Navy Rugby vs University of Maryland

I went to watch Navy Rugby for the first time. I’d always been told they were great, (usually ranked around 2nd or 3rd in the nation,) but I never made it out to watch them play.

I woke up early–9:30 am. Well, it felt early because I had stood rover watch from 0130-0300 the night before. As soon as I opened my eyes, I heard rain. Afraid of what would happen to my camera if I took it in the rain, I moped in disappointment. As I watched some James Bond while eating frosted flakes, the rain stopped, and my chance cleared to partly cloudy skies.

I’ve watched a lot of sports, but I still don’t understand all of the rules of Rugby. It’s fascinating. Unlike football, the hitting never takes a break. I found it very hard to pull the camera down from my face. I didn’t want to miss a shot.

I positioned myself near the Navy end zone because they were scoring much more often than Maryland. With this position, I saw most of the forward motion. The stop-action and colors turned out better during this day game than the Army-Navy Sprint Football game. It made for fun shooting.

They played on Hospital Point. It’s a large athletic area that could provide fields for an entire  tournament. As I watched, I grimaced for the guys at the bottom of the piles.

One Navy player stepped on a Maryland player’s head; a small scuffle broke out between the teams while a few of the players kept the ball moving. The Navy coach yelled, “Gentlemen!” and Navy backed out of the fight. Shortly after, they scored.

I played around with Photoshop to capture this sequence of shots. Navy almost always came down with the ball in these plays. Click on the photos to get a better look!

Go NAVY beat Maryland!!!