There were two BUCS fixtures on Wednesday 9th February for CURUFC, with the LXs travelling to the University of Worcester and the women's 1st team taking on Oxford at Iffley Road.
The LXs put in a very pleasing performance, emerging 52-12 winners in a match that was closer than the scoreline suggests. This was a physical encounter, with both teams relishing the opportunity to defend with enthusiasm, although the LXs team had slightly more precision and structure in attack. This resulted in a number of tries, shared equally between the backs and forwards.
Alex Froud (Magdalene) was dangerous with ball in hand in the backrow, while Sam Odu (Gonville & Caius) and Ikechi Mere (St John's) combined to good effect in the centres. The front row of Laurence Marwood (St Edmund's), Ben Jackson (Sidney Sussex) and Paddy Harris (Hughes Hall) provided a dominant platform in the scrum.
This now leaves the LXs in 3rd place in their BUCS league, with remaining fixtures to be played against league leaders Oxford Brookes, De Montfort University and Nottingham Trent University.
Later in the evening, the CURUFC women's 1st team played the return fixture against OURFC at Iffley Road. This was a high quality encounter, with both sides demonstrating plenty of passion and physicality. The game was in the balance heading into the final quarter, with CURUFC having scored a good try by wing Dorothy Burrowes (Trinity Hall) following a cross field kick delivered by flyhalf Emma Jones (Selwyn).
The light blues looked to have nicked the contest 10-7 with a further try in the closing minutes of the game, after a period of concerted pressure, but OURFC were not to be denied, mounting one final attack and scoring with in the last play of the game (10-12).
The quality of rugby on display, and the closeness of the contest, indicate that an extremely exciting Varsity Match lies ahead on the 2nd April.