Wednesday was a wonderful day to be a Dark Blue. Iffley Road was brimming with support as a crowd gathered to take on the big double header, the Women*s Blues and Panthers against Cambridge. This is always the most anticipated, exciting BUCS match of the season, and this year the game did not disappoint.
Before the Blues had even begun Oxford were already triumphant, with the Panthers bringing home a win against Cambridge Tigers 42-0, despite having lost the previous match against the tabs 62-0 - a victory that set the stage perfectly for what was about to come.
The game kicked off at 7:30, and by 7:35 the Dark Blues had already made it over the line twice. Number 3 and Captain Tolu Duckworth started us off with a beautiful carry to score the first try, before the second kick off led Katie Hains to run the ball up the wing, darting between light blue shirts to touch the ball down under the posts. 12-0 to the Dark Blues just minutes in.
This marked a pattern of scoring every few minutes in the first half, with the ball never finding its way into our twenty-two. We steadily held possession, before shooting up the right wing this time to give no.14 Amelie Harris-Lovett the third try of the game. 16 minutes in saw 17-0 to Oxford. Then no.8 Sophie Shams tore through a sea of defenders to score her first try. A few knock-ons and penalties here and there occasionally held us back, but it was never long before the Dark Blues would regain possession of the ball. After a few minutes of dancing around their 5 metre line towards the end of the first half, Tolu Duckworth ran around the defence to score her second try on the left wing of the pitch. Though the clock was nearing 40 minutes, Oxford still had more to give before the half time whistle was blown. Sophie Shams scored her second try of the evening from a scrum in their twenty-two, and then to finish off the half Chloe-Marie Hawley made a beautiful run through the middle of the pitch to bring the score to bring us to an incredible 41-0 at the half.
Oxford, relentless, continued to perform in the second half. 42 minutes in, and the ball was offloaded to Kat Vincent who was ready to score on the wing. C*mbridge are not ones to give up, however, and of course came back fighting. Their scrums proved a challenge, and their no.8 made some strong carries; though of course she was no match for her counterpart, Sophie Shams, who threw a dummy pass to divert the defence and score a hat trick. 5 minutes later, Amelie Harris-Lovett runs it up on the wing once more to bring the score to 58-0 63 minutes in. Tired from all the try-scoring, the next few minutes were slower, but the game did not end there. To top it all off, winger Kate Mitchell scored twice in the 79th and 80th minutes, to round off an excellent game with a huge team effort. We couldn’t be prouder.
The journey doesn’t end here—now we set our sights on Varsity. With the big game just six weeks away, there’s still plenty of work to do, and we won’t be resting on our laurels. Exciting challenges and opportunities lie ahead for the game on Saturday 8th March!
Match report: Lilla Berry
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