Ben Ransom inspires Oxford to success at Twickenham
TOM Humberstone equalled the Oxford points record in a Varsity match to destroy Cambridge hopes of a hat-trick.
Humberstone, who is attached to the Redingensians club, was able to match the 18-point haul of George Cullen when Oxford triumphed 43-6 back in 2014 with some inspired goalkicking and a late try.
This victory wasn’t as emphatic as that in 2014 but five tries to one was convincing enough, especially when Oxford had to overcome the loss of two forwards, injured in the first 11 minutes.
Humberstone said: “We were under the cosh for the first 30 minutes so our try just before half-time provided a great momentum swing.
“The experience of some of our players at crucial times was priceless but I’m privileged to be part of this and am speechless about equalling the record.”
Oxford possessed that touch of class and nous that professional rugby brings with former Harlequin lock, George Robson, marshalling his forwards in first half adversity before Newcastle Falcons’ Dom Waldouck and ex-London Irish flyer Ben Ransom took centre stage as Cambridge wilted.
Waldouck’s well-judged passing created space for Ransom to cause havoc in the wide channels which resulted in three tries for Oxford’s wings.
Cambridge’s cause was not helped by their strange persistence in box-kicking to Ransom, who regularly beat the first two chasers to put the Dark Blues firmly on the front foot.
Cambridge captain, Nick Koster and flanker, Stephen Leonard, certainly didn’t deserve to be on the losing side, such was their commitment, but behind the scrum they were errorridden and lacked any potency with Mike Phillips resorting to aimless crossfield kicking
In truth had Oxford scrum-half, George Tressider, not been obsessed with box-kicking and been more adventurous at an earlier stage, they could have easily achieved their biggest ever win in this fixture.
Humberstone explained: “George’s box-kicking was an essential part of our plan as we knew we had to be disciplined as sometimes this season we’ve paid the price by playing from too deep.”
Oxford began badly losing John Henry and Sven Kerneis to injuries and falling behind to two penalties from Phillips.
Humberstone kicked a penalty before Waldouck and the strong running Tom Stileman were both held up prior to Joe Morris knocking on to ruin a golden opportunity.
Phillips kicked his third penalty before Cambridge lost two line-outs in succession for their opponents to capitalise with a flowing move which ended with Ransom sending Dan Barley over. Humberstone’s touchline conversion gave his side an undeserved 10-9 interval lead.
That was the turning point. After the restart, Phillips and Joe Story made elementary errors to gift Oxford a platform from where Charlie Pozniak finished off a driving line-out.
Stileman then brushed aside some weak tackling for Oxford’s third before Phillips was yellow carded for a deliberate off-side with Ransom making him pay by creating a second try for Barley.
It was fitting that the admirable Koster should drive over for his side’s try before the scoring concluded when another burst from Stileman saw the supporting Humberstone pick up and score.
Cambridge coach, James Shanahan, said: “We made a lot of individual errors and could have played better but they deserved to win as they had the firepower out wide.
“The tries on either side of half-time made a massive impact but their post-grads made the difference so we just have to lick our wounds and move on.”