Oxford win Varsity match again

[The Cube]

The annual Oxford v Cambridge varsity match took place today at the Honourable Artillery Company ground in London. Postponed for a week due to a frozen pitch, it was instead played in steady rain that made handing difficult. Oxford nevertheless completed their ninth successive win, with the final score being 24-6.

However, the win was nowhere near as clearcut as in recent years. At half-time Oxford led with two unconverted tries, and had also been reduced to 12 just before the break following a sinbin. Cambridge proceeded to hammer the Oxford line for fully the first 20 minutes of the second half without reward. A combination of very strong Oxford defence and Cambridge handling errors stopped any score. Oxford's own errors ensured that Cambridge always got the ball back quickly for another go. Finally another error presented Cambridge with a try that made the score 8-6.

The next few minutes were the first time for nearly a decade that Cambridge might have thought they could actually win this game, but Oxford fought back immediately and strongly. In fact, most of the rest of the game was at the Cambridge end, with Oxford getting three more tries.

Attendance was lower than in the last few years, probably because of the change of date, and spectators thus missed the best contest since the move to the HAC. However the losers from the Polytechnic in the Fens got their usual result.