Cambridge lost to armed forces opposition at Grange Road on Wednesday night for the second time in two weeks. Cambridge were competitive throughout, and showed vast improvement on their humiliating show against the army last week. But they would have been hoping for much better than a 23-17 defeat in a fixture they traditionally win.

After the sides traded early penalties, the score remained 3-3 for much of a low-scoring first half. Following the atrocious conditions last week, Cambridge were eager to exhibit their running game and were happy to play ambitiously from their own 22. Still, they were on the back foot for most of the half. They showed stout resistance in defence, as the RAF backs could not find the killer pass, nor could their forwards batter a way through.

However, the RAF got their try with the last move of the half. One slipped tackle allowed Downsborough to gather an offload and go over for the try. Byrne converted to give his side a 10-3 lead going in to half time.

After a promising move from Cambridge at the start of the second half, the RAF had the first opportunity for points, though Byrne’s 40m penalty attempt hit the post. But the RAF began to break the gain line with consistency, leading to prop Coghlan trundling over for his side’s second try.

A spark of brilliance brought Cambridge back into the game, as Harry Peck weaved through some scrum-half-sized gaps in the RAF defence. After almost getting to the line himself, a few shaky offloads saw Murdoch touch down for Cambridge. Thomas slotted the conversion, but Byrne soon responded with a penalty to extend the RAF’s lead to 18-10.

With the RAF now two scores ahead, a comeback became more unlikely as Viljeon, immediately after coming on as a substitute, was sent to the sin bin for tackling a man in the air at the restart. The RAF began to regain the upper hand, with the forwards huffing and puffing their way to a third try, credited to Craig, to make the score 23-10.

But the referee saw fit to even up the numbers, showing the RAF’s Downsborough a yellow card. The Cambridge pack fancied their chances on level terms, and powered their way towards the RAF line with a 15m driving maul, before Montgomery peeled off for the try. Thomas’ successful conversion put Cambridge back in touch at 23-17.

The RAF’s discipline continued to the fail them, and with Cambridge back to full strength, a yellow card for Craig briefly gave Cambridge a two man advantage. A red card for the RAF’s Coghlan for foul play then maintained Cambridge’s numerical superiority. But despite some aggressive kicks to touch from Thomas giving his side a platform, Cambridge were unable to make anything of the last few minutes, falling to their third defeat of the term.