It’s that time again. The rain seems slightly warmer, the clouds marginally brighter, and England are jetting off to a major international tournament. As ever, along with the open-toed sandals and (optimistic) shorts, the arrival of the footballing summer has brought with it the media storm that, with a sapping inevitability, accompanies any England squad boarding a plane towards disappointment and, intermittently, humiliation.

The furore surrounding Rio Ferdinand’s omission from the England squad in favour of Martin Kelly, coupled with the last minute injuries to Frank Lampard, Gareth Barry, Gary Cahill and John Ruddy has meant that preparation has been far from ideal. This England side is not one to inspire; it lacks flair, contains John Terry, and is missing its most influential player. It is, however, functional, and if the past few international tournaments have taught us any thing, it’s that functionalit y and rigid, disciplined systems work.

This year’s Euros will not excite the tactical anoraks. If, like me, you get far too excited by asymmetrical formations, three player back lines and marauding centre-backs then prepare for disappointment. We will have to make do with firm 4-4-2s, solid 4-2-3-1s, stifling 4-5-1s and retentive 4-3-3s. Holding midfielders will abound, James Milner will start on the wing, and the defence splitting ball inside the fullback will be shelved in favour of the quick shovel out wide. The key, as it has proven to be for the past few years, is not to concede.

The inclusion of Martin Kelly over Rio Ferdinand is an interesting one, but not for the same reasons that have everyone shouting and getting cross. Rather, Kelly’s inclusion takes the number of Liverpool players in this England squad to six, and is indicative of the modern international manager’s tendency to maximise domestic connections. The modern game is a fluid beast and the best sides are the cohesive sides. As international managers have little time with their players, they tend to focus on defensive positioning in order to make their team hard to break down.

This is reasonable, as a solid base is necessary to progress in a knock-out tournament, but it results in sides where – especially with teams playing 4-4-2 – the movement from back to front can break down. The Republic of Ireland, playing their final warm-up game against Hungary, were held to a 0-0 draw as their midfield withdrew to shield their back four and failed to adequately link up with the front men.

Quick movement from defence to attack relies heavily on cohesion and understanding between individuals, and as a result we can see a marked increase in the number of players in starting XIs who, while perhaps not the best individual players in the squad, play together in their domestic leagues. Six of Russia’s starting XI are drawn from Zenit St. Petersburg, four others are drawn from CSKA, and the Czech Republic side relies on a core of Limbersky, Rezek, Pilar and Jiracek, all of whom play, or played, for Victoria Plzen.

The same is true of Italy, built from the spine of this season’s unbeaten Juventus outfit, Spain (who rely almost exclusively on players from Barcelona or Real Madrid), and Germany, whose team is built around a base of Bayern Munich players. England have attempted to adopt a similar approach; pre-injury, three of the starting back four played for Chelsea and, depending on whether Carroll or Welbeck starts the first game, the front two can be drawn from either Liverpool or Manchester United. The inclusion of Andy Carroll, Jordan Henderson and Steven Gerrard in the squad is surely the only reason that Stewart Downing made the plane, as it allows for an offensive unit that plays and trains together week in, week out for the same domestic side. Given the reliance on club links, the championship itself could be decided by how well these connections translate onto the international stage.

As far as England goes, Roy Hodgson has adopted the correct approach for the tournament ahead. Hamstrung by an eleventh hour appointment, constrained by injury to Jack Wilshere (arguably England’s only player who fits the blueprint for the modern central midfielder) and hindered by suspension to Wayne Rooney, Hodgson’s task was and is to make England as hard to beat as possible.

As dire as it will be to watch, it may prove sufficient to progress past the group stage. With Parker sitting, Gerrard providing a link between the back five and front four, Milner tucking in to provide cover in central midfield and Ashley Young, Theo Walcott, Glen Johnson and Ashley Cole providing overlapping outlets, England have the potential to be a difficult, if dour, opponent.

Theo Walcott has 24 goals and 22 assists over the past two seasons, a far better return than any other English winger, and should start against Ukraine and Sweden. His defensive frailties may mean that Milner gets the nod on the right against France, with Downing slotting in on the left, but Walcott could prove key to England’s fortunes. Pace is an essential asset for any counter-attacking side, which England will have to be should they progress into the knock-out rounds.

