Cool, damp with an occasional gust of wind, a perfect day for rugby started with even honours in the middle of the pitch, alleviated by repeated clearances. The subsequent line outs where nearly all won by Cambridge thanks mainly to Sam Buffery Turnell & Euan Dingwall consistently spoiling ON’s calls. Towards the end of the 1^st qtr, repeated handling errors from scrums & rucks were made, by both sides, notably, Patrick Marmion made an incisive chip, on the attack only to be halted by a strong ON’s defence, following a lengthy delay for an ON’s injury, the 1^st session finished 0 – 0.

Having now got the measure of their visitors, ON’s came out of the blocks & straight at Cambridge, some tactical substitutions thwarted the attacks allowing a delightful switch between Louis Rawlings & Toby Hackett saw Ryan Headington chip & blast through the ON’s defence only to be stopped at the ON’s line for a odd penalty decision. However, another cheeky switch out to Finlay Owens hit the after burners to place try no # 1. The remainder of the session was dominated by ON’s winning ball, scrummaging & mauling their way into the Cambridge half. Fierce tackling from forwards Finlay Walker & Rupert Dodson with William Blackwell in the backs gave Cambridge little rest-bite. Sam B-T continued to spoil ON’s line outs, Headington & Hackett worked their socks off battling against ON’s onslaught, supported by Owens which tested a quick thinking Sam Nery at fullback to clear off the Cambridge line, not enough however, to stop the eventual ON’s converted try to end the 2^nd session 7 - 5.

Maybe it was a wet ball, slippy under boot, hopefully not tired legs, but the 3^rd session had a scrappy start with poor tackling & basic handling errors, Cambridge settled 1^st by winning the majority of early ball, Sean Cooper spotted the gap, skipped through with a perfect pass for Owens to sink try no# 2. This turning point try fired Cambridge up, Sam Behagg ripped ball, Marmion & Rawlings carried on switching eventually allowing Cooper to place try no # 3 with a 3-man overlap. With Cambridge dominating, Mikey Middleton took the catch, supported by his backs, popped to Owens for another scything run & try no # 4, undaunted ON’s came straight back down the blind only to be bravely stopped by last man Hackett. With the 3^rd session drawing to a close a monster tackle from Headington cleared the gap for Rory Sheppard to tear down the line for try no # 5 with Owens as overlap to close the 3^rd session 7 - 29

Final session, up hill following a totally committed match from both sides had heavy legs ponderously slowing the pace of the game, interspersed with Sam B-T still spoiling line outs, sensing tired legs, ON’s turned it on again to break through some poor tackles to place try no # 2. Maybe sensing a turning of the tide, Dingwall made a thorough nuisance of himself, 1^st to break down, ripping ball & generally got in the way forcing ON’s to make mistakes, helped Cambridge lift their game. Nery put in some tough tackles freeing ball for Marmion to switch with Rawlings on the attack, winning back the passage of play. The game closed with Bryn Kendrick Jones putting in memorable tackles with Dodson in support, their desire to keep the ball filtered through with Blackwell tackling hard to hold the back line, William Parker surprised us all with a brutal rip from a maul to feed Marmion who beat the final whistle with the try no # 6 for Cambridge ending an excellent, good natured contest 12 – 34.  

Cambridge Scorers:-

Finlay Owens x 3, Sean Cooper, Rory Sheppard & Patrick Marmion

Conversions:-

Sean Cooper 1 from 2 attempts

Ryan Headington 1 from 3 attempts