On Saturday 21 February a team of former Varsity rugby players for Oxford and Cambridge played the Rugby Club of Luxembourg (RCL) in their first ever friendly encounter at the Josy Barthel Stadium.
The hooped strips of the two teams were rather similar as the photos show, but we were able to separate the teams by focusing on the red socks of the RCL players!
Oxbridge quickly showed their quality as they turned in three quick tries to lead 21-0. Your correspondent, not a rugby man himself, sat next to a friend who happened to be a former President of the RCL, who conceded that at that point the Oxbridge players, though generally slighter than the RCL guys (!), were fitter, handled the ball and passed better, kicked better and controlled the scrums. Although RCL began to rally, and pulled back one try, their defence was shaky. RCL conceded two more tries in the first half, Oxbridge leading 31 – 7 at the break.
Your correspondent decided to leave at that point, confident that the match would finish with an Oxbridge victory, and so it proved. According to the report on RTL Today, RCL came out with renewed vigour and put Oxbridge under concerted pressure during the second half. RCL managed to score two tries to take the score to 21 – 31 in favour of Oxbridge but Oxbridge’s defence was pretty solid and in the end the Oxbridge win was convincing.
The Oxbridge contingent in the crowd was singularly lacking, unfortunately, but your correspondent while he was there did his best to encourage the Oxbridge players by some stentorion shouts of “Come on, Oxbridge!!”.
Everyone seemed to have a great time, on and off the field.
