With just over a week to go until the Big Day, we hope that you’ve already secured your tickets. If not, secure them now to support OURFC by showing up on the day and cheering on the Dark Blues. In the meantime, get to know your captains a little better.
We start with Women*s Captain, Alex Wilkinson, who will be starting the day’s competition with a 12pm KO.
Wilkinson started playing rugby at four years-old, being dropped off to train at Reading Abbey at the same time as her older brother so her parents could enjoy some of their weekend kid-free. After playing with boys teams until Year 7, she went across to Reading RFC when at secondary school level to join a girls’ section and moved up through their pathway.
Originally a hooker, she switched to flanker when she was 16 before moving out of the forwards pack entirely to join the backs. With only one year to go in the Under 18 category, she began learning a new position and specialised at number 9 before making the move up into the Women*s game at Wasps and then Henley Hawks. She can still be heard lamenting her days up front, particularly when weighing in on the lineouts.
When asked about the difference between playing rugby at Oxford and playing in the Premiership, Wilkinson said that despite how lucky she felt with the family-style environment she experienced when playing for Wasps, the culture at OURFC is unique. Training and spending time with student athletes with the same priorities and concerns creates a great atmosphere where she can relax and socialise as well as embracing the performance element. She has found some of her best friends through the club and aimed to cultivate a friendly and welcoming environment at the club throughout her captaincy, a space for her teammates to play hard in both senses.
Wilkinson comments that her Varsity experience this year is more meaningful than her previous two Blues due to her role as captain. Leading the team is a source of real honour for her, primarily from her pride in her teammates. Excitement is clearly the most prominent emotion when she speaks about the Big Day, remembering the six months spent developing the team to a group that she is looking forward to seeing on the pitch at StoneX. This year, Wilkinson hopes to be a cog in the wheel of their success, focused on the performance and experience of her players and seeing them shine rather than her own performance – which may be easier to feel due to her success at previous Varsities, scoring the only Oxford try last year as well as a tap-and-go try in 2023. In the final days between now and the match, the focus is on enjoying the experience, with players sharing experiences and emotions as they play some of the best rugby she’s seen this season.
Many university students will tell you about the various demands on their time, and Wilkinson has found communication the key to balancing her commitments. Particularly when she was participating in the England set up, she needed to ensure that she was also managing her playing minutes across various teams as well as keeping up with gym and nutrition so she could compete with and perform at the level of full-time professionals. Now, she is prioritising spending time with her teammates outside of training (as well as her 3,000-word coursework).
Having her time split across various teams has certainly contributed to the self-reliance and organisation that makes her such a brilliant leader of the Women*s section. Head Coach, Scott Hall, describes her playing style by complimenting the way she leads by example, conducting the attack and creating opportunities. Her experience brings confidence to the team as she drives standards at every training session, and he finishes with saying that: “I couldn’t have asked for a better captain in my first season at OURFC”.
Like many rugby players, Wilkinson has an extensive rap sheet of injuries, commenting that over the span of last season she collected black eyes on four separate occasions. This season she has faced the challenges of an ankle injury (cheers, Cambridge, looking forward to getting you back for that one) and a broken hand. Her strongest opponent this season can therefore be named: Women*s Head Physio, Ollie Ensor, who has been challenged with keeping her off the pitch.
The difficulty of leading from the front when recovering is an experience she has shared with her counterpart in the Men*s section, with Luke Wyllie also being banished from the pitch due to injury. Next Saturday he will be leading the Men*s Blues out for a 3pm KO.
Wyllie remembers playing rugby before ever watching a professional match, playing at Stoke Park Guildford for Guildfordians RFC from age 4. He played there until he was 11, initially having rugby friends in a separate sphere to school before moving to Effingham where some of those school friends were playing. He has always been a back, commenting that he “used to have a little bit of pace out on the wing” before moving over to scrum half for a year. When moving to Ellingham, he also changed position to fly half which he enjoyed for five years before an injury at 16, at which point he “put on a bit of timber" and moved to 12.
Wyllie’s journey to Varsity hasn’t been straightforward, with injury playing a major role. Impressively for a fresher, he started on the wing in his first year, scoring the first try in their winning game. In second year, he dislocated his kneecap and partially tore his MCL the game before Varsity. Despite the disappointment, he remains grateful for the experience as he was named TR and felt he could still give a lot to the group as well as being part of the process. This involvement became a good way of dealing with the injury as he remained part of the set up and Varsity experience rather than removing himself entirely. His third year was “plagued with concussions”, with one putting him out for six weeks before Varsity so that his final game before the Big One was in January against England U20s.
This year, an injury in November resulted in more time out which was particularly difficult this year given its effect on his captaincy. Wyllie recounts that one of his main motivations for wanting to be skipper was the on pitch leadership, which has proved the best part of the job this year. Looking back at his time out, he comments that while it was difficult to lead at training and matches when not on the field, it has become a great advantage to the team through promoting other players. Having a number of people step up into leadership roles has been incredibly useful and made Varsity prep more confident as there are leaders across more aspects of the game.
Though it took Wyllie some time to understand the absolute focus on the Varsity game when he first joined the club, the reasons for it became abundantly clear over that first season and more so in each that has followed. Other clubs are centred around the week in, week out pressures of selection and results but Oxbridge rugby binds the whole club around one goal. The six-month season is used to build towards a common purpose which is instrumental in creating a good culture through looking at the bigger picture throughout. With this being his last year in Oxford, Wyllie is enjoying living in the chaos one last time, trying to work hard in the lab, meeting players for coffee and spending time together outside of training with the group of boys that he is proud to take with him to StoneX on Saturday 8th March.
Both sections at both clubs have spent this season working hard to produce their best rugby on the day. We hope to see you cheering Dark Blue in the crowd next weekend.
Comments