Photos from 2009 Varsity Match
Varsity team for 2009
Captain’s quote
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- Niall Conlon, St Edmunds
- Patrick Barry Joseph Crossley, Homerton
- Tom Harris, Churchill
- William Jones, St Edmunds
- Daniel Vickerman, Hughes Hall
- Ed White, Jesus
- Joey Wheeler, St Edmunds
- Ben Maidment, St Edmunds
- Doug Rowe, Hughes Hall
- Ross Broadfoot, Hughes Hall
- David Riley, Hughes Hall
- Fred Burdon, St John’s
- Frederick John Alexander Shepherd, St Edmunds
- James Greenwood, Hughes Hall
- James Richards, Hughes Hall
- Jamie Stuart Davidson Gilbert, St Edmunds
- Andrew Daniel, St Edmunds
- Predee Anuvatnujotikul, Girton
- Haden Henderson, St Edmunds
- Jamie Hood, Hughes Hall
- Sandy Reid, St John’s
- William Balfour, Queens’
- Alexander Cheetham, St John’s
Team News
The light blues have had a disrupted build up in recent weeks having had two matches disappointingly cancelled by the Ospreys and Worcester Warriors. London Scottish kindly offered to play another fixture however recent inclement weather prevented this fixture from taking place. With only two further matches remaining to fine tune the light blues before the 128th Varsity encounter we hope that no further disruptions to the remaining fixtures against the Steele-Bodgers XV and Moseley occur. With these disruptions, local Cambridge club Shelford have been assisting with live practice sessions to provide opportunity for the Blues to have a proper physical workout.
The only positive consequence of this is that the light blues injury concerns are slowly curing and one by one the players are returning to provide Captain Dan Vickerman a full complement of players to select from. We also technically went 1-0 up as well with our boys winning the Varsity Rugby Rowing Challenge so we’re in good spirits.
Student tickets
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Match Reports -
London Scottish 38 Cambridge 20
9th November 2009 - The first match of the season away from Grange Road saw the Blues travel to the Richmond Athletic Ground to take on London Scottish. The journey down saw the players focus on achieving the goals collectively set out by the team and put right the errors of the previous match against Crawshays Welsh.
The match began with early pressure from Cambridge as a result of hard running from Freddie Shepherd and tactical kicking from Jamie Hood. The Blues were quickly rewarded when the forwards drove over for a try after a series of pick and goes. However, London Scottish quickly came into the game and reversed the attacking pressure but tireless defence, led by Will Jones and Ed White, kept London Scottish out until a penalty given against Cambridge for offside led to the score 5-3.
This was shortly followed by London Scottish taking full advantage of a poor clearance from Cambridge only to be prevented from scoring by a try saving tackle from James Greenwood. Unfortunately he was also awarded a yellow card for his unselfish play that prevented the opposition from attaining quick ball. With 14 men Cambridge defended well but points finally came the opposition’s way in the form of a penalty try after Jimmy Richards’ attempt at an interception was interpreted by the referee as a deliberate knock-on. Using the man advantage, London Scottish stretched the Cambridge defence to create an overlap and a well executed chip led to a converted try. Before the close of the half the Blues managed to put points on the board with a penalty kick from Jamie Hood bringing the score to 17-8.
At the beginning of the second half the Blues showed their attacking ability when a clean take off the line-out, followed by quick hands through the backs, led to Jimmy Richards slicing through the opposition defence to touch down. After a gutsy first half Ben Martin gave way to Haden Henderson who, at 8, immediately made an impact by reacting well to the wheel of the scrum and brought the Cambridge attack to the opposition 22. But after a series of strong forward carries by the likes of Andy Daniels the Blues failed to convert and allowed London Scottish to clear their lines.
Cambridge began to show real intent of fighting their way back when a great break from Dave Riley, supported by Will Jones and Pat Crossley, led to a London Scottish player being sin binned for not allowing the attack to flow. This was followed by another well executed line out and drive that led to a converted try giving Cambridge the lead of 20-17. During the next period loose play brought several breaks from London Scottish that were cut short by chasing defence, notably from Doug Rowe. By now, with the referee’s decisions going the opposition’s way on most of the 50-50 calls Cambridge could do little to prevent a succession of three converted tries by London Scottish. In the dying minutes a last burst of energy from Cambridge saw huge collisions involving Jimmy Richards and Sandy Reid with the London Scottish players coming worse off on both occasions but failed to influence the final score of 38-20.
The disappointment of having another victory elude the Light Blues was evident in the changing room. Missed opportunities and the failure to execute were what separated the two sides in what should have been a tighter game. In patches the Blues showed what they were capable of and will look to extend these patches for the full 80 minutes in the next three matches leading up to Varsity.
Cambridge 19 Crawshays 19
4th November 2009 - With the last match almost a distant memory away the Blues looked to build on their strong second half performance against Saracens. The team sheet, missing the big names of Vickerman and Maidment, welcomed back the likes of Broadfoot, Reid and several other Blues to face the invitational Crawshays Welsh side.
After a frantic first couple of minutes which saw replacements Ben Martin and Freddie Shepherd take to the pitch the match started to settle with a series of phase plays from the Cambridge forwards. A powerful break from Will Balfour put the Blues within 5 metres of Crawshays’ try-line but they failed to convert. The away side’s willingness to run the ball was evident with several breaks, helped by the Blues’ failure to follow up with a tight defensive line from the kick and chase. Points came the Blues way when captain Will Jones secured a loose ball off the opposition line-out and finished off the attack himself after a series of rucks.
