Rugby union is one of the most popular college sports, despite it often meaning spending 80 minutes getting repeatedly thrown into the freezing mud. With one tournament and two rounds of matches already completed, we’re here to catch you up with how the season is playing out so far, and who to look out for as the season builds.

Touch tournament

On Saturday 7th October, the college rugby season kicked off with a touch union tournament featuring 12 teams split into groups of six for the group stages of the tournament. With many new players and some colleges merging to form brand new teams, it was clear that it was taking some time for play to become settled, with handling jitters and miscommunication a strong presence at the beginning of the tournament. However, with matches only being 10 minutes long, stakes were high and one or two dropped balls could easily cost teams a match, with many games being won by only one or two points.

The semi-finals saw the top team from each group face off against the runner-up from the alternate group. John’s, who had already shown their prowess by dominating the group stages, defeated PEST (Peterhouse-Emma-Selwyn-Tit Hall) by a 4-2 win in one semi-final, whilst Robinson just pipped Downing/Caius to a spot in the final with a 4-3 victory.

John’s came out firing in the final, scoring the first try and clearly displaying their intentions to add another trophy to their already extensive collection. The rest of the 20-strong John’s squad continued their support from the sidelines, but it’s safe to say that the rest of the onlookers were rooting for Robinson to cause an upset. In the end the victory was narrow, with John’s taking the win by a point, leaving the final score at 3-2. Robinson continued their pursuit from last season by taking the fight to John’s, but in the end their loss was inevitable against a John’s team that just always seem to just have a little something extra to give.

League matches: round one

This year a new format for league matches with the implementation of three-way fixtures, in which three teams face off against each other in matches lasting 40 minutes each. The first matches of the season saw CCK (Clare-Corpus-King’s) emerge victorious against Robinson and the All Greys, with a 38-5 victory over Robinson and a 24-5 win over the All Greys.

St John’s continued their strong run of form from the touch tournament the weekend prior, defeating Downing/Caius 17-7 and Queens/Jesus 21-0 in their matches. Unsurprisingly, they remain the team to beat this season.

The biggest win of the weekend came for Catz/Hormerton, who stormed to a 46-5 victory over Pirton. PEST had a more unfortunate start to the season, being the only team not to score any points in the opening series of matches, taking losses to both Fitzwilliam/Sidney Sussex and Trinity/Christ’s.

League matches: round two

There was a big turn around for the fortunes of PEST in the latest round of matches. The team came back from a double loss the weekend prior to take victories in both of their matches, with a 14-7 win over the All Greys and a 21-0 win over Trinity/Christ’s.

CCK continued their strong run of form from the previous weekend by defeating Downing/Caius and Catz/Homerton. Their win against Catz/Homerton was the lowest scoring match so far, the only points coming from a drop-goal in the dying moments of the match to secure the 3-0 win.

Robinson brought their A-game this week, taking it to St John’s in a match that ended 27-26. Churchill/Magdalene didn’t make the match, meaning they didn’t even attempt to battle these top teams, leaving John’s to join CCK as the only teams undefeated after the first two rounds of matches.

So far, not much is amiss from last season at the top of the table, with John’s keen to carry on their seemingly everlasting dominant streak, but CCK and Robinson provide hope for an upset as the season progresses.