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New Cambridge University skipper Daniel Dass will be hoping a week on a training camp in Portugal has prepared his Light Blues side for a good start to the competitive season when they host a Loughborough University XV at Grange Road on Wednesday, 28 September (kick-off 7.30pm).

The major goal for Dass and co this season is to hit their peak in time to stop Oxford extending their record breaking run of six successive victories at Twickenham when the two sides meet at the home of English rugby on Thursday, 8 December.

Dass was in the team that went down 12-6 last year and was a replacement the previous year. Former skipper Will Briggs has played in the past four defeats, while replacement Richard Bartholomew made his first Varsity Match appearance as far back as 2005.

Bartholomew made it a hat-trick of victories between 2005-07, but failed to equal the record of four wins shared by the great England and British & Irish Lions wing Carl Aarvold (1925-28) and Richard Bramley (1994-97) when he made his fourth appearance in 2014.

The Light Blues lost the corresponding fixture 43-6 last season and will be hoping for a better start in the first of a nine match build-up to their Varsity Match challenge at Twickenham. Dass joins Briggs, half-backs Seb Tullie and Fraser Gillies, wing Simon Davies and centre Mike Phillips as returning Blues in the starting XV this week, while Bartholomew and Lola Erogbogbo are on the bench.

Among the new recruits for Dass and head coach James Shanahan are ex-Edinburgh University student Simon Hugkulstone, who has already won at Twickenham in the Daily Mail RBS Under 18 Cup final with Whitgift, former Trinity College, Dublin, student, Bernard Du Toit, and ex-Sydney University lock Andrew Hunter.

Hugkulstone is primarily a hooker, but can also play in the back row, while Du Toit is a strong, ball carrying flanker who brings with him experience of playing in the All Ireland League, for Leinster Under 20s and Irish Universities.

Cambridge University: George Griffiths; Simon Davies*, Rory Triniman, Michael Phillips*, Lare Erogbogbo; Fraser Gillies*, Sebastian Tullie*; William Briggs*, Fionn Dillon Kelly, Johnny Dixon, Tim Bond, Andrew Hunter, Tom Stanley, Brian Du Toit, Daniel Dass* (captain)
Reps: Andrew Burnett, Simon Hugkulstone, William Dean, Dimitri Moros, Henry Rose, Lola Erogbogbo*, Richard Bartholomew*, Dougal Balfour, Chris Bell, Joe Girling

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