The Blues came into this fixture on the back of a largely positive start to the season. After losing to Bath University in their opening match, they have enjoyed three consecutive victories over Loughborough, Friends of Cambridge Old Boys and Shelford RFC by increasingly large margins, the latest being 41-11. Northampton Saints provided the Blues with their first professional opposition of the season on Monday night and overturned this trend, but Cambridge were spirited in defeat.

The Saints pack were eager to make their presence felt in the cagey early exchanges, engaging in plenty of off-the-ball rough and tumble. But Cambridge were first on the scoreboard, with their only try of the game coming in bizarre fashion. Mather arose with the ball behind the Saints line after a possession-less maul had progressed ten metres further downfield. The Blues lock had the good sense and selflessness to offload to Murdoch on the left wing, who streaked away from the halfway line to score. Stevens missed the conversion attempt, as well as a penalty straight in front of goal soon afterwards, hitting the left post.

After early Blues success, the Saints pack gained a stranglehold on the game. Completely outmuscled in the scrum by Saints’ professional heavies, the Blues pack repeatedly disintegrated. The referee soon lost patience and singled out Blues tight-head prop Sanders to send to the sin bin. Saints’ numerical advantage began to tell immediately, as a clean line-out ball and quick hands saw Artemyev score in the left corner. The conversion missed and the scores were level at 5-5.

The Blues gained good field position from the restart as the Saints left the catching duties to each other and fumbled the ball into touch. Peck marshalled his forwards well from scrum-half after retaining the line-out ball, but the Blues found no way through.

A series of aggressive penalty kicks to touch took the Saints to within 15 metres of the Blues line. The seven man pack fared no better as the Saints steamrollered their way to an easy, mauling try, duly converted.

Saints then hit their stride with a lively passage of play, featuring flat passes, jinking runs and cross-field kicks. But the Blues held firm to go in for half-time only seven points adrift at 5-12.

The deficit was reduced right after the break, Stevens kicking a penalty from straight in front of the posts. But good tactical kicking from Saints pressured the Blues into a fluffed line-out on their own five metre line. An attacking scrum from this range was only going to end one way, with the Saints number eight Nutley touching down from the base. Oliver missed the conversion, but soon extended the lead to 8-20 with a penalty for offside.

The Saints backs, particularly the back three trio of Collins, Packman and Artemyev, were dashing all night. But the Saints forwards struggled to keep up, allowing Cambridge to steal a good deal of ball at the breakdown. Morrison went a step too far when a ruck had been formed – in the eyes of the referee – and was yellow carded for a professional foul. It was again the Saints forwards who made the extra man count, Onojaife scoring a converted try after another dominant maul.

Parity in numbers was restored when Saints’ Day was sin-binned for a tip tackle just seconds after coming on as a substitute. But the Blues continued to go backwards in the scrum, as their replacement front row were unable to turn the tide.

Saints wore the Blues down until Williams scored under the posts, Hockley converting for 8-34. The game opened up in the dying minutes, as the Blues summarised their doggedness with a final play that took them from their own try line into opposition territory before a knock on eventually brought proceedings to a close.

The Blues had been outmuscled but not outplayed by a professional opposition. They will face a similar challenge from Saracens next Monday night, whose first team are undefeated at the top of the English Premiership. Entry to matches at Grange Road is now free for students – an effort to further boost attendances and atmosphere – as the Blues continue their build-up to the season-defining Varsity match at Twickenham.

This year’s is set for Thursday 12th December and will see the Light Blues attempt to end a run of three successive defeats.