The two captains pictured at StoneX
Ahead of Saturday's Varsity Matches Mark Taylor caught up with some of our players. Up first are captains Emilia Bushrod and Ben Gompels.
Emilia Bushrod is Cambridge University RUFC’s cap-tain fantastic
Four-hundred and nineteen may be an arbitrary number with little significance to many, but for Emilia Bushrod it symbolises a labour of love to shape equality at Cambridge University RUFC.
During the rugby downtime of last summer, the 26-year-old scrum-half started thinking of the history of the men’s and women’s teams, with the stem of an idea having been created two years previous when caps were first brought in for the women’s team, during Laura Bleehen’s captaincy.
The first men’s Varsity Match was held in 1872, and the only interruptions have been for the two World Wars and the Covid-19 pandemic, but the first women’s Varsity Match did not take place until 1988.
“The men have a record back from 1872 that every man got a Blue, which you get by playing in the first-team Varsity Match, and I wondered whether we could do something like that,” explains Bushrod, who is in her second year as captain of the women’s team.
There were immediate pitfalls as the women started as Cambridge University Women’s Rugby Football Club, before becoming part of CURUFC in 2015, and records were minimal.
It meant that there was no knowledge of how many people had played in the women’s first-team Varsity Matches, but Bushrod was determined to connect the Old Girls through the project.
The chemistry PhD student put together a team of Tammy Samuel, Liz Ward, Krishnaa Mahbubani and Jess Tayenjam to ask how it could be achieved.
“We said from the start that we can’t do Blues numbers like the men do because women weren’t allowed Blues so we decided it would be cap numbers so basically anyone that has ever played in a first-team Varsity gets given a number,” says Bushrod.
“Once we sorted that out, I had to do the difficult step which was to trawl through all the old programmes, talking to old captains, anything we’ve got footage of, there were newspaper snippets that said who played and I looked through all of them.
“Basically, I gave everyone a number.”
The Pembroke College student had to go through each team manually and, as you would perhaps expect, there were some periods of time that were harder than others.
From 2015 onwards, when the Varsity Match went to Twickenham, there were videos from Youtube that could be used, and from the late 80s and into the 90s there was a good degree of knowledge from Old Girls.
“We kind of had a gap from 2003, 2004, 2005 and no-one had remembered that far back the exact details,” explains Bushrod.
“Unfortunately back then, the programmes were printed two weeks before Varsity so if anyone got injured or wasn’t well, or anything like that, and didn’t play, their name was still in the programme.
“Quite often, I would compare the programme with the team photo and they would not match.
“So I had to check. ‘When did you print the programme?’. Finding that out. ‘When did you take the photo?’ Finding that out. Then talking to the captains and asking what they can remember about what went down.”
Through all of the work, they are up to 443 women who have appeared in the Varsity Match for Cambridge.
Traditionally, there is an alumni game each academic year - the Old Girls game - and it is hoped that there will be a presentation this year, on October 5, which can be attended by as many past captains as possible to present that team with their caps.
It is very clear just how much the work means to Bushrod, and the significance that pulling together the past will have on the future.
“I’m Welsh and I feel like rugby runs through my veins, and I’m very passionate about rugby. I’m also very passionate about women, and women not being overlooked or left behind in rugby,” she says.
“I think the fact that the men had such a detailed record and it was kept all the way through and whenever anyone asked about knowing the women’s caps, the answer was no-one has ever done it. That frustrated me.
“I knew that the men got a number, and they are very connected to that number and it’s special for them, and they get their Blues number every year.
“I thought that would be so cool.”
The women’s record is in the same format as the men’s and they will now be maintained together, year after year.
So while 419 will be forever Bushrod’s, in many ways, it will also be special for past, present and future CURUFC players because of the holder’s role in creating the historic archive.
Ben Gompels is savouring the chance to lead Cambridge University RUFC as club captain of the men’s team this year.
The 27-year-old will be earning his second Blue in the Varsity Match at Saracens’ StoneX Stadium on Saturday, March 2, having captained the team to a 15-10 win over Oxford at Twickenham last year, in the absence of the injured Toby Flood.
“It’s been good,” says Lucy Cavendish College student Gompels of his time at Cambridge. “It’s an interesting club just because of the structure of the season, it’s a one-game season. You don’t aim to, but you could lose every game and then win the Varsity and that’s OK.
“It’s much different to men’s league rugby and then BUCS rugby which I played over at Bristol Uni.
“You’ve got quite a short term so it’s quite compact in terms of the training, especially this term building into it.
That training tends to really ramp up and you’re maybe close to that full-time environment in terms of training four or five times a week and playing every week, but then it is quite condensed in that short period.”
Gompels arrived at the club having come to Cambridge to study a PhD in orthopaedic surgery, looking at alternative therapies for cartilage defects.
“Obviously, there is some irony that you’re researching all the injuries while trying to avoid one yourself but, touch wood, I’ve been pretty lucky,” he jokes.
“I think it’s just because I’ve only got one gear so I don’t have to worry about pulling my hamstring or anything!”
Gompels studied medicine as an undergraduate at Bristol University, during which time he played for Premiership club Bristol Bears, and then went to work in Liverpool, combining that with playing for Championship club Caldy.
“Bristol was my hometown club. I played the academy stuff and they had an injury crisis so I got called up and it was great to make appearances for the Bristol first team and we got promoted to the Premiership that year,” explains the hooker.
“I’ve got very fond memories of it. There has been a good line of Bristol players who have come through to Cambridge; Nick Koster, who has sadly passed away, and Charlie Amesbury, so there are a few who have come through that system and made the jump over.
“I spoke to those guys before I came and they really recommended it and enjoyed it, so it was a natural move.”
Gompels, who is also doing some clinical work alongside the full-time PhD, is one of the more experienced players in the squad, but feels that there is a good blend.
“I’m not quite the oldest, but you’ve got players from all over,” he says.
“Hodgy [Byron Hodge] is pushing 35 and has played a lot of rugby, Tosa as well has just finished playing pro rugby in the summer from Japan so those guys are a bit older, and add a bit more steer to the team.
“It is maybe a slightly younger team compared to last year, but I don’t think that much younger in terms of age, everyone mucks in their own things.”
Gompels adds: “The young lads may be better on the socials, the old lads are better at warming up!”
