By the time they get here, they're a bunch of barracudas.
These kids have competed all their lives.
We offer them the chance to play this fabulous sport, which
is everything their mom said don't do.
Don't play in the mud.
Don't hit other girls.
Don't be too aggressive.
They're either hooked, or they go away.
I think it's just so different because it's
demanding in the running, but you've just never hit things
like the way when you play rugby.
When I came to UVA as my first year,
I found this was my group of people, a family.
UVA really wouldn't have been the same
without the group of girls that I'm playing rugby with.
It's hard to get closer to someone
than hitting them three times a week in practice.
I remember I made my first tackle,
getting my shoulder into somebody,
and I was like, this is awesome.
These kids are smart, so we just tell them,
this game is about space, and it's about possession.
You give them just an open plan, and they're
going to do something creative with it.
We give them the keys to the car, and we say drive away.
And this year they're driving to the national championship.
We're all very high achieving people,
so we come on this field.
We just want to do our best and excel
at this thing that we're doing.
The plan is to win.
It's always to win.
We want to continue to go to the finals,
continue to go to the nationals.
I'll go home for winter break, and I won't hit anything
for a month and I miss it.
And I feel like I'm not fulfilling some purpose,
so it's really-- it's something deep.
And when the season is about to begin,
it's just the most exciting thing.