January 21: The team wakes up at 6:20am and gets straight on the road to Santa Barbara to face the mighty female ruggers of UCSB. The jerseys were new, the spirits were high and the Claremont women were ready for whatever slack-ass team Santa Barbara had to offer. Who knew UCSB had such fast backs? Not our fault, not our fault… While Claremont may not have "won," per se, they definitely schooled ‘em at the drink up. Definitely. Ooh, ooh, and during the game a player even had to go to the Sin Bin for a ref’s 10 minutes (which generally varies between six to 17 real minutes) for a high tackle. Now sure, the Claremont team is not exactly proud of their high tackles throughout the game, but they’ll be damned if they’re going to lose by more than 65. Hah, take that and deal. It was the first game of their season and the first time for many rookies to play with the ol’ girls back from travel abroad, as well as the first game after suffering some losses at semester to exotic foreign countries. (Such as Prague-very exotic, eh?) Words, words, words, it was an excellent game despite the loss.

January 27: The team wakes up at 11:22am to make it up to the game starting at one in the afternoon. Yet another rough morning in the life of a rugger; her capacity to deal with it all boggles the mind. This time the opponent is the infamous ASU. Having about 62 times the population of all five Claremont Colleges and thus quite a large pool to draw from, ASU tends to be the scariest team in the region. At least two girls play on national teams and one internationally, they’re bigger, and they’re meaner, and on this Saturday afternoon Claremont opened the game by dominating them for the first 20 straight minutes, and scoring easily. At this point the author must point out the team’s previous record with ASU. Two years ago, the two teams met twice to tally whack 22 tiny tadpoles — KIDDING, kidding, just thought I’d continue with the t and two thing. Anyhow, the scores from the matches in ’99 were 113 to zero and then 85 to zero, both zeroes being Claremont’s scores. Last year the scores dramatically decreased to only a difference of about 20 points, our score staying strong at zero. This year was the first time Arizona State was scored on for a long time, and boy, were they unhappy pappies. They started getting all worked up and playing the nastiest games of rugby ever seen by Claremont. Boo ASU, boo. If you don’t believe me, go take a gander at some of the bruises on the arms, legs and faces of both teams.

January 28: The team woke up at 9:43 and cursed the heavens for having to roll out of bed and limp up to the field for their 11am game versus the University of Arizona. "Yay," they thought to themselves, "I get to go be taken out while running again, I love rugby!!! Thank GOD for the drink-up. Mmmm, beer…." The team was tired but played an extremely intense first half and hung in there like the troopers they all are for the second half. And so they played another game and lost another game and had another drink up and had some more bruises and so it goes. After this game, however, they decided to become the scary team. Their margin of error was decreasing game by game and three of their harder opponents were already played and done with. They’re more than ready to demolish the women from UCSB this coming Saturday on Linde Field at Harvey Mudd (the furthest northeast corner at 1pm), and UCSD the weekend following that. They will no longer take shit from anyone. They’re going to start ripping off people’s heads and spitting down their throats. They’re prepared to re-name everyone on the team hardcore nicknames such as "The Enforcer," "The Destroyer," "The Wall," and "Roscoe." They are the Claremont Foxes. Yes, the team does realize that women’s rugby isn’t exactly known for the "foxiness" of its players, and none of the forwards on the team can admit to being quick as a fox, but dammit if they didn’t want that name in the first place.

Their next home games at which they would greatly appreciate the support of all their fans are: Feb. 3 vs. UCSB at 1pm, Feb. 17 vs. Occidental, and April 7 vs. UCSD. The times for these games will be posted again, have no fear. Right now all you have to do is remember the game on the third. It’s this Saturday. Against UCSB. At Linde Field, which is on Harvey Mudd’s campus. There’s beer afterwards, but only for the spectators.