On a wet night at Iffley Road, the men’s Blues played their penultimate match before the 135th Varsity Match at Twickenham in December, when they welcomed a strong Worcester side to Oxford. The wet conditions made handling and expansive rugby difficult, and it was the professional outfit who coped with the conditions the better and eventually proved too strong for the game Oxford students. The first half was very evenly contested and the Worcester side were just 12 points to 3 ahead, with tries from wingers Tom Biggs and Auguy Slowik, fly-half Tim Stephenson adding one conversion, in reply Oxford’s fly-half Basil Strang kicked one penalty. The second half started badly for the Blues as the Worcester No 8 Huw Taylor burrowed over from close range after just 5 minutes, but Man of the Match Ed David replied almost immediately when he seized on a half chance to score near the posts, Strang adding the extras to narrow the margin to 7 points. However, this proved to be the high point for the home side as Worcester then proceeded to take a firm grip on the game and added a further four tries in the final 30 minutes. Biggs grabbing 2 more to complete his hat-trick, with 2nd row Wilham Van Der Sluys adding the final score, one of which was converted to make the final score 39 points to 10 in favour of the visitors.

The Blues will now lick their wounds, refocus their energies and prepare for the visit of Richmond to Iffley Road on Sunday afternoon, kick-off 3.00pm.

Team Kieran Ball, Edward Hart, Joseph Morris, Fergus Taylor, Andrew Grant, Nicholas Roberts-Huntley, George Blomfield, William Wilson, Henry de Berker, Basil Strang, Tom Stileman, Alex Hogg, Henry Hughes, Ed David, Matt Geiger

Subs William Thornton (on for Edward Hart), James Scaife (on for Kieran Ball), Hugo Lu (on for Joseph Morris), Jonathan Marsden (on for Andrew Grant), Graeme MacGilchrist (on for Nicholas Roberts-Huntley), James Beaufils (on for William Wilson), Dylan McGagh (on for Henry de Berker), Jack Holmes (on for Alex Hogg)

ScoresT: Ed David (1) C: Basil Strang (1) P: Basil Strang (1)