Cambridge University Rugby Union Football Club’s Women (CURUFCW) upped their game on Wednesday afternoon, putting heavy recent defeats behind them to record their first BUCS Premier South home win: 22-0 against their perennial Oxford rivals at Grange Road.

Having been dubbed the ‘Varsity Match warm-up’ before kick-off, the highly-anticipated match was characterised by exciting tactical battles across the pitch. But it was the solid and clinical Light Blues who won through, surely reinforcing the belief that they go into December’s Twickenham showdown as favourites to retain their Varsity crown.

Initially, with neither side wanting to give much away, the game was a cagey affair. Tactical switches – usual CURUFCW scrum-half Molly Byrne joining the pack and Jess Charlton shifting from number eight to inside centre – were taking their time to bed in. 

Nonetheless, it was the Light Blues who began on the front foot: a knock-on from Oxford’s hooker, Pat Metcalfe-Jones, gave the home side a chance to make an early mark on the scrum. But as the opening passages of play developed, the Dark Blues fought back to gain early possession and territory: a superb, jinking run from Elmarie Van Heerden resulted in an Oxford scrum just 15 minutes from the CURUFCW line.

But the Light Blues were able to resist these early threats from the away side, imposing themselves notably on the line-out, despite Oxford’s height advantage. Fly-half Kate Marks' effective use of the ball in the centre of the park and drives from Laura Nunez-Mulder and Livvy Probert allowed the Light Blues to make up the metres and put the away side’s defence under pressure.

CURUFCW struggle to halt the Bristol tide

Yet the match remained in the balance. Passion soon turned into well-controlled aggression, exemplified when CURUFCW’s Sophie Farrant stopped a threatening break from her opposite number Gemma Robson with a crunching tackle on halfway. Indeed, the home side looked strong in defence and impervious to the quick interplay between Oxford centres Millie Rose and Affi Bunting. When the Dark Blues began knocking on the door via a five-metre scrum, superb scramble defence from the home side kept them at bay. 

CURUFCW’s resistance was duly rewarded midway through the opening period. Charlton, whose switch to the backs had been an inspired decision that allowed her to plough through the Oxonians’ defence on numerous occasions, received a superb off-load from Marks. She fed the Light Blues’ skipper Alice Middleton, who used her pace to break through the Dark Blue defence.

While a superb recovery tackle from Sophie Trott denied the Varsity hat-trick hero the opening score, CURUFCW were not to be denied: quick hands down the line after the ball was recycled quickly gave winger Lara Gibson space to hand-off her defender and touch down for the opening try, which went unconverted. 

Buoyed by going 5-0 up, the Light Blues pushed forwards straight from the kick, with debutant Emily Pratt making good ground. Oxford found themselves continually frustrated in the ruck by flanker Molly Byrne. Indeed, the Cambridge forwards continued to dominate, hitting big in defence and relentlessly making up the metres in attack. The scrum remained the home side's main avenue of threat, with Alice Elgar at number eight able to drive CURUFCW forward with quick pick-ups from the base. 

As the first half drew to a close, it was a case of two key mistakes as the scoreboard was put back in business. Charlton’s premature counter-ruck gifted possession to the Dark Blues and Van Heerden came agonisingly close to capitalising – but for a forward pass, the South African might have drawn the side level. And it was a mistake the Light Blues punished almost immediately, as Pratt skipped through the away side’s defence before passing to CURUFWC’s Laura Suggitt who popped it under the posts. A second missed conversion left the score 10-0 at half time.

Oxford came back out for the second half determined to find a foothold in the game, but the opening few minutes were scrappy as a series of penalties and handling errors saw the ball switch sides again and again. Stamping their authority on the game, the Dark Blues nearly pulled a score back but for the sensational tackling work of Marks, preventing substitute Oxonian Anna Gibson from scoring after fine work in the breakdown from substitute Princess Ashilokun. 

Yet five minutes in, CURUFCW found their feet to score the try of the game: Middleton seized on the loose ball and when it found the hands of Gibson, she turned on the afterburners to run 40 yards down the left-wing and score under the posts. A conversion from Middleton took the score to 17-0.

Middleton’s magic fails to save CURUFCW

The Dark Blues were unrelenting in their pursuit of parity, but in their desperation to score, they left gaps in their defence which, at the 60th minute mark, Middleton took advantage of, grabbing a try under the posts to take the score to 22-0.

As the clock ticked towards 80 minutes, there was drama: shortly after substitute Fiona Shuttleworth presented Middleton with a golden chance to score, which she spurned, a dangerous-looking high tackle from Chloe Withers on Ashilokun saw the referee produce a warranted yellow card. 

Under pressure and down to 14 players, CURUFCW toiled away to prevent the determined Dark Blues from grabbing a consolation score. Both teams were putting their bodies on the line, exemplified in the 75th minute as Lydie Thorn pulled away from contact with a bloody nose. Just moments later, the referee drew the game to a premature halt to wave on treatment for a suspected broken leg (confirmed later as a dislocated ankle) for Oxford flanker Anna Gibson.

That the fierce passion with which the teams played had resulted in injury was indicative of the importance of the match for both sides, a fact noted by CURUFCW captain Middleton when she spoke to Varsity after the match.

“Varsity clashes are always special occasions, and the CURUFCW Cambridge Women approached the fixture with fantastic intensity and passion. There have been key aspects of the game that we've been working on in the last weeks and we were really pleased to see that come to fruition on the pitch today,” she said.

“I’m dead chuffed that we’ve got this result under our belt for the BUCS league, and am of course excited that we now have this as a platform to work from ahead of the Twickenham clash in December. We have a tough four weeks of training ahead of us and are looking to continue working on some new combinations we had out on the pitch today.”

“All in all,” she concluded, “A good day in the office!”

Referee: Rebecca Freeman