The five and a half hour drive which took the Claremont Colleges Women’s Rugby Team from a sunny Californian midday to a dark Arizona evening didn’t seem too bad, especially considering all the pee stops on the way. Being the brilliant rugby girls that they are, they they had begun hydrating themselves the previous Wednesday to avoid cramps and heat exhaustion during the game on Sunday. Unfortunately it made the ride just a little longer. After having met with the enemy (who happened to be the Arizona State University Women’s Rugby Team, and whose houses they happened to be staying at) the Claremont Ruggers rumbled on over to Applebee’s for a team dinner, gourmet style. Aww, how sweet.

The next morning they met at the field around eleven for the noon game. A vigorous warm-up, an exhilarating team cheer, and one "Oh my God I forgot my cleats!" was all they needed to get their game started up the right way. The Claremont women played like champions, winning all the rucks and line-outs (including ASU’s) holding up fairly well in the scrums (especially after taking into account that this was the first game for many of the Claremont women), and playing together as a team like a well-oiled machine. So maybe the machine was a little rusty, but it was the first game of the season and the team hadn’t all played together before; suffice to say there were a lot of rookies out there.

Before this story goes any further (i.e. gives you the score), let’s talk about the record versus ASU last year. The first game, in Phoenix, was lost 113 to zero, the latter being the score of our beloved Claremont team. The ensuing Arizona State game was only 85 to zero. Surely you can guess who won.

So it’s no surprise that the Claremont women went into the game with a pessimistic outlook, thinking - Hooray! Now we get to play the honored and feared ASU-hi-we’re-on-a-pedestal team. Yippee. - It wasn’t necessary. Although ASU beat the visiting Claremont Ruggers, they weren’t too scary, or even that great. The final score was 20 to zero, with a few extremely close attempts by the losing side, and ASU never scored a try uncontested. At halftime, the ASU veterans (who had only come to watch, figuring they could just let the rookies handle this game) were nervously pulling on their shorts and tying their boots. The Claremont women definitely gave them a scare, and when they come here to play us on Saturday, February 26, ASU will be the nervous ones. And they’d probably be even more scared if a whole bunch of rowdy fans came to cheer on the home team (hint hint.)

All was not lost last Sunday. Au contraire, our Claremont Ruggers won what is often considered the most important part of the game. Ah, what a beautiful thing it is for two teams to come together, especially after having kicked the living crap out of each other for the previous hour and a half. Ah, to make friends at other schools, to be merry and sing songs. Ahhh, the drink-up! At this happy event Claremont embarrased the pansies at ASU. Not only did they sing far more explicit verses to a few very crude songs, but they also rocked the house all the way down when it came to the boat race. The drive home had a few more stops seeing as most of the passengers were what one might call "a wee bit schnockered," but the driver didn’t really mind. All in all, the weekend was a success, and the Claremon Women’s Rugby Team now has a lot more confidence in themselves as they prepare for this Saturday’s game at UCSD (only a two hour drive for those of you looking to become hardcore rugby fans.) Let the hydration begin!