1&1/2 cups Ideal Brown sugar substitute
1/2 cup Splenda
1 cup canola oil
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1&3/4 cups flour (next round will substitute with whole wheat flour)
1 cup wheat germ
3 scoops flavorless Casein protein (most other types will denature when baked, and you can pick a flavor if you’d like to change the flavor of the cookie somewhat)
1 tsp  baking soda
1&1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2&1/2 cups whole oatmeal
1&1/3 cups Craisins, ground nuts (I used pecans), orange zest

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Beat sugar substitutes and oil until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add flour, wheat germ, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt; mix well. Stir in oats and add-ins(Craisins, ground nuts, orange zest); mix well. Drop by large tablespoons on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 9-11 minutes, but watch them until you get used to baking them. The centers are soft when they come out of the oven, so let them sit for a few minutes.

Didn’t get a chance to photograph these, will definitely take a shot of the batch I make when I come home for spring break.

Shit

Will Chambers- A critical missed tackle and wretched hands from the QLD outside center helped keep Force in the game rather than giving the Reds their first try of the match.

The Discipline of Rod Davies- Binned at the death of the first half for throwing a punch at Force halfback Brett Sheehan, handing another 3 points to the boot of fly-half James O’Connor and leaving the Reds without a major piece of their attacking strategy strategy for the first ten minutes of the second half.

Scrums- I didn’t pull a BBC and keep a running count of how much time was spent on scrums and scrum resets, but it was ridiculous. So ridiculous in fact that it ate up a decent bit of the time spent by Davies in the bin. “Stand up” “move closer” “You need to touch”. The referee was doing everything in his power to make sure the scrums went smoothly, but all he ended up doing was killing match time.

My sleep schedule- The 13 hour time difference between the East Coast of the United States and Brisbane means that K.O. was at 0130 EST. My caffeine intake to stay up for this match was more than I normally have in a week’s time.

Good

James Horwill- After Chambers missed the tackle against Cameron Shepherd only a few meters from the try line it was Horwill who picked up the slack and wrestled Shepherd to the ground and held the ball up as they slid across the try line.

James O’Connor- The Wallabies winger turned Force fly-half was truly the man to be in this match, scoring all of Force’s points with 5 penalties and 1 unconverted try (hell, let’s see you make the conversion after a 95m solo effort). O’Connor was aggressive on defense and from what I could see was an absolute menace at the breakdown if he was drawn into it.

Reds Hookers- Saia Faingaa’s creativity at the line-out helped invigorate the Reds with their first try of the match/season and his replacement James Hanson earned the second try which put his side over the top in the dying minutes of the match.

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Like what you saw? Be sure to check out Blood and Mud for similar content. I just had to give it a go for myself.

Forwards

Front Row

• Martin Castrogiovanni – Italy/Leicester Tigers – Castro’s a force in the front row that you just don’t want to mess with.
• Dylan Hartley – England/Northampton Saints – I’m not one to usually put my faith in England during rugby, but when I can’t select all 15 players from Ireland I kind of have to pick and choose. Besides, he’s got kiwi blood ;] Dylan’s a solid hooker and I look forward to him putting in good performances during the tournament as he has in the ERC and Premiership.
• Allan Jacobsen – Scotland/Edinburgh – No real reasoning behind this one, needed another front row and was conserving my picks for other slots.

Second Row

• Alun Wyn Jones – Wales/Ospreys – AWJ. He’s a powerful second row rugger and I took him over Paul O’Connell because of the injury factor involved with POC.
• Nathan Hines – Scotland/Leinster – The only other Scot to make my XV. He’s got a good career going for him with Leinster and I’m hoping it transfers well to the international stage this season.

Back Row

• Sean O’Brien – Ireland/Leinster – The only Irishman to make the pack. SOB has been phenomenal in the ERC and Magners seasons thus far in the place of an injured Jamie Heaslip and I can almost guarantee he’ll be a monster during the tournament. Been pulling for him to get the start against Italy, and he did. I’m a happy Ireland fan.
• James Haskell – England/Stade Francais – Martin Johnson will consistently turn to him at flanker, and I need the consistent points regardless of opinions about him.
• Andy Powell – Wales/London Wasps – If I ever needed a Welshman in my back row, Powell’s the man for the job. Nearly 2 meters tall and 115 kilograms of pure power. Can’t ask for anything more.

