Having won the Varsity match for the first time since 1999 last year, this match was either an opportunity for Oxford to begin a period of dominance in the pool or for Cambridge to cancel out last year’s loss. The Oxford team arrived at the Parkside Pools in a buoyant mood having already beaten the Tabs in BUCS competition earlier in the year, making the national final and seeing Cambridge relegated to division 2. However, the opposition produced a strong performance and the closest and fastest match in over 20 years followed, eventually leading to a dramatic Oxford victory.

In the Varsity swimming match there are seven individual events with each team entering two swimmers, as well as two relay events with one team entered in each. Oxford started strongly in the women’s 200m Individual medley with Alex Holderness finishing first and Rozz Bray third to take an early lead. In the men’s individual medley Will Alle decimated Cambridge, but a harsh disqualification of Osband allowed the Tabs to reduce the deficit. Two impressive swims in the female backstroke from Cambridge led to them taking the lead at 16-13. The Oxford backstroke boys however, swam strongly to finish second and third behind Tom Rootsey, a Cambridge fresher who posted the fastest ever time by a swimmer from either university.

The women’s 200m free drew Oxford back to onto level terms with a Dark Blue one-two from fresher Ann Hyams and girls captain Clare Kane, with Kane storming through in the second half of the race to touch out the tab. The men’s 200m was an incredibly exciting race with Oxford record holder Richard Hildick-Smith ahead at half way, but another impressive Cambridge fresher, Andy Corley, had too much in the second half of the race and Oxford finished in second and third. The times being swum by both teams however were remarkable, as the third placed time in that race would have won Varsity in eight out of the last ten encounters. Cambridge took a small lead in the women’s 100m butterfly finishing first and third, but Jack Marriott and theOxford Team junior Kouji Urata swam a powerful butterfly race to smash the tabs into third and fourth place and give Oxford a 41-38 lead at the interval.

The next race was the 400m freestyle, a new event for the women in this year’s Varsity match, and saw an impressive swim from captain Kane to post a new Oxford record time of 4.41.14, just behind the Cambridge swimmer. Varsity veteran Louisa Jurkiewicz came from behind at the half way mark however, finishing third to secure some vital points for Oxford. The men’s 400m followed with two very impressive Cambridge swims taking first and second and seeing Andy Corley smash the Cambridge University record in 4.01.54, with the second place time of teammate Rootsey also inside the winning time of four of the last five Varsity matches.

The next event was the 100m breaststroke, traditionally dominated by Cambridge and saw no upsets with them taking first and third in the women’s and first and fourth in the men’s. The women’s 100m freestyle saw another very impressive swim from ex-Wales international Alex Holderness to take first place, with the tabs in second and third. The men’s however saw ex-Cambridge swimming captain, now Oxford PhD student Tom Close swim 52.18, obliterating both the Oxford and Cambridge records, with Will Allen-Mersh taking second for the dark blues. With the individual races finished the overall score was 70-69 to Oxford, meaning two out of four relay wins would seal them victory.

The first relay was the women’s 4x50m medley for which Cambridge were strong favourites and managed to put clear water between them and the Oxford team, much to the delight of the home crowd. The men’s 4x100m medley relay however was set to be much closer with Oxford having won the butterfly and freestyle individuals but Cambridge the backstroke and breaststroke. The backstroke leg saw Rootsey take a strong lead for the light blues, however ex-blues rower James Soane swam a powerful breaststroke leg to claw back Cambridge captain Ho-on To despite being pipped by him in the individual.

At the half way point Oxford were down by two seconds when fresher Jack Marriott dived in. He motored down the first 50m to undo the Cambridge lead and just gave Oxford 1st place as current 50m freestyle record holder Varun Divgikar began his leg. He swam a rapid first 50m as was expected to maintain the lead however, unfortunately for the dark blues, the endurance of Corley came through for the tabs on the last 25m to take the race. Oxford however posted a time of 3.58.98, shattering the old record by over 3 seconds and inside the previous Cambridge record. Losing the two medley relays meant

Oxford had to win both of the remaining two races to take the trophy.
Although the crowd may have doubted the visitors, the Oxford swimmers clearly had the self belief required. The women’s 4x50m freestyle relay saw Rozz Bray dive in and swim a fast leg just behind the opposition, allowing Ann Hyams to overhaul her opponent in the second leg. After taking the lead, they never looked back. With the whole team pushing her on, Jurkiewicz maintained the lead before Holderness put clear water between herself and her opponent to win the race.

With their hopes still alive, the Oxford men showed their class in their freestyle relay, with four emphatic swims destroying the Cambridge team by over 8 seconds and finishing inside the Cambridge record. Ironically it was ex-tab Close who touched the pad at the end of the gala, signifying the transfer of power in Varsity swimming. The final score was 90-89 to Oxford, with the dark blues also winning the men’s trophy 46-43 and Cambridge taking the women’s 46-44. Being the first Oxford team to win in Cambridge in over 10 years clearly meant a lot to the team, and the celebrations started in earnest. Looking at the depth of talent in this team, the future looks promising for Oxford’s swimmers.

