The 132nd Varsity Match will kick off on 12th December. Blues-level sport at Oxbridge is all about the Big One against the Other Place and Cambridge will be hoping to win their sixty-second victory over Oxford, leaving the Dark Blues trailing on fifty-six.

Cambridge has had mixed results so far this season. Light Blue Captain William Briggs explains that his fixture list has been “replete with quality opposition,” made up of “teams with different styles and strengths.”

That said, Cambridge has stood the test of professional opposition reasonably well. On three occasions, the Blues were only overwhelmed by the size of their opponents rather than their skill. Though Cambridge was squarely beaten by Bristol, a five try loss was flattering to Northampton Saints while a strong performance kept Cambridge within one score of Saracens until the dying minutes.

Oxford has fared similarly in the run-up to the Varsity Match. They lost by respectable margins to the professional opposition of the Newport Gwent Dragons and Worcester Warriors, and, most impressively, lost by only seven points to Russia earlier this month.

Briggs notes the difficulty of drawing any conclusions from the two sides’ respective seasons since they played against different opposition.

However, Cambridge’s final fixture before the Varsity Match will be against Sydney University on Monday. Oxford beat the Australians 34-24 earlier this week and it will be interesting to see how scores compare.

When it comes to the Varsity Match itself, while Cambridge has the most wins overall, it is Oxford which has won the last three meetings. Oxford will again be captained by John Carter, who will make history as the first man to captain Oxford in three successive Varsity games.

The Cambridge squad does not feature many returning Blues this year but Briggs does not view this as a concern. The mix of nerves and excitement is the same for all the players.

In any case, big-game experience matters little since “few people involved in the Varsity Match have enough for it to count.” What is needed is “the right temperament to handle the pressure.”

Cambridge felt the pressure in last year’s fixture when they fell to a 26-19 defeat despite leading by ten points at half time. Briggs denies that Cambridge switched off, something no player would do in “a game that’s the pinnacle of years of hard graft.” He puts the reversal down to the fact that the Oxford bench “brought a dynamism to the second half that we weren’t expecting.” He admits that “it rattled us and we lost our momentum.”

The Varsity Match is understandably a nervous affair and tends to be significantly lower-scoring than other games in the season. Goal kicking can end up making the difference, and Briggs recognises that “having a kicker like Don is a fantastic bonus.” Don Stevens’ kicking success rate has improved throughout the season, and he kicked eleven from eleven against London Scottish.

Though Stevens’ reliability is reassuring, Briggs is wary of going into the match with a strategy to kick points at every opportunity, insisting that “we will adapt to the opposition on the day.”

The squad puts a tremendous amount into preparing for the Varsity Match. CURUFC alludes to their rigorous training schedule when describing themselves on their website as “a wholly amateur student rugby club aiming to offer a rugby environment that is as ‘professional’ as possible.”

As well as the intensity of their training in the immediate term, every rugby player runs the risk of long term costs to their health. While Briggs says he naturally has the physique for the game, his “main health concern relating to rugby would be the price my joints will pay later in life from the collisions they’ve been a part of.” He is, however, “happy to pay that price” due to his love of the sport.

Leading Cambridge to victory in the Varsity Match would surely be the highlight of his sporting career.