Fortunately, with Young, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Walcott, Welbeck and Johnson, they have it in abundance. Hodgson’s tactics will be to soak up pressure with a compact defensive unit, before shifting the ball quickly forward and out wide in an attempt to stretch the defence and provide space for the strikers and Gerrard.

It won’t be pretty, but it could work. If pressed for a prediction, I’ll take Germany to win, Spain second, England to get through the group stages and lose in the quarters.

My experience of Spanish rugby began with the destruction of a truth I’d previously considered incontestable: that Astroturf was only for hockey and five-a-side football. It was with this worrying news that I took to the plastic in 30 degree heat with the Theta Cisneros, a team which takes its name from a play on words involving a letter of the Greek alphabet and the Spanish word for breast.

Rugby has a long and proud heritage amongst those who are part of its community in Spain, and the Spanish Federation currently has more registered senior male players than Scotland. The national side reached the 1999 World Cup group stages, while Oriol Ripol, who won the Premiership with Sale Sharks in 2006, is probably its best known name. My club, C.R. Cisneros, was based at one of the colleges of the Universidad Complutense. Its First team was recently promoted to Spain’s top league, the División de Honor A. The Theta, however, battled several rungs further down in Madrid Regional Two. Having always had a passion for rugby inverse to my ability and physique, I was looking for a recreational and social experience. Thankfully, this was much in tune with the rest of the Theta, a team which, in my opinion, exemplifies all that is good about rugby.

The team’s home ground, Paraninfo, is comfortably the worst pitch I’ve ever played on with the exception of its alternative home ground, Cantarranas. Both were rock hard, becoming mudbaths after rain. I soon learnt that the exfoliation sessions on artificial pitches were the lesser of two evils. The Theta was led by the indefatigable captain Cuartero, who composed one match report in the style of a Spanish ballad, and another as the diary of a seaman aboard a naval ship. In both cases, the style was carried off superbly. Arguably though, the team’s spiritual leader was talismanic playercoach Gonzalo ‘Zoydberg’ Benito, a swashbuckling and hugely adept number eight.

Indeed, it was clear that Zoy had honed his skills during many a Theta season spent at the base of a fast-retreating scrum. Madrid Regional Two, as it turned out, was a bit of a graveyard for running rugby, full of very big, very slow men. The Theta is largely made up of students and I think we gave away 10 to 15 kilos per player against most teams. Trailing by thirty points at halftime, we would invariably mount a plucky comeback against an exhausted opposition, in a race against time to overturn the deficit.

Sometimes we scraped to victory, sometimes we were beaten by the clock, but there was rarely dull moment, and a battle against relegation became a charge up the table to a respectable fifth placed finish. However, the Theta is not really about the quality of rugby but rather the enjoyment of the sport and everything it offers. It is a social union as much as a sporting one, and Cisneros as a club puts the values of rugby at the forefront of everything it does, doing tremendous work in introducing young men and women to the benefits of rugby, both on and off the pitch.

Such is the enthusiasm of those already involved in the sport it’s not unrealistic to expect Spain to compete in a good few World Cups in the next 20 years. As I see it, there are two main issues for the Spanish federation to tackle. The first is that a lot of players only take up rugby at university, meaning that they miss out on years of skills training and game understanding. Most tier three and low tier two countries produce decent athletes but lack the intuition of the world’s best players, the result of not growing up around the game.

The second problem for Spain is simply a lack of good facilities. The Complutense’s pitches are used for training and matches every week, not only by the college sides, but also the faculty sides, as well as the Cisneros and its entire academy. For those taking up the game, rugby is just not as fun on such surfaces. Grass is a precious commodity and difficult to manage given the climate, while synthetic pitches require investment.

However, until such investment arrives, I’m sure that rugby in Spain will continue to thrive in spite of the obstacles it faces. As for the Theta, I hope they one day make it to Regional One.

After eight issues that’s it for us at Cherwell Sport for the term, so we’re feeling quite elegiac. With emotion running through the Choffices it’s time to take a look back at our favourite bits of the sporting term.

