As ever, it’s been a busy first term here at CURUFC which has been aptly bookended by events welcoming old faces back to the club. We kicked off the season with the Women’s Blues facing an Old Girls XV at Grange Road – a team which included 20 ex-Blues, including one who played in the 1994 Varsity Matches!
We brought Michaelmas to a close with the 75th Steele-Bodger match played in front of a sellout crowd of 3,500 people at Grange Road. Guy Steele-Bodger brought a strong team together – including 6 ex-CURUFC players – and went on to win 52-17.
In between, we celebrated The Varsity Matches’ induction into the World Rugby Hall of Fame with a well-attended dinner at Selwyn College. Back in March, the VMs became the 161st inductee into the Hall of Fame (followed soon after by the likes of Bryan Habana and Dan Carter). It was fantastic to welcome back captains from years gone by to mark this achievement.
We also saw our first joint tour with Oxford in over a decade. An Oxbridge alumni team went on tour to HAC RFC in Le Havre in September to celebrate HAC’s 150th anniversary since being founded by Oxbridge players. The tour was organised by CURUFC’s Rob Heginbotham and saw the players enjoy 3 days in the north of France with a game in front of a few thousand people including French rugby president, Florian Grill.
Off the pitch, the losses of our former Co-Chair Nick Koster & former LXs coach Gareth McComb have been felt day-to-day. Both were big presences and widely loved around the club and continue to be missed by all of us. We had great turnouts for Nick’s memorial service at Queens’ College in September and Gareth’s LX memorial game at Grange Road in November to honour their memories and contributions to the club.
The club does, however, continue to thrive. This season we have over 135 students playing across 6 teams with many more playing across college rugby. The women’s Blues are sat comfortably in 2nd place in the BUCS Premier South. The LX club continue in Midlands 2B while the Women’s Tigers compete in Midlands 3A. The women’s 3rd team is due to restart in the new year and again will build towards their Varsity in February.
We’re now looking forward to Lent term where we’ll be welcoming Trinity Western University from Canada to play the men’s Blues for the first time ever, alongside the usual matches against the Armed Forces. The Women’s Blues will be kicking off their year by playing Oxford twice in January in their BUCS league. We also look forward to the annual 88s match on Friday 16th February celebrating women’s rugby at CURUFC, which started back in 1988, where we hope to see as many of you as possible come up to watch the Blues in action for the last time before Varsity.
Lastly, we can’t wait for this season’s Varsity Matches. We’re incredibly excited for the move to the Stone X stadium, home of Saracens, and the start of a new era. It will, of course, be a change from Twickenham, but a new home brings with it an exciting new start for the Varsity Matches and we hope to sell out the stadium. Tickets in CURUFC’s reserved block are now on sale for only £30. Students can buy tickets here, past players & members can buy their tickets here and here is the general public sales link.
I look forward to seeing many of you in the new year!
Jess
CURUFC Chair
