The Penn State Women’s team had a great day which ended with a mixed match with Vicenza Rugby. The days started with the team meeting the General that oversees the base the morning. You can check out some video of that meeting here.
After a pool session at the amazing acquatic center, set up by our wonderful host Mark Juliano, the team then met 6 soldiers who shared their experience in the Army and how it related to team work. One Sergeant was a rugby prop, had been shot 5 times and had won 3 Purple Hearts. The players were completely captivated by the talk and a number of the soldiers came out tonight to support the team.
After an afternoon practice the team traveled to the local rugby club, the Vicenza Rugby Rangers. The team is a division 3 club and they only play 7s in a reduced field. Penn State fielded their first ever official 7s team in this match! Penn State dominated the game, despite some unusual rules. After 2 7s periods, the Penn State and Vicenza team mixed up to play 20 minutes of 15-a-side rugby. One of the best aspects of rugby is that it is a global fraternity, and seeing players working out how to play with each other when their only common language is rugby is always an amazing experience. Vicenza were amazing hosts, bringing out more and more food as the evening went on. Mark had provided a desert which was a cake with the Penn State Crest and the American and Italian Flags (we will post a picture).
Tomorrow the team plays Benetton Treviso, the number 1 women’s club in Italy. The game is not at the main stadium. There are a number of members of the base that are interested in supporting will find the address on this site tomorrow morning and the game is a 7pm kick-off. @font-face { font-family: “Cambria Math”; }@font-face { font-family: “Cambria”; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Cambria; }span.pp-headline-item { }.MsoChpDefault { font-family: Cambria; }div.WordSection1 { page: WordSecti
