Alice Middleton’s Cambridge University Women’s team will have covered almost 1,000 miles in the space of eight days by the time they return to base on Wednesday, 26 October, from their latest BUCS Premier South match against Exeter University.
Last week they headed to Cardiff and back to face reigning champions Cardiff Met (72-0) and this week complete a 500 mile round trip to Exeter for their third match in the tournament. They are still awaiting their first win and will meet arch-rivals Oxford in a pre-Varsity Match encounter next week.
The Light Blues may have won the first Women’s Varsity Match to be staged at Twickenham last year by a massive 52-0, with the marvellous Middleton picking up the Player of the Match award after scoring a hat-trick of tries and 27 points, but Oxford recovered to win the BUCS return game in April 3-0 at Grange Road.
The league game will be important, but captain Middleton admits all eyes at Cambridge are firmly fixed on building towards the return to Twickenham on Thursday, 8 December.
“We went to Cardiff with a bare XV, no coach, and lost four players to injury, but we pulled together. We just said from the off when we started conceding tries that each time we would learn and we wouldn’t let the same mistakes happen again,” said Middleton.
“Our tackles kept going in low and hard and we were effective at the breakdown. I was happy with and proud of my team.
“The BUCS Premier is a really tough league, but we come to each game with a fresh outlook and try to get something from it. If we score lots of tries then that’s great but, if not, we always look to learn from the lessons.
“We always come out and play with pride and leave with a smile. We are very much looking forward to meeting Oxford next week.”
Middleton, a 27-year-old Graduate Medicine student who is studying at Lady Cavendish College, grabbed the limelight with her silky running at Twickenham last season as she led the Dark Blues defence a merry dance. She rightly grabbed the headlines and played a huge part in giving the women’s game at both universities a major boost.
“Playing at Twickenham for the first time last year did have a big impact. People just started taking an interest in women’s rugby and began talking about it more and more,” said Middleton.
“I’m at a women’s only college, where they’ve never had any involvement with rugby before, and suddenly they had two Blues with Lara Gibson and myself. All the staff are always asking me about rugby and there is just this big buzz around Cambridge about the women’s game.
“I feel like more than most because I am in the middle of it and, if I’m not playing rugby, I’m always talking about it. It’s great.
“What I love most about women’s rugby is the excitement that is surrounding it at the moment. The number of people who came up to us at the ‘Fresher’s Fair’ was fantastic and so many people wanted to give the game a go.
“From that we have done some development days and we have had massive numbers at all of them. College rugby is growing fast and we are very pleased with that.”
The captaincy passed from Canadian second row Nicole Weckman to Middleton this season, but the 2015 skipper and vice captain, hooker Jess Charlton are both still available. There are seven members of the winning squad from last season still in the squad and a further three from the replacements bench.
“We will be trying to build momentum for Twickenham over the next few games. We’ve lost Anna Wilson in the back line, but it’s great having the experience of players like Nikki and Jess still available up front and we’ve also had some really good additions,” added Middleton.
Prior to next week’s pre-Varsty Match BUCS trip to Grange Road, Catherine Wilcock’s Oxford team will get their Cardiff Met examination at home this week having gone down 43-0 at Bristol University in Round 2. They beat the University of Gloucestershire, in their opening league fixture.
The 30th Women’ Varsity Match and second-ever at Twickenham will