Blues Head to Twickers for Varsity

The Blues and Under 21s squads today travelled to London for tomorrow’s Varsity contests at Twickenham.

Both squads will spend the night at the Lensbury Spa in Teddington, 3 miles from the stadium.

Tomorrow the Blues will be looking to avenge last year’s 32-29 defeat to Oxford, the highest scoring game in the history of the fixture.

Cambridge currently lead the Varsity series with 59 victories against the Dark Blues’ 53, and both teams have won 4 matches in the 21st century, with one drawn in 2003.

The Under 21s, who narrowly won thier last warm-up match against Bedford, will hope to repeat last year’s emphatic 20-3 victory. This year their opposition though have won 6 of their preparation games, and lost just 2.

Blues fly-half Ross Broadfoot, who previously played at Leicester and London Irish and missed the 2008 match due to injury, said the team are rearing to go: “It’s taken forever to come round but now its here we’re all ready to go. The form’s good and we’ve been training really well”.

Oxford’s coaches have gone for an experienced side. Thier starting XV contains 10 of last year’s Blues and Canadian international flanker Stan McKeen is also expected to play a major role at open-side, having played at blind-side last year.

On top of Broadfoot, the Cambridge XV is led by former Australian international lock Dan Vickerman and features last year’s scrum-half – the American Doug Rowe from Hughes Hall – and former Ulster prop Niall Conlon.

The two teams have shown reasonably similar form in the warm-up matches, having achieved comparable results against sides  from Northampton and Saracens.

Most betting firms are making Oxford the marginal favourites, Boyle Sports offering the Dark Blues at 8/13 with the Light Blues at 11/8.

St John’s are the highest-represented college in the two squads with 13 players. The grad colleges St Edmund’s and Hughes Hall both have 7 whilst Jesus have 5.

The Under 21s game kicks off tomorrow at 11.30 with the Blues game at 2.00. Updates on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire 96 and 95.7 FM, 1026 AM and online. The game is Live on Sky Sports. Tickets are available at the gate. The match is sponsored by Nomura.

Cambridge Blues

1. Niall Conlon, St Edmund’s
2. Patrick Crossley, Homerton
3. Tom Harris, Churchill
4. William Jones, St Edmund’s
5. Daniel Vickerman, Hughes Hall
6. Ed White, Jesus
7. Joey Wheeler, St Edmund’s
8. Ben Maidment, St Edmund’s
9. Doug Rowe, Hughes Hall
10. Ross Broadfoot, Hughes Hall
11. David Riley, Hughes Hall
12. Fred Burdon, St John’s
13. Frederick Shepherd, St Edmund’s
14. James Greenwood, Hughes Hall
15. James Richards, Hughes Hall

Subs
Jamie Stuart Davidson Gilbert, St Edmund’s
Andrew Daniel, St Edmund’s
Predee Anuvatnujotikul, Girton
Haden Henderson, St Edmund’s
Jamie Hood, Hughes Hall
Sandy Reid, St John’s
William Balfour, Queens’
Alexander Cheetham, St John’s

Cambridge U21s

1. Nick Rabas, Girton
2. Andy Badcock, Girton
3. Mike Shepherd, St John’s
4. Rob Courtney, Christ’s
5. Charlie Baird, St John’s
6. Tommy Palacios, Fitzwilliam
7. Tom Stanton, St John’s
8. Seb Dunnett, Homerton
9. John Cross, Jesus
10. Ian Childs, Jesus
11. Jonny Porter, Peterhouse
12. Lloyd Ricard, St John’s
13. Rob Stevens, Jesus
14. Ilia Cherezov, St John’s
15. Aaron Sonenfeld, St John’s

Subs
Stuart Brown, Clare
Will Briggs, Magdalene
Chris Hall, St John’s
Frank Sanders, Magdalene
Alex Torres, St John’s
Ben Wilson, St John’s
Miles Daly, Jesus
Mathonwey Thomas, St John’s