Crawshays quickly replied with a converted try by their centre, formed from an opportunistic kick and chase from the base of a ruck. However, they were punished when a poor clearance kick led to a breakaway run from James Greenwood, off-loading to Freddie Shepherd to touch down with Jamie Hood adding the conversion. The next period saw the solid tackling of Sandy Reid and the commanding defensive play of Greenwood keep the visitors out. At the close of the half another poor clearance from Crawshays resulted in counter attack with quick hands between Jones and Reid to lead to a converted try to end the half 19-7.
Crawshays came out firing in the second half but stubborn defence from Cambridge kept them at bay. First real intent was shown by Cambridge with a great break, orchestrated by Jimmy Richards that brought play from the home 10m line to the opposition 22. However, a lapse in concentration in defence saw Crawshays’ full-back counter for an easy score. After a busy first half Tom Stanton came off which saw Joey Wheeler make a welcomed return to the Blue side accompanied shortly after by Niall Conlon. With much of the ball possession, Crawshays put consistent pressure on the Blues and after an extended period were rewarded with a burst over try which saw the scores tied. Crawshays continued with their willingness to run till the end but were kept out by a tireless Cambridge defence to see the final score 19-19.
There was a marked improvement in the Blues defence from previous matches, especially as the opposition had much of the possession in the second half but the lack of structure at times and the failure to obtain good field position meant a draw against a side the Blues should have beaten. The Blues will look to improve on this when they play London Scottish away next Monday.
Cambridge 24 Saracens ‘A’ 35
19th October 2009 - On a cold evening as the winter chill started to descend on Cambridge the Blues took to the field hoping to right the wrongs of last weeks performance against Northampton against a strong Saracens 'A' side.
The away side started strongly and lack of first up tackling in the first half cost the Blues dearly as they conceded four soft tries. The Blues later rallied through a series of forward drives, ably directed by scrum half Doug Rowe (recently buoyed from a string of online dates) and were unfortunate not to score on the half hour mark. The score finished 28-3 to Sarries at half time with the score line looking ominous for the home side.
However some inspirational words of wisdom from the 'Big Daddy' Vickerman ensured that this Blues side would come out all guns blazing and not go down without a fight. The Blues against top class opposition showed exactly what they were capable of and scored some fantastic tries. The first try coming from Will ‘Potter’ Jones who broke from the back of a maul to overcome a mountain of opposition players and magically touched down using his huge paw to plant the ball over the opposition line. The next score came from Fledging Hood who in typical Hood style drifted in and out of the Sarries defence and beat four opposition players to score a fantastic try. The final try from the Blues came from James Greenwood who touched down in the corner. Greeners after the game attributed all credit for this score to the ladies netball team with whom he has been doing extra training and trying to help improve his step.
The second half of this match was a huge positive for the Blues going forward as they out scored their professional opposition three tries to one with the match finishing 35-24 at full time. The home side showed great character and resolve and now have a tough two week period of training until their next match against Crawshays Welsh XV on the 4th of November. The Blues will work hard to ensure that they can play for the full eighty minutes and hope to gain a positive string of results running into the Varsity which is less than eight weeks away.
Cambridge 34 Loughborough 13
The culmination of two intense training camps finished with the Dan Vickerman's blues squad challenging a youthful and energetic Loughborough side.
Conditions in the evening were absolutely perfect for a free flowing and exciting game of running rugby. The game started at a frantic pace with both sides vying to gain an advantage. Cambridge took an early lead through the well rested glass boot of Ross Broadfoot who again struck home on the 28th minute. Cambridge who were physically dominating their younger opposition failed to capitalise on their opportunities and silly errors both in attack and defence enabled Loughborough to hit back through the boot of Henry making the score 6-3 to the blues at half time. Straight after the interval however James Greenwood pounced on an opposition mistake like Andy Daniel on a cupcake making it 13-3. Loughborough rebutted by squirting over a low penalty five minutes later.
The blues then widened the gap on the 60th minute when the ever present Ed White stole a Loughborough lineout like it was his first kiss and stormed over the try line. A few minutes later the blues asserted their dominance on the match with a well controlled rumble over the line with Andy Daniel popping up to score the try. Further pressure from a scrum forced a penalty try and straight after the conversion Will Jones smashed into an opposition player with as much enthusiasm as Harry Potter winning a game quiddich, much to delight of Tony Rodgers. Lougborough later scored a consolation try on the 82nd minute.
Overall it was a game of two halfs. Overcoming a disappointing start, the home side showed great character and composure after a tough week on the training paddock to earn a comprehensive 34-13 victory.
Improvements can and most definitely will be made as the standard of opposition will undoubtedly get stronger but this has certainly been a very encouraging end to the blues 2009 pre-season.
Player profile
Dan Vickerman (captain)
- Dan has 52 caps with Australia and has been vice captain
- Dan was actually born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1979
- Dan has previously represented the Brumbies and NSW Waratahs of Australia
- Dan is mid way through a 3 year land Economy course at Hughes Hall College
- Dan’s dogs name is Molly
