The CURUFC Women's Tigers have gone top of their BUCS league, following an excellent 36-7 victory over local rivals, Anglia Ruskin. Again the light blues featured four debutants, with strong forward running and stout defence being a feature throughout the game. The Tigers were generally on top in terms of possession and in a fine period on around the 20 minute mark scored three excellent tries by Poppy Gilks (Trinity) and Polly Hipkiss (Queens'), who also kicked two conversions. This spell allowed the Tigers to achieve scoreboard and pitch dominance, which was never threatened. Further tries from Sammie Mason (Clare), Buzz Gilks (St John's) and Orla O’Byrne (Murray Edwards) and another conversion from Polly Hipkiss consolidated a good victory.
Slightly later in the afternoon, the men's LXs took on Nottingham University in a fiercely competitive encounter. The LXs backrow, including Hugo Lloyd Williams (St John's), Dan Montesino Jones (St John's) and James Pratt (Sidney Sussex) were physical in both attack and defence, while Captain Eoin Finn (Homerton) did well to organise the team. Connor Collins (St Catharine's) was extremely impressive in the loose, although ultimately the LXs were left to lament imprecision in the breakdown and a lack of composure at set piece. A special mention goes to backrow Alex Froud (Magdalene), who found himself playing on the wing to good effect! The final score was 0-8 to Nottingham, which is a significant improvement on the LXs previous fixture with this side and leaves them in fourth place in their BUCS league, with 12 points.
The CURUFC women's 1st team were also hosting a return fixture against Cardiff University at Grange Road. As with the LXs, this match had been disappointingly one-sided earlier in the term, but was significantly more competitive yesterday afternoon. The final score was 5-24 to Cardiff, but the CURUFC women managed to draw the second half and battled extremely hard throughout the game. The defence was much more organised and they managed to cause a strong Cardiff side some problems when going through successive phases in attack. The game was slightly scrappy and handling errors meant there were a number of scrums throughout the day, which prevented the light blues gaining momentum at crucial moments. The CURUFC women finish the term in fourth place in their BUCS league.