The obvious repeated theme of our reporting all term, the rain has been the big non-negotiable when we think about this Trinity. It’s affected everything, making some sports unplayable, raising fears of cancellation for some marquee events like Summer Eights. Sodden matches of croquet aren’t what we’re used to, and the hail really changed hockey matches. Despite some people’s best (actually quite shoddy) efforts to debate to the contrary in these very pages, the deluge has to some extent marred this term’s sporting endeavours. For that, and in honour of every journeyman county cricketer who spent all Easter bathing his Duncan Fearnley in linseed oil, the rain is our villain of the term.

An unlikely candidate for one of our favourite moments would be the previously unheralded Freshfields Rugby 7s tournament early on at Iffley Road. Played in the perfect spirit, the rugby on offer veered from the sublime to the absurd. The stand – which reverberated with the sounds of an impressive number of fans – was a happy place due to the combination of free beers and free hog roast. It was, quite simply, glorious.

Still, the true highlight of the term has to have been 5th week. Casting all thoughts of 5th week blues into the (previously rain-filled) gutter, it was a beautiful week. As the sun first peeked out on the Monday, and then burst into full flame on Tuesday, it watched over an eclectic mix of sports. The cycling road race Varsity was something very different, as St. Giles was appropriated by Halfords and a voluble commentator, and though the Dark Blues were trounced it was a good day out nonetheless.

The real twin peaks of the week though were Summer Eights, which turned even the most ardent anti-rower into a blissful boatie (for Saturday at least), and the Varsity Twenty20 cricket match. Both were enormously well-attended by boozey crowds grateful for the excuse for a day out in the sun, and turned fifth week from good to great. College sport, when it could take place, was as ever a joy to behold and participate in, the real reason most of us got involved with this in the first place.

There’s plenty left to come however. One of the most keenly-awaited events is the croquet Cuppers final. It’s often noted that it’s the competition with the most entrants in Oxford, and the final should bring a (hopefully dry) highlight to term for four lucky people. Croquet is often unfairly pilloried, and few would describe it as a spectator sport, but the University Lawns are in a glorious setting in Parks. The up-shift in quality of grass between them and your average college quad is extraordinary, so going down to watch some top-level croquet (my pick would be the Teddy Hall 1st IV) wouldn’t be a bad idea.

The Dark Blues may have been successful in the Varsity Twenty20, but there are contests left to come for OUCC. After the sun-bathed victory on Friday of 5th week the next big date in the calendar is the 16th June (the last day of term), which sees both the men and women of Oxford cricket club taking to Lord’s for their respective fifty-over Varsity games. After a respectable break the 4 day Varsity, the pinnacle of the OUCC calendar, is set to take place from the 24th – 27th June, back in Parks. I can’t think of many more idyllic ways to spend a few boozey post-exam, essayless hours than in front of the cricket with (God willing) the sun out.

Tomorrow, on Saturday 9th June, sees the Polo Varsity match. If anyone has the means to get themselves to Windsor in time then there’s a real spectacle at hand. Sponsored, of course, by Jack Wills, the day has much more to offer than just the Oxford-Cambridge game. Two Old Boy games in the morning are followed by the Eton-Harrow match and then the other side of the Varsity game as Harrow play Yale, so there’s more polo than anyone could reasonably want on offer.

Also available for a summer’s day out supporting the Dark Blues are the tennis Varsity matches. Near Richmond in Roehampton the games happen in early July, between the 3rd and 5th of that month. While it may not be the most prestigious or best attended south London tennis tournament in early July, the players would certainly appreciate some support. Oxford may already have won enough Varsity matches to secure overall dominance over Cambridge this year but there are crucial fixtures ahead.

Turning away from the University scene, there is still hopefully a huge amount of college sport left to be played. Sticking to college cricket alone, most teams could probably fill the next two weeks purely with rescheduled games. Any sunny day currently sees a rush of excitement and activity, followed by inevitable disappointment when it’s remembered that rain the previous days has meant that the pitches are far too waterlogged. So with a few dry days there’ll be non-stop shoddy cricket to watch. Presumably mixed netball Cuppers will be rescheduled too, and that should be a real sight to see, with ill at ease men attempting to keep their heads above water in a riot of competitiveness.

That’s about it then, leaving aside of course the spontaneous pick-up games of parks football and cricket that pop up in any summer worth the name. It’s been emotional, but we bid you farwwell.