Stoop in Doubt for Next Year’s Venue as Violence Mars Varsity

After the first London Varsity match at Twickenham Stoop was overshadowed by crowd misbehaviour, it seems likely that next year’s match will have to take place elsewhere.

With two brilliant rugby matches, great KCL-UCL rivalry and no shortage of cheerleaders, you may be wondering who could possibly deny that this year’s Varsity was a complete success.

However the comprehensive 24-7 victory contained just as many incidents off the pitch as on it. 

This sequence of events started with two UCL students bizarrely fighting each other. As the conflict was eventually interrupted, one culprit was seen being escorted away by the stewards, whilst the other lay reportedly unconscious on the concourse.

However the controversy didn’t stop there with a yellow smoke bomb being set off. Following this, large parts of the crowd rushed down to pitch level, with police evidently struggling to separate the two groups as further ejections took place.

The spectacle on the field was also subsequently forced to stop for minutes as the King’s players desperately urged the crowd to settle. During this furore, smoke bomb after smoke bomb was set off as the situation turned drastic.

Eventually the crowd settled, but as the game drew to a close, yet another pitch invasion was carried out, with the majority being jubilant students of UCL. An anonymous member of Twickenham Stoop security staff told The Buzz that the chances of the Varsity ever occurring there again are ‘basically zero’.

It seems that even with a fantastic performance from our men in blue and white, controversy off the pitch will be the aspect of this match which is remembered by most.