Who took on the and beat the lot

as an extra trial match to have a look at people, and if they liked the look of them they would then get put into the final trial.

“The final trials would then come after the Varsity match.We had nine internationals but it should have been ten – how Bill Crow was never a full international I will never know.”

The game was watched by a record crowd of 67,000 but will never be considered to be one of the classic encounters between the two sides. Cambridge were 1/4 favourites with the bookmakers to win the game while Oxford were on offer at evens and taking them before the game seemed rash.

But a titanic effort from the Oxford forwards kept the much vaunted Cambridge pack on level terms and sent a message of defiance to the Light Blues, who had heavily relied on their big pack of forwards as the backbone of their unbeaten run. But with half-time approaching, Cambridge hooker Charlie Higham took a return pass from Michaelson following the latter’s charge down at a lineout for the opening try.

After the break Sharp dropped a goal for Oxford to level the scores before Geoff Frankcom scored Cambridge’s second try by showing his speed to win a foot race after a kick-chase.

Any hopes of Oxford denying Cambridge’s place in the history books were dashed in injury time when Waddell dropped a goal.

Wintle adds:“The captain Mike Wade and Gordon Waddell, who was Scotland’s fly-half at the time, more or less ran the training sessions and decided tactics.

“You had no formal coaching at the time but we had hugely experienced people playing in the game so I don’t remember anyone else getting involved.

“Gordon used to kick very well, and he decided at that time you could gain a lot of ground by kicking for the touch line.

“I used to have a fairly long pass and he used to stand a far way off and would kick us down into the Oxford half.

“It probably made it not a very exciting game for people to watch but we also had a strong pack.”

Michaelson looks back with pride at his side’s achievement, especially as back then the university circuit included all the best players in the country.

“It was a harder game than anybody thought it was going to be. Oxford were a very good side and it was very close,” Michaelson said. “Eventually we managed to beat them but we certainly didn’t have things our own way. It was a real fight to win it.

“But going through a season like that is something that will never be done again because they don’t play the best teams in the land anymore.

“They only really tend to play other Universities nowadays.”

“We trained twice a week and played twice a week - there was very little studying” -Roger Michaelson