Both the CURUFC Tigers (women's 2nd XV) and LXs (men's 2nd XV) recorded encouraging victories in BUCS yesterday. The Tigers won 39-14 over Nottingham Trent University at Queens' College, while the LXs beat Aston University 45-11 later in the day at Grange Road.
The Tigers fixture was played in excellent spirit, with a number of individuals making their debut in competitive rugby. The first half improved as time went on and tries by Sammie Mason (Clare), Polly Hipkiss (Queens') and Shannon Rai (St John's) put the Tigers in a strong 15-0 position at half time. The most pleasing feature of that half was the the strong tackling.
The bench were put on at half time and Nottingham began the second half strongly but a turnover won by the Tigers in their own 22 led eventually to a wonderful length of the field try involving great support play, strong ball retention and use of pitch width that was finished off by Jamie Chen (St Catharine's).
Another close range try from Bethan Jones (Pembroke) extended the lead to 25-0 before Trent opened their scoring with a try and conversion. The Tigers never lost their grip on the game and repeated opportunities in attack led to further tries by Polly Hipkiss and Buzz Gilks (St John's), both converted by Polly Hipkiss. In the final play, Trent scored a fine individual try and conversion and the game ended 39-14.
The LXs fixture was an opportunity for a number of men's players to impress ahead of the Steele Bodger match. The game was played at an excellent tempo, with the LXs managing to maintain their shape in both attack and defence. There were impressive performances from Laurence Marwood (St Edmund's) and Connor Collins (St Catharine's) in the front row, while Alex Froud (Magdalene) and Harry Shaw (Downing) created excellent momentum with some strong carries.
The LXs were in a clinical mood, playing with width and stretching Aston throughout the game. As a result, Adam Wylie (Girton) was able to demonstrate his pace and attacking incision on the left wing. The LXs took control of the game early in the first half and aside from a couple of lapses in concentration, looked dominant throughout the game.
The final CURUFC result of the day was another difficult away match for the CURUFC women. Having travelled to Bristol, the CURUFC women's 1st team were pleased to welcome Captain Laura Bleehen (Girton) back to the starting line up. While the team fought hard, the final scoreline was a disappointingly one-sided 0-68.
The next fixtures on the horizon include a LXs game on Saturday against the United Hospitals (3pm KO), followed by the women's 88s fixture on Tuesday 23rd November at Grange Road (7.15pm), in which the women will take on Oxford University for the first time this season, and then the Steele Bodger match on Wednesday 24th November (3pm KO). Support is very welcome at all of these fixtures.