VARSITY MATCH
Brendan Gallagher looks ahead to Tuesday’s Twickenham showdown
WHEN it comes to helping bond a disparate group of rugby players together in three or four hectic months Tom Mitchell has more experience than most.
Five years ago he scored the clinching try in Oxford’s Varsity match victory over Cambridge and this year he skippered the hastily constructed GB Sevens squad that defied the odds and returned with a silver medal from the Rio Olympics.
Both were priceless rugby experiences involving huge leaps of faith and dedication and Mitchell, who has been back in action for the England Seven in Dubai this weekend, is proud of both.
“It’s the 12-week process of with the team that is special about the Varsity match,” recalls Mitchell, a man of Sussex who learned his rugby at East Grinstead RFC and Worth College. “A lot of these guys make huge sacrifices aside from their academic work to ‘put into’ the Varsity match and that experience of coming together for one future goal is an amazing one and not one you can easily replicate. I loved it.
“The Varsity match is one of the brilliant pillars of student rugby, and amateur rugby as well that’s why it should be celebrated. And it comes with a fair bit of pressure. When you are at Twickenham on match day it seems like the be-all an end-all and to experience all that really sets you up for bigger games going forward.
“I can’t speak highly enough of the experience student rugby gave me, not just with Oxford but with Bristol and England Students as well because it allowed me not only to be a bit more professional in terms of the training but it gave me a bit of perspective when I went into the professional game. I understood more about myself, more about rugby, more about the world.”
The challenge with the Great Britain Sevens this year was not dissimilar. Certainly the clock was against them and there was a large element of players introducing themselves to one another at the beginning of the odyssey. After playing as England, Scotland and Wales in the World Series, a GB long squad of 27 was then announced that also includgrowing
the last two Varsity matches.
Dass says: “Even though we lost, 2015 was a fantastic experience and a great game. It was so disappointing to lose, but it was still a great season that built us as a team and me as a person.
“We’ve gathered a bit of momentum with four wins in a row, but we know that that still won’t be good enough on its own against Oxford. We will have to play better than we have been doing to win at Twickenham. We’ve had some highly competitive games and when we stick to our structures, we look really good.”
The only other member of last year’s pack remaining is that hardy annual Will Biggs at prop who will equal the record of six appearances in the fixture held by Oxford prop Lewis Anderson and Cambridge’s Herbert Fuller from the mists of time in the 19th century when he was ever present between 1878 and 1883. Fuller failed to record a win although his teams did manage two draws.
Alas thus far victory has also proved elusive for Briggs who popped in a cheeky two-year phd in the middle of his Medical degree, a process which involves a minimum of eight years in residence at Cambridge. He missed out on selection as a fresher but has played in the last five Varsity matches and will still be around next season if the regulations permit him to play. The regulations on that one are not clear but can wait for another day.
“There has been a lot of changes this year and that has given us a new lease of life and we have built some confidence. On a personal level it’s been great this season, a new set of guys and a new set of friends facing an old challenge. I love all the rituals as we get close to the big game – the announcing of the team, the port and nuts – and it is such a huge privilage to play at Twickenham once a year.
“Why have Oxford done so well recently? Well you have to say they are mentally tough, they have a good coaching set-up and have enjoyed good continuity in terms of players. They have been able to develop an effective game plan. We must counter them with a better plan.”