We finished our regular season with our first and only home match at the So Kon Po sports ground, against the blue and white team. As is the tradition, I came away with a few more facial abrasions than I usually pick up. The team photographer was able to capture the other team's flanker ramming her head into mine at scrums. I didn't complain about it at the time because we destroyed the opposition, winning their ball from them frequently. I was told that my opposing front rower played for the national team so I was pleased with my performance over her. Our tight five led the team in this match. Usually it's the backs who deservedly get most of the praise but this match was messy and full of restarts that we dominated.
(source: Phoebe Leung)
At a breakdown, as I was clearing a ruck, I caught a player from the other team as she was withdrawing her hand from clawing me in the face. As play moved on, I stood over her and lifted my boot. It had rained the night before and I was wearing my big, metal studs. We had a moment where we made eye contact and I saw her wincing in anticipation of what was coming but instead I stamped my foot next to her and then went back to the game. I am not a fan of turning the other cheek and it was more difficult not retaliating than it should have been. SB felt a bit bloodthirsty after seeing the scrape down my nose and thought that even if I didn't stamp her, I should at least have stepped on her. And maybe added a foot twist.
After the match our club's women's teams went to dinner at SCAA, followed by beer on the rooftop. Eventually there were drinking games. One of the games bothered me; it was a trick where two people face each other with spoons in their mouths and take turns rapping each other on the head. One player is the hapless victim and the other has a cohort who, each time the victim bows her head to take a rap, reaches over and whacks her on the head instead of the player with the spoon. The goal is for the victim to concede because it hurts too much or figure out the trick that is being played. The game went on until the victim was being hit with a cocktail glass instead of a spoon. Some of the girls watching the game seemed to be taking too much pleasure and I found out later that the victim player had been chosen because she had committed some kind of a wrong against the others. Mean girls.
After the game I went to join SB and the men's teams in Wanchai. Instead of playing drinking games the men were standing around in the bar with their shirts off. There were few women in the bar so the scene was kinda homoerotic. I could only take so much of being accidentally rubbed by drunk, sweaty men before calling it a night. I left them dancing with each other as the remaining women fled into the night.
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