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Nov 6, 2013
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The Berkeley All Blues have been preparing for a physical
match-up against the Glendale Raptors in the #2 vs. #3 semi-final of the WPL
National Championships this Friday, November 8th at 1:00pm in Cherry Hill, NJ. The All
Blues defeated Glendale 39-6 in the finals of the WPL National Championships
last year, but this will be the first time that they play Glendale this season,
as the teams were out of conference.
Glendale this year is undefeated, whereas the All Blues finished the
season at a respectable 4-2 record. To prepare for the game, the All Blues held
a camp this weekend that included all day Saturday trainings to finetune
aspects of the game, as well as held a video session to identify effective
strategies against the Glendale squad. When asked how she felt about the team’s
preparation for Friday, captain Phoebe Boone responded: “I think our game plan
through the whole season has been to build, and I think we’re reaching our
apex, so we’re well primed for the competition ahead of us.”
Head coach Adriaan Ferris was confident that playoffs experience was
a key differentiator for the All Blues, but didn’t want the team to rest on
their laurels. “The past is not the future. We can learn from what’s gone on
before. We can apply ourselves differently. We’ve certainly learned from not
just our losses, but also our wins. We’ve also learned from the training
environment. Semi-final rugby is do or die, there is no tomorrow. We respect
Glendale, and we’ll have to be on top of our game to make sure that we come out
on top. It’s certainly not going to be easy, but that’s what sport is about. It
gives us an opportunity to fight, and that’s what we’ll do on Friday.”
The other semi-final match-up to watch for the day is the Amazons
vs. Beantown game, which will take place at 11:00 am, just prior to the
Berkeley game.
All games will be livestreamed on the USAR Youtube Channel. For live updates,
you can follow the @AllBluesRugby twitter account, or the hashtag #WPLRugby. For more details about game locations and times, visit Your Scrumhalf Connection.