A stuttering England performance gave Martin Johnson his first win in this year’s Six Nations campaign. On an icy cold afternoon at Twickenham, England were fortunate that former Oxford Blue, Nick Mallet, now the Italian coach, made arguably the worst decision in his coaching career to date. The attempted reinvention of a world class flanker, Mauro Bergamasco, to scrum half, contributed hugely in giving England their first half lead. A hat-trick of horrors from Bergamasco at 9, gave England a 19-0 lead after thirty minutes. In the first minute he joined in a ruck, forgetting his scrum half role. The subsequent lack of an Italian scrum half led to the ball being kicked ahead by England for a line-out, from which the opening try was taken over by Goode with barely 60 seconds gone. Goode is currently the top scorer in French rugby but, despite a positive start, he produced a less than effective performance at fly-half. His opening kick and early try briefly silenced his doubters; over the remaining 78 minutes he kicked poorly and lacked authority.

As the first half progressed England exploited Italian errors with Harry Ellis scoring in the seventeenth minute and Wasps’ Ricky Fluety following suit shortly after to record his first international try. The Fluety try came on the back of another dreadful Bergamasco mistake; a horrendous loose pass which sailed over the head of team-mate Garcia, allowing England to push on and score. After 30 minutes of rugby the writing was on the wall for Italy. Both teams exchanged penalties, with Mclean kicking well, and as half time approached the score was 22-3. James Haskell received a deserved yellow card for a mindless trip (when will he learn?) and Mclean sent another sailing between the uprights to bring the score to 22-6 at the interval.

The second half started positively and more fluently for Italy. With the substitution of Bergamasco for Toniolatti, an actual scrum half, the Italians demonstrated more structure and looked to attack, something not seen in the first half. With injuries hurting both sides, the number nine position was without a doubt the defining issue of the match for Italy. Following the game pundits described Bergamasco’s play as ‘the worst we have ever seen by a professional rugby player at international level’.

Mallet himself would have substituted him earlier had he not had such respect for the player with 69 caps, none unsurprisingly at scrum-half. Though Toniolatti holds just 2 caps to his name he played with more conviction and might have been able to pull Italy back into what could have been an even game. Whilst Italy were mired in their own selection dilemma, England’s scrum-half, Ellis, was demonstrating his pace, cantering over for his second try of the match. He was eventually handed the ‘RBS Man of the Match’ award, after a reasonable performance in an otherwise uninspiring contest.

Italy soon had a real chance of putting some points of their own on the board though, when Delon Armitage‘s ill-timed kick was charged down. Unfortunately for the Azurri, they were unable to control the bouncing ball, agonizingly knocking on. With increasingly limited service to the backs a new approach was needed. Martin Johnson used the 29-6 points cushion to experiment with substitutions by bringing Shane Geraghty and the uncapped Ben Foden into play.

The ill discipline of both sides, but particularly of England, marred play. After being on the pitch a mere three minutes Shane Geraghty made the same walk of shame that James Haskell had taken in the first half after a brainless and dangerous tackle. England need to cut out this kind of thoughtless play if they want to regain their status as one of the top sides. Italy, meanwhile, used the advantage of the extra man to put the English defence under real pressure for the first time during the game. It resulted in a try, bulldozed over the line by Mirco Bergamasco, brother of Mauro. At 29-11, England had the last say with the experienced Cueto dancing for the line; the try was converted and victory was England’s at 36-11.

This five try performance flattered an inexperienced England. With five defeats in their prior six tests it was essential for Martin Johnson’s side to get the victory- albeit in an unconvincing fashion. The lack of discipline was put down to ‘enthusiasm’ by Jonno, yet the giving away of penalties against a side such as Ireland, and against kickers like Ronan O’Gara, would be severely punished. The penalty count during the calamitous Autumn series hurt England badly and has clearly not been stamped out yet. Where does this performance leave England and Martin Johnson’s camp? Clutching at straws perhaps? The team has very little time to improve before Cardiff next weekend. Wales are no Italy, and this match will surely be a hugely tougher and more physical test against the Championship defenders. England supporters must hope that Tindall makes a swift recovery and that the team conduct affairs with more authority, control and discipline.

One of the key question marks over this England team is that of the all important number 10 shirt. Cipriani, in his current form, will surely not be thrown into the deep end against Wales-yet it is widely believed that Andy was unfortunately not Goode enough and never has been, ‘If Goode were an international player he’d have 50 caps to his name by now’ argued one senior ex England player.

The fly-half conundrum remains a mystery and will leave us guessing until the team announcements are made as to who is to face Wales. Ian Robertson, BBC radio commentator, said after the match that he believes Wales to be serious contenders to win back-to-back Grand Slams. The compelling Welsh win over a hearty Scotland at Murrayfield this weekend confirms this opinion. Despite falling asleep for the last twenty minutes, Wales won 13-26 with an outstanding performance from the Cardiff Blue, Jamie Roberts, who was awarded man of the match. The game of the weekend was Ireland against France- an exciting 30-21 win for the home-side against a spirited France. Brian O’Driscoll proved he still has what it takes, contributing a try to the great Irish performance. Sadly the quality of these two sides also augurs badly for England’s Six Nations hopes. France will also be out for revenge in the next few weeks.

After this weekend’s match, Matt Dawson was less than impressed at the standard of rugby on display at Twickenham. When asked his opinion of England’s performance he replied, ‘Rubbish, we are not going to threaten anyone playing like that’. The crowd seemed to agree; when the England players returned to the pitch to celebrate their victory they were met by a virtually empty stadium.
With the competition spanning from now until the end of term be sure to expect full JCR’s, as conflicting nations compete in what is undeniably one of the greatest competitions in rugby. However, for England supporters there remains the worry of an inexperienced manager leading an inexperienced team.