GO USA!

Today I am proud to announce the newest partner of Your Scrumhalf Connection. This new partnership will help bring rugby merchandise oppurtunities to women’s rugby across the US and Internationally. Rugby Athletic is bringing modern and bright rugby apparel and gear to the market and their company is unparalleled in this effort.

Rugby Athletic is a growing full service wholesale rugby company who prides itself on service, relationships, original design, custom rugby uniforms and team equipment, event promotion and marketing for teams. RA consider themselves original and un-matched with team opportunities, options and prices. RA not only has a web presence, we develop team identity with original team logo creations, and travel to events (currently) across the United States with our 35’ rugby vending trailer. RA represents three national brands; Barbarian Rugby Wear , Canterbury of New Zealand and Union Rugby, as well as our own private label RA – Rugby Athletic.

Notable Tournaments coming up in 2010:
ERRFU Kickoff Tournament in Denver Colorado – Aug 21
Ruggerfest 43 in Aspen Colorado – Sept. 16 thru 19

RA FB :: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rugby-Athletic/357130539524
RA URL :: www.rugbyathletic.com
MADAK URL :: www.madak.com

YSC Tshirts by Rugby Athletic

Wazzu Rugby Jerseys by Rugby Athletic

RA Apparel by Rugby Athletic

Eastern Rocky Rugby Football Union tshirt by Rugby Athletic

Today is a great day because it is The Girl’s Birthday! Now we won’t say how old she is getting…but its another year closer to 30!

The Girl

You Are My Sunshine
My only sunshine.
You make me happy
When skies are grey.
You’ll never know, dear,
How much I love you.

Don’t forget to enter the July Free Rugby Raffle, you can win a limited edition The Girl tshirt!