While my dad was mourning celebrating what would be his 51st wedding anniversary with my mom if she were still alive, I was mourning being told I couldn't play the rest of the tournament.
With 10 seconds left to the game I got injured.
It was the first time in all my years of competition that an injury had actually stopped me.
We had a big rugby 7's tournament today so I met up with the Lady Mavericks at 6:30am, jumped in the club van, and then off we went. It was my first rugby 7's tournament so I was super excited about it knowing full well that it will be a lot more running and more fast paced than the other games.
There were 12 of us -- 7 players on the field and 5 subs.
I didn't make the first line cut and was rather disappointed about it but know it was deserving. I've missed more training than I'd like to admit but I'm super busy running my own business and I do get in a ton of training beyond that of rugby. No excuses though. The first picks to start the games off were our veterans who have been super dedicated and faithful to training. I've been focused on training but no specifically rugby, I'm guilty of that.
Lady Mavericks vs Eaglets, 22-0
Lady Mavericks vs Eagles, 10-17
Lady Mavericks vs Chiefs, 24-0
...and then I was out for the rest of the tournament.
"What happened?" everyone and their mom seems to be happening. "Rugby happened", I answer.
With 10 seconds left to the game, another player fumbled the ball so I grabbed it, turned to run and then got head butted by one of the opposition's players. She ran right into me, head first. No hands up. Our heads crashed and it sounded like grapefruit smashing. I went down to the ground, presented the ball and then got up to continue the play. Instantly I felt what I thought was water pouring on my head and I saw the other team player still laying on the ground. "Get down!!!" someone yelled at me and so I laid back down on the ground. Honestly, I thought they were saying that because the other player was injured, so I thought it was more like "get down because you don't want to see her", as in it's bad. I remember reaching out for that player's hand, Ace's hand, and asking her if she was okay. But then everyone started to crowd around me and their reaction was really confusing me. When I heard them call for a stretcher I started telling them over and over that I'm okay and that I was not going to get on that stretcher. I could get up and walk. So that's what I did. I was escorted off the field and the reaction I was getting from everyone was wild. They all looked at me as if I had a missing limb or something. So dramatic.
Turns out I had cut my forehead open so deep that later, when I got to the hospital, the doctor voiced his concern over the fact that he could see my actual skull. It was that deep. Honestly though, it wasn't until he started to stitch it up that I felt any kind of discomfort.
The owner of the rugby team arranged to have a plastic surgeon do my stitches which was nice but really not necessary because I'm okay with scars. I don't care about pretty and honestly I was more concerned about whether or not I could train this upcoming week.
I walked myself into the operation room even though they provided a wheelchair for me. And then I climbed up on the operating room and laid down. When it was over, about an hour later, I left and was surprised to be greeted by many of my teammates. I thought that was just so incredibly sweet and so unexpected.
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