Cambridge University R.U.F.C.

Cambridge University R.U.F.C.

Full name	Cambridge University Rugby Union Football Club
Union	Rugby Football Union
Founded	1872
Location	Cambridge, England
Ground(s)	University Football Ground, Grange Road
Team kit
Official website
www.curufc.com

The Cambridge University Rugby Union Football Club, sometimes abbreviated "CURUFC", is the rugby union club of the University of Cambridge. The team plays Oxford University RFC in the annual Varsity Match at Twickenham Stadium every December.

Cambridge players wear light blue and white hooped jerseys with a red lion crest. Many have gone on to represent their country and the British and Irish Lions; a few, most notably Dan Vickerman, have represented Cambridge after successful international careers. Whilst at Cambridge University James Bevan became the first captain of the Wales national rugby union team.

History

Football is believed to have been introduced to Cambridge University in 1839 by Trinity College fresher Albert Pell.^[1] Pell had matriculated to Cambridge from Rugby School, where the game of rugby is believed to have originated. Cambridge University Rugby Union Football Club was officially established in 1872, around three years after the Oxford rugby club was founded. The first Varsity match was contested between the two teams on 10 February 1872.^[2] The Cambridge team was led out by captain Isaac Cowley Lambert, wearing pink jerseys with a monogram on the left breast.^[2] Played away at the Park in Oxford, Cambridge lost by a single goal to nil. CURUFC officials helped to draw up the laws of the game that were adopted by the Rugby Football Union (RFU) when it was established in 1871. Cambridge became a Constituent Body of the Union in 1872, a status which the club still holds today. In 1874, Cambridge provided their first international player directly from the club, when John Batten represented England in the third encounter against Scotland.

Ignis asset management entered a sponsorship deal with the Cambridge University Rugby Football Club in 2009

Notable former players

See also Category:Cambridge University rugby union players

British and Irish Lions

The following former players were selected for the British and Irish Lions touring squads whilst playing for Cambridge University.

Carl Aarvold 1930 Randolph Aston 1891 David Bedell-Sivright 1903, 1904 Sydney Pyman Bell 1896 J.H. Bordass 1924 Harry Bowcott 1930 Edward Bromet 1891 William Cave 1903 Granville Coghlan 1927 Mike Gibson 1966

Thomas Alexander Gibson 1903 Johnny Hammond 1891 Alfred Hind 1903 Herbert Laxon 1908 Alun Lewis 1977 Osbert Mackie 1896 Edwin Mayfield 1891 William Grant Mitchell 1891 Arthur Rotherham 1891

Clement Pearson Simpson 1891 Ken Scotland 1959 Arthur Smith 1955 Aubone Surtees 1891 Willie Thomas 1888 Robert Thompson 1891 William Henry Thorman 1891 G. H. Waddell 1959 William Wotherspoon 1891

International players

The following former players represented a national team whilst playing for Cambridge University:

Rob Andrew John Batten Robert William Bell James Bevan C.E. Chapman Glyn Davies Andrew Ramsay Don-Wauchope Edwin Field

Herbert Fuller James Gowans Barry Holmes Cyril Lowe Gregor MacGregor Charles John Marriott Matthew Palamountain R.M. Pattisson

Samuel Victor Perry David Robertson C.H. Sample William Martin Scott John Guthrie Tait Willie Thomas Charles Plumpton Wilson

The following Cambridge players won international honours before playing for Cambridge:

• Dan Vickerman
• Jamie Roberts

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Bibliography

• Marshall, Howard; Jordon, J.P. (1951). Oxford v Cambridge, The Story of the University Rugby Match. London: Clerke & Cockeran.

References

1. Marshall (1951), pg 13.
2. Marshall (1951), pg 17.

External links

• Cambridge University Rugby website