ROB ASHTON, coach of the Cambridge side who lost more narrowly than the 20-4 scoreline would suggest in the recent Varsity Match, is determined that Rugby League as a whole should make full use of what is, in reality, one of the most prestigious fixtures in its calendar.
Ashton has been at the helm for the Light Blues for the best part of a decade, having joined Cambridge in 2017.
He experienced his first Varsity game the following year and says: “Oxford and Cambridge are the two most prestigious universities in the country, if not the world, and when the opportunity arose to get involved, I just had to give it a go.
“I’d refereed a few student games, so I was familiar with the standard, living as I do in Bedford. I had helped a friend of mine coach at Cambridge previously and had got to know a few of the boys.
READ: Talking Grassroots: Rugby League’s once-big Varsity Match, now almost completely ignored
“Anything I do has to have the right fit, and coaching Cambridge is the right fit for me, and I’m sure we can be very successful.”
He admits: “The set-up at Cambridge was dreadful back in 2017 and the players, including by their own admission, weren’t perhaps the best.
“So, in that sense, I’ve been building from scratch, which is perhaps no bad thing as I’ve felt ownership.
“Cambridge were way behind Oxford for a long time, the annual results illustrate that. Now, however, despite our 20-4 defeat, I’d say that there is little or nothing between the sides.
“Oxford scored with the last play of this month’s game while earlier, in a ten-minute spell, we had a try ruled out which, perhaps because we’d no touch judges, could just as easily have been given.
“Another score was vetoed as the referee felt that the ball was on the dead-ball line (our lad felt differently) and we missed a score through a knock-on with the line begging.
“So that was maybe 18 points lost. And something else that doesn’t help our cause is that Oxford award full Blues for featuring in the Rugby League game while Cambridge award only five.”
Looking to the future, Ashton insists: “The event should be taken more seriously by the RFL as a major part of the Rugby League calendar.
“The Varsity Match could and should be huge as a commercial venture. And there are some very intelligent people who are very emotionally invested in the concept after having featured in the game themselves.
“I’m not bothered about one or other of the teams having home advantage for the match. In fact it really should be at a neutral venue and, as one of the people who put together Bedford Tigers’ bid for League One status, I made the point that the town is midway between Oxford and Cambridge and would be an ideal venue for Varsity.
“But wherever it’s played, it’s an important occasion. The sport itself encourages a passion for Rugby League that many Varsity players who are new to the sport when they arrive at Oxford and Cambridge fully embrace.
“They arrive at university as newcomers to the game and leave it as lifelong fans who, apart from anything else, can have a huge beneficial impact, financially and in other ways, further down the line.
“There are, too, strong Oxbridge connections with Rugby League. The RFL’s former chief executive David Oxley was an Oxford man while two club chairmen, Eamon McManus of St Helens and John Minards, formerly at Wakefield Trinity, are Cambridge graduates.”
On a wider note, Ashton believes that two issues could be addressed for Rugby League’s benefit.
He adds: “We often trot out phrases that, in my opinion, actually undermine the game, such as ‘heartlands’.
“There are thousands of people beyond the M62 who have a strong passion for the sport. That’s a strong fanbase, with many folk deeply involved at amateur and professional level, and we shouldn’t forget that the biggest crowds for international matches are often in the south.
“There’s also a tendency to boast about players being accessible, that you can bump into them into the supermarket. I‘m not at all sure about that being such a good thing. I think we should, instead, put them on pedestals and treat them as superstars, otherwise were selling them and Rugby League short.”