Backs

Scrum-Half

• Dimitri Yachvili – France/Biarritz – Only Frenchman in my squad for the time being. No Comment other than I didn’t pick Reddan because I needed 3 other Irish backs.

Fly-Half

• Jonathan Sexton – Ireland/Leinster – Begin the Ireland/Leinster-heavy back line. J10’s got a strong boot and a good head on his shoulders. Will get priority over ROG so long as he’s uninjured.

Center

• Brian O’Driscoll – Ireland/Leinster – Do I need a sodding reason?
• Gordon D’Arcy – Ireland/Leinster – Pairs perfectly with BOD and creates the most lethal pair of centers in the Northern Hemisphere.

Outside Backs

• Mark Cueto – England/Sale Sharks – A seasoned English winger to help round out the side.
• Mirco Bergamasco – Italy/Racing Metro – Fantastic boot. Wonderful way to milk points out of Italy.
• Chris Ashton – England/Northampton Saints – The Saints are the only English club with two players featured in this squad. Did you see his performance against Australia during the Autumn tests? If you haven’t I think you should, it was the fecking IRPA Try of the Year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRpzejrMlEo

This semester is chock full of education and physical education courses and the bulk of my time is being demolished by those, but I’ve been working my way back into the gym and am so happy to be getting back into the groove with my lifting. In addition to these I’m working on a project to get the locals of Shepherdstown playing touch rugby once a week (details still to be determined on that; I’m laying ground work at the moment for what I hope will be something big). With all of this going on I’ve also taken up an attempt at a rugby podcast which I’m trying to make sure updates regularly and am still working out all of the kinks for in terms of content. Information about the Chip and Chase Rugby Podcast can be found here for the time being.

All in all I’m happy to be back at uni and am looking forward to everything that 2011 could possibly throw at me. I’ll be working to regularly update here again to the best of my ability.

Then the matches started. Was subbed on in our first match to play at fly half and made a few tackles with the assistance of a teammate, but it was apparent that my biggest weakness has always been my open-field tackling. I’d either just get shoved out of the way or miss the tackle altogether. Got pulled off towards the end of the match because I was losing steam. We ended up winning that match and losing our other pool match to put us at 1-1 going into the bracket rounds.

Sat out the first bracket match which was a loss, leaving us with one game left to see who would take third place in the division. Got a start for our final match and was once again showing weakness at the tackle, but made up for it with some good showings at the breakdown. Came off towards the middle of the second half, exhausted.

This has left me questioning my fitness, and whether or not I have it in me to actually play rugby, or if I should just get on with coaching. My endurance has to be my weakest aspect fitness wise, and I’m unsure of what’s going to be the best way to improve it other than running a ton. Other than that I really need to find a place to get coached and learn to tackle.

Cheers to a weekend of good friends, good life and good rugby.

These probably aren’t the best ideas, but I’m feeling a better result than a half-assed gym session.

Upper body/Core

• Press-ups: 9×10 + 1xfailure with a focus on making the last set to 10 and then pushing through until collapse
• Crunches: 4×20 + 1xfailure, same concept as the press-ups
• Planning to mix in Russian Twists: 4×10 to start off and build up to doing 100 eventually

Legs

• Bodyweight Squats: 9×10 + 1xfailure. Most I’ve done so far is 111, pushing to reach 150 within a month. I think it’s doable as my legs seem more adaptive than the rest of my body.
• Calf-Raises: 10×10, should get something good out of this in the end I hope.

If all goes well I should hopefully see some sort of positive result by the end of January. Will keep this updated.

I’d like to give thanks this year to tons of people. Everyone who has stuck by me and provided advice and support to me over the past year whether it’s been in the name of rugby or more personal issues. Your names are many and thusly I’m just going to call you legion

This year though, I’m most thankful for my former room mate and other brother. He shares his first name with my blood brother which I’ve found kind of fitting. Kyle’s been there for me through thick and thin and I’ve had his back just the same.  We’ve had many an adventure over the past few years and I look forward to many more as the years go on.

I’m thankful for my parents and their continuing support in my academic and extracurricular endeavors.

I’m always thankful for rugby. That’s just how it is, y’know?

So I hope everyone enjoys today whether it’s a holiday for you or not. It’s a fantastic November day.
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Sorry about a lack of updates, though I’m sure they’re not missed much. Life is what it is and I’m still working as hard as I can to better myself. Classes are  going well enough, but they’re eating up what would normally be gym time. Winter break isn’t far away and I’ll have to step training up at that point to make up for this. Autumn Internationals are almost past and big surprise the All Blacks are about to complete a Grand Slam tour. Wallabies are showing they’re still contenders, but have a lot of work to do before next year’s big moment. Ireland is strong, but recurring injuries *coughcoughhackKearneycoughhack* are keeping them from showing their full potential.

It’s not all on Rob though, he’s a great player and we all have bad luck every now and again. A big part is that Ireland’s still without a key part of their scrum (not as bad off as Australia yet) in Paul O’Connell. Yes, we have Jamie Heaslip to lead the charge in the pack, but I can still admit as a Leinster fan that the big man from Munster was an important part of most of our forward play. His return today in the AIL is a great start and I hope we have him well when our pack needs to be its strongest next year.

One more thing I’m thankful for: B.O’D. – O’Driscoll gets his 70th captaincy this weekend in Ireland’s last Autumn test of the year (against Argentina).

Options keep presenting themselves as to what I could do once college is all said and done, and I’m not entirely sure which would put me in the best place in terms of work, living situation, and rugby.

1. Find job teaching in an American city with a strong team, get involved at the lower levels and work up as high as I can. – I love D.C.; moving there has always been something I’ve wanted to do, but any larger city would do. Washington just holds the most interest to me.
2. Go to Europe, teach in Europe, play in Europe. – Again, this involves finding a teaching job and then getting on with whoever the local club is. Probably won’t play high level (God knows I’m probably not prepared for it), but I’d learn in a much more immersive rugby environment than America. Preference to UK or Ireland.
3. Turn to the south. Same as the Euro option but based in Australia or New Zealand.

The biggest focus on wherever I end up is finding work and putting myself in a good situation. After that my focus is on rugby and improving myself to play at as high of a level of competition as possible and just enjoy the game. Making Eagles would be nice, but it’s a ways off and I need some work before it’s even an option.

I’m trying to figure out which route would be best for me, and I’m not sure every viable option is down yet. Plenty of time to figure it out, but I could use suggestions.

Anyone see my usual mental behavior here?

My days are filled with dreaming of completing this degree and finally moving somewhere that I can actually dedicate my time to rugby and things that I enjoy. As it seems I do every autumn, I’m participating in an attempt to revive rugby on the Shepherd campus. Then again, maybe revive isn’t the proper word. The game’s never really been able to take root here. Every year we create one or two more die-hard members of the rugby community, but it’s never enough to garner the support needed for a full squad.

For one year I’d just like the students of Shepherd to prove me wrong. I’d like them to show me that people out there are open minded enough to try something different. Show me that they want to be part of something bigger, and that they want to be the best that they can physically be. For now I have my doubts about the students here, but maybe I’m missing something.

Maybe I’m doing something wrong. I shouldn’t be angry. You can’t force people to like something just because you like it, but at the same time if you want something to grow then you have to get people involved. I need to find a ways to get the students of Shepherd excited about rugby.

This is a sign of a few things:

1. The All Blacks, whether you think they’re cheating or not, know how to play at the fringes of the Laws and not be hurt for it.
2. The Springboks are losing form, or maybe Peter De Villiers really is just crazy.
3. The Wallabies could be the boys to raise the Webb Ellis Cup next year.

I know the final is still over a year away, but look at what the Wallabies have done in the Tri Nations (particularly these last 3 tests) this year.

• 28 August: Wallabies go up 21-7 over Springboks within 12 minutes of the opening kick only to have RSA come back to win 37-31, but to go 3 tries up on South Africa in such a short amount of time is just insane!
• 4 September: Wallabies went up 31-13 against South Africa at half time to have the Boks fight back in the second half to a 1 point lead with 90 seconds to play. Fullback Kurtley Beale slots a last second penalty from halfway to win the match at the death.
• 11 September: Once again we see the Wallabies start strong, this time leading the All Blacks 19-6 just after the start of the second half just to see New Zealand put up 17 unanswered points and go on to win the game by a single point 23-22.

I believe the recent results show that Australia has a strong base, they come out early and play strong rugby but something fizzles after the first 60 minutes are through. With such young players, it really is something to see the Wallabies holding up so well in international competition. They’ve got fight in them, just need to make it last the whole 80 minutes. They’ve got heart, they just need a few more tests of mettle. This is doable. This is very real. If they can pull themselves together, then (barring injury) we just might see Australia in that number one ranking when 2011 comes to a close.