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Fraser Gillies was the Light Blues hero as his 74th minute penalty clinched a thrilling 29-26 win in the annual ‘Town v Gown’ match at Grange Road to give the Cambridge students their first win of the season. The last three meetings between the two teams had been pretty one-sided affairs in favour of Cambridge University, but this time the town team turned up in a determined mood.

The game got off to a pretty negative start for the home side, who lost flanker Tom Stanley to a yellow cad for persistent infringement in only the third minute. Cambridge RFC took immediate advantage of their superior numbers and worked wing Mike Stanway over the line for the first of the game’s eight tries to take an early lead.

It wasn’t long before the numbers were level again when in the 11th minute the visitors lost a player for an illegal tackle, but the pressure didn’t ease on Dass’ men and it took a great turn-over on the home line to allow Gillies to clear to keep the gap at only five points.

Having ridden the early storm the students didn’t need a second invitation to make the most of a toe-hold in the ‘Town’ 22. They shunned an easy three points and, instead, Gillies kicked to the corner. The line-out ball was safely secured and Stanley was driven over for a try that made up for his earlier misdemeanour.

Gillies added the conversion to edge the Light Blues in front, but the ‘Town’ hit back with two tries in the space of four minutes either side of half-time to stretch out into a 19-7 lead. That left Dass and co with a bit of a mountain to climb, but they rolled up their sleeves, kept on playing and eventually gave head coach James Shanahan plenty to smile about.

A 10 minute purple patch was kick-started by the introduction of three replacements on 44 minutes. Lola Erogbogbo, Jonny Dixon and Seb Tullie came on to replace Andrew Hunter, Demetri Moros and Dougal Balfour. Erogbogbo made an immediate impact as he picked up from a scrum and charged 20 metres downfield.

Mike Phillips kicked the ball deep into the corner of the ‘Town’ 22 and another line-out drive, with the whole team joining in, enabled Lola to bag the try.

Four minutes later a scything break by the highly impressive Gillies found eager support from Stanley. The back row man offloaded to Tullie, who just has enough gas to make the line to make it two tries in the space of seven minutes for two of the replacements.

Gillies slotted the conversion to level the scores at 19-19 and it simply got better and better for the Light Blues when four minutes later Irish back row man Brian du Toit was able to round off another sweeping move with a try, Gillies then converting to give the home side a 26-19 lead.

That three-try salvo had rocked the ‘Town’ team, but they were in no mood to capitulate. They came rushing back into the contest with a neat try at the posts from Simon Johnson, superbly engineered from scrum in centre field, and Phil Baddeley’s conversion leveled things at 26-26 with 10 minutes to play.

Now it was anyone’s game, but the home side showed the courage and conviction to grab the glory. Dass, in his role as ‘Captain Fantastic’, charged up field to put pressure on the visitors’ defence and forced them to concede a penalty at the breakdown.

That gave Gillies his long shot for glory. He was up to the mark, hit the target and the Light Blues’ were able to send a strong message to their Dark Blue rivals that their season is now up and running.

Cambridge University Scorers: Tries: Tom Stanley, Lola Erogbogbo, Seb Tullie, Brian du Toit; Cons: Fraser Gillies 3; Pen: Fraser Gillies

Cambridge University: George Griffiths; Simon Davies*, Rory Triniman, Michael Phillips*, Lare Erogbogbo; Fraser Gilles*, Dougal Balfour; William Briggs*, Andrew Burnett, Demitri Moros, Tim Bond, Andrew Hunter, Tom Stanley, Brian Du Toit, Daniel Dass (captain)*
Replacements:  Simon Hugkulstone, William Dean, Jonny Dixon, Henry Rose, Lola Erogbogbo*, Richard Bartholomew*, Sebastian Tullie*, Joe Girling

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