Rugby League Varsity Match

The Varsity League Match is an annual rugby league match between Cambridge University and Oxford University. It is played at Twickenham Stoop in London, onthe first Wednesday of March. The winners of the match receive the KJ League Trophy, donated by the father of a former player.

The Varsity Match is one of only three varsity events to be televised and is shown live on Sky Sports. The Varsity Match is currently played at the Twickenham Stoop in front of several thousand travelling supporters and a television audience of around 85,000.

Martin Woodcock and Dave Bulley are the Cambridge University's manager and captain respectively. Dan Garbutt is the Oxford Manager. Simon Dewsbury was the captain, however he has now graduated from Oxford to work in London for Deliotte, who sponsored Oxford from 2006-2008.

The first Oxford versus Cambridge University match took place in 1981. The varsity match has 'discretionary full blue' status.

History

The first university rugby league game was between Leeds and Liverpool in 1968. A year later the Universities and Colleges Rugby League was formed after student pioneers fought hard to get the sport recognised in higher education.

A chance conversation between three Oxford students on a train to Wales to see the touring Australians defeat Wales sowed the seed of rugby league at Oxford, less than two years' later the first-ever Oxford club side, an even mix of students and locals, took to a rented council pitch to play Peckham.

By the end of the 1976 season, they had won university recognition and were able to rename themselves Oxford University Rugby League Club, only the second-ever student team in the South of England.

Cambridge University Amateur Rugby League Football Club was formed in November 1980 by Dick McConnel, a former New Zealand Student International. Their first game took place on 2nd December 1980 against Reading University which they lost 40-2.

The first Varsity match took place on Sunday 26th April 1981 at Craven Cottage, Oxford winnng 16-9 in front of a crowd of over 800.

The first full rugby union Blue to play in the fixture was Cambridge scrum half Simon Roberts, who played under the name "Robert Simons" in the 1983 fixture at Maidstone. The first open double Blue was Oxford's John Risman, son of Bev Risman.

While the mud-ruined 1994 'Farsity' Match ended as a 22-22 draw after 60 minutes play - and was rewarded with a front-page photo in The Times. It is the only draw so far.

The first-ever Old Boys Varsity was held before the 2002 game at Richmond, which Cambridge narrowly won.

The match was screened live on Sky Sports for the first time in 2004.

The 17-16 winning margin for Cambridge in the 2005 Varsity Match was the closest in the events history, Cambridge coming back from 16-0 with 25 minutes left.

On the 28th February 2006, Cambridge University won 44-0. This was the first ever nilling in the history of the match, and it was the biggest margin of victory as well. The match was played at the Twickenham Stoop for the first time.

Past winners

Year Winners Score Venue 1981 Oxford University 16-9 Craven Cottage, London 1982 Cambridge University 30-8 Crystal Palace, London 1983 Cambridge University 25-8 Maidstone, Kent 1984 Oxford University 18-14 ? 1985 Oxford University 8-6 ? 1986 Cambridge University 32-14 ? 1987 Cambridge University 36-5 ? 1988 Cambridge University 18-8 ? 1989 Oxford University 12-9 ? 1990 Cambridge University 20-15 Headingly, Leeds 1991 Oxford University 24-4 Headingly, Leeds 1992 Oxford University 32-23 Headingly, Leeds 1993 Cambridge University 50-18 Crystal Palace, London 1994 Draw 22-22 Richmond, London

Year Winners Score Venue 1995 Cambridge University 16-8 ? 1996 Cambridge University 48-18 ? 1997 Cambridge University 26-22 ? 1998 Cambridge University 24-10 ? 1999 Cambridge University 14-10 Richmond, London 2000 Oxford University 35-17 Richmond, London 2001 Oxford University 22-16 Richmond, London 2002 Cambridge University 22-10 Richmond, London 2003 Oxford University 25-13 Richmond, London 2004 Oxford University 29-16 Richmond, London 2005 Cambridge University 17-16 Richmond, London 2006 Cambridge University 44-0 Twickenham Stoop, Middlesex 2007 Oxford University 20-14 Twickenham Stoop, Middlesex 2008 Oxford University 38-10 Twickenham Stoop, Middlesex

By total wins

ee also

* Student Rugby League
* University Sporting Blue

External links

* [http://www.cuarlfc.com/content/view/12/33/ Cambridge University RLFC site]
* [http://www.ourlfc.org/ Oxford University RLFC site]