The University’s Blues made a positive start to their season, recording victories at both home and away. First, in the second week of September, the Old Boys were put to the sword as the Blues racked up 56 points in an eight-try performance.

Matthonwy Thomas registered the first score, touching down on ten minutes after Donald Blake had slipped through the Old Boys’ defence. Blake soon scored a try of his own, intercepting within his own 22 and running the length to establish a convincing lead.

Recent graduate Fred Burdon pulled one back for the Old Boys, but Matt Thomas cancelled this out as the Blues went into half-time leading 21-7.And though the Old Boys scored first after the break, the second half became a procession of tries for this new Blues outfit: Rob Stevens, Sam Hunt, Tom O’Toole, Greg Cushing, and Ben Martin all went over.

Perhaps more impressive, however, was the performance last Wednesday, when Loughborough Students were defeated 38-19, again at Grange Road.

In a six-try demonstration of pace and power, the University side proved too good for the visitors, with man-of-the-match Blake scoring one try and creating another.

Played in ideal conditions, the Blues instantly looked to put width on the ball and, after several half-breaks, some excellent off-loading by Cook and O’Toole translated an overlap into a converted score for flanker Ollie Wolfe.

Loughborough struck back immediately, capitalizing on the Blues’ failure to gather cleanly from the restart, but from here Cambridge posted twenty-one unanswered points in the remainder of the half.

First, captain Scott Annett turned Loughborough over on their own 22, allowing fly-half Greg Cushing to scythe through, exchange passes with Ben Martin, and finish his own move. Livewire Blake then seized on a wild pass to score on the left-hand side.

Finally, with Loughborough reeling, Blake intercepted again and kicked ahead, only to be felled illegally by opposition hooker Tom Crozier, who was sin-binned  With this advantage in the pack, Cambridge kicked to the corner and a perfectly-executed rolling maul saw second row Jason Kururangi bundle over. 28-7 at half-time, and the Cambridge lion was roaring.

The second half began much as the first had ended, with Cambridge dominant.  Winger Paul Loudon raised a huge cheer by smashing through Loughborough prop Rudland-Thomas and winning a penalty, which Cambridge kicked to the corner.  From the resulting line-out, a first phase backs move saw Rob Stevens throw a flat miss pass to Loudon, who appeared certain to score, only to knock on as he drove for the line.

Undaunted, Cambridge pressured the scrum and forced Loughborough scrum-half Tom Bliss to send his clearing box kick vertical.  As the Blues secured the ball, a wide pass from Blake sent Stevens over in the corner for a 33-7 lead.

A combination of substitutions and the sin-binning of Greg Cushing for not rolling away saw a period of greater parity between the sides, and Loughborough scored from a tap penalty when flanker Joe Atkinson cut back against the grain on 61 minutes.

Still, Cambridge were enjoying the rub of the green, a tendency encapsulated when Kristian Cooke’s mishit drop goal turned into a brilliant touch-finder.

A minute later, Cooke was on the score board as substitute Andy Murdoch ran back a clearance and O’Toole, Stevens and Rob Stephen combined to put the outside centre over on the left.  Although there was still time for Loughborough centre Ben Robinson to exploit a tiring Cambridge defence, the Blues were comprehensive winners.

Despite this performance, the Blues camp was keen to focus on areas of potential improvement.  As substitutions and fatigue took their toll, the line-out and scrum became less secure, while the otherwise brilliant inside defence began to fade.

Coach Tony Rodgers refused to get carried away: “We are looking for incremental improvements, and we definitely got that from our last game.  Some things that we have worked on in training were evident, which is good to see, but there is still a long way to go.”

That much was made clear during the Blues’ weekend trip to Dublin, where the university side went down 17-6 to Trinity College.In horrendous conditions at College Park, the Blues had taken an early lead through a penalty from full-back O’Toole and a smart drop goal from fly-half Cooke.

From here, however, the Dubliners - who compete in the third tier of Irish club rugby - established a control of affaits that was to last until the end of the match: pressure at the breakdown reduced the Blues to thirteen men, while the Cambridge defence was breached twice in quick succession in the second half.

A setback, perhaps, but it should not detract from an encouraging and productive month of pre-season rugby.

The Blues season proper begins with the visit of Northampton Saints to Grange Road on Monday evening. The match starts at 7.15pm.