Cambridge University Rugby Union Football Club (CURUFC) secured their first win of the competitive season on Monday night, as they held off late pressure to prevail over their local Cambridge rivals in an enjoyable and high-scoring Town v Gown match at Grange Road.

Having been put to the sword by a clinical Loughborough side last Wednesday night in a frustratingly impotent performance, the Light Blues had a chance to use a match against a Town team that they defeated 59-12 last year to restore confidence and iron out the structural mistakes that had proved so costly in their opening match of the season.

But it was the local Cambridge side that gained the upper-hand in the opening stages. Kitted out in black, the first few minutes of the game saw them effectively use attacking line-outs as a springboard for fluid attacks, and superb positional kicking from fly-half Roddy Giles applied an early squeeze on CURUFC. Indeed, it took a superb last-ditch tackle from Rory Triniman to prevent the Town team from opening the scoring via a three-man overlap: quick-thinking from Giles as he quickly tapped a penalty presented Cambridge with what seemed an unmissable opportunity before Triniman’s timely intervention.

Ill-discipline plagued the University side’s game throughout the first half. After just three minutes, repeated infringements at the breakdown a few yards from the Light Blues’ line gave referee Peter Caunt little option but to intervene, and it was CURUFC’s Tom Stanley who saw yellow and was sent to the sin bin for 10 minutes. 

And it was from the resulting penalty, chosen by the Town side as a scrum, that Cambridge went ahead. A set-piece routine involving a missed pass out to Mike Stanway saw the winger use raw pace to beat his man and score the game’s opening try in the right corner. Though the conversion out on the touchline was missed by Giles, the Light Blues will still have been disappointed to be 5-0 down within five minutes.

Down to 14 men and struggling to escape from their own half, CURUFC were fortunate to be dealt a stroke of luck. Big hits were coming in from both sides across the park, but Cambridge’s Greg White’s high-tackle on the halfway line was deemed too dangerous by the officials and the centre joined CURUFC’s Stanley in the sin bin.

Clinical Loughborough leave CURUFC craving a cutting edge

Though this provided some respite, the University side remained under the cosh: the Town side dominated in the scrum and CURUFC’s scramble defence was tested to the limit. Even when the home side were restored to 15 men as Stanley returned from the bin, the 20-minute mark passed with CURUFC having only been in their opponent’s 22 once. Indeed, it was a combination of superb defending by the Light Blues’ forward pack and an inadvertent blocking of Oli Petrides’s run by the referee that kept the Town side from adding to their lead.

Yet CURUFC suddenly managed to find that cutting edge that had been missing against Loughborough. Tenacious work by captain Daniel Dass at the breakdown saw the hosts steal the ball and break, where another poorly-timed Cambridge tackle gave CURUFC a penalty under the posts. Astounding the gathered fans by boldly electing to kick for touch, the University side were richly rewarded as a catch and drive from five metres out saw the Cambridge maul cross the line and Stanley – fresh from the bin – touch down for the try. Fraser Gillies slotting the conversion through the posts to give CURUFC a 7-5 lead very much against the run of play.

But with their confidence restored, the Light Blues’ looked more threatening and the rest of the half was a more even affair. Yet in the 37th minute, the University side’s minds seemed to have turned to the half-time break and it was Cambridge’s turn to utilise the catch and drive to great effect: the local side’s hooker Chayse Tyler was the beneficiary of a rolling maul driving over the line in the left corner, and the try was excellently converted by Giles to take the score to 12-7. And CURUFC were fortunate to go into the break with just a five-point deficit: the last action of the first half saw Cambridge fullback Adrian Enright cut through the hosts’ defensive line, and only a knock-on prevented Stanway from capitalising on this.

CURUFC Head Coach, James Shanahan, had spoken pre-match of his desire to see his team put Cambridge “under pressure and get some confidence in our attacking game,” and his side’s faltering start to the second half would have sent the alarm bells ringing. Within two minutes, the ball squirted out of a scrum on the left side of the hosts’ 22: seized on by Cambridge’s Gareth Baxter, the ball was recycled and spread out to the right where, following a world-class pick-up off his toes by Enright, Stanway grabbed his second try of the game. A successful conversion by Giles left the University side 12 points off the pace.

Over the next 10 minutes, the match came alive. On 47 minutes, the Light Blues’ reduced the deficit by five points thanks to a try from Lola Erogbogbo – his break through the away side’s defensive line set up the line-out that subsequently saw yet another CURUFC rolling maul cross the Cambridge try-line. Fraser Gillies’s conversion attempt went agonisingly wide, leaving the score at 19-12.

Moments later, the scores were level at 19 apiece. Sheer acceleration from Gillies running an incisive line saw the fly-half break the gain line, pop an inside pass to Stanley who fed Brian Du Toit to score a try under the posts, which Gillies converted.

While the University side were looking increasingly confident, the Town side were growing frustrated and making mistakes. Like against Loughborough, CURUFC were monopolising territory and possession but, this time, they had found that cutting edge needed to register points on the board. Lare Erogbogbo’s adept handling set up Du Toit for his second try of the match (converted by Gillies), after he shrugged off a tackle to score in the left corner and take the score to 26-19.

But, despite the Light Blues’ sublime counter-rucking and slowing of the breakdown, a criminal lapse in concentration allowed the Town side back into the game with 7 minutes left on the clock. Cambridge’s number 8, Tom Reed, was allowed to come out the back of a scrum in the centre of the park, stroll easily through a gap and feed Simon Johnson to score under the posts. The try, which was duly converted by Giles, took the scores to 26-26 and set the match up for a grandstand finish.

And it was a stroke of brilliance from CURUFC’s captain which secured the win. Dass seized the ball in the centre of the park, stepped through the visitor’s line and a sharp burst of pace and fast presentation at the breakdown forced the error at the breakdown. The University side were thus awarded a penalty which Gillies, doing well to hold his nerve, converted to send CURUFC three points into the lead.

It was a slender lead that somehow the Light Blues managed to hold onto. Nerves jangled as fullback George Griffiths’s try-saving tackle stopped a beautifully cohesive Cambridge move in its tracks, while the final passage of play saw the referee’s whistle deny the Town side’s Matt Jones the winning try, as he crossed the line following a knock-on.