Tag: ombac rugby

It has been almost a decade since the last time I was a spectator at a rugby match where I was not related to any of the players. As it happens, that last time also happened the be the first professional rugby game I’d ever attended.

Nine years ago on a chilly June night, I piled into a car with my brother, dad, uncles and cousin for a mini road trip to Waikato Stadium in Hamilton, New Zealand. We were on our way to watch the All Blacks and Ireland. My brother had acquired rugby fever during our vacation, however I was considerably less impressed with the sport that everyone described to me as a cross between my favorite and least favorite sports: soccer and American football.

The thing about sports photography is that if you go out and shoot the same sport often enough, you find yourself taking essentially the same photo over and over.

I mean, how many pictures of a guy passing the footie or wrapping up the opposition in a big tackle do you really need to make your point visually? From a player’s perspective, I suppose you can never have too many. But as the person behind the lens, sorting through hundreds or thousands of photos that start to blur together, you start to feel like the BBC’s modern version of Sherlock Holmes: bored.

Given the number of games I attended last year, it’s hard to believe the PRP season is more than half over and I’ve only just now seen my first match of the season. I’ve been to a few D1 games, but only photographed one of those.

Last Saturday was postcard-perfect weather for Southern California. The second half of the game was particularly exciting with OMBAC mustering a much desired win from their Belmont rivals.

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Click here for the full gallery.

Last Saturday was a rugby double-header for OMBAC Family Day down at the Little Q. It was warm enough to almost feel like summer, and the crowd was sizable for such a lovely day. During halftime of the PRP game, some of the Eagles Sevens players came out and ran a demo for all the kids in the crowd. It was pretty freaking cute. Adorable rugby, who knew?

Any time I get to see each of my favorite OMBAC players suit up and get playing time is a win for me, and by that standard Saturday was great (I’ll let you guess who my favorite players are…). In terms of wins and losses, it was more of a mixed bag. The D1 side played well against the first place team, LARC. Unfortunately, the scoreline was not in our favor. Still, OMBAC put out a solid effort and the game was entertaining with a couple of moments to get the fans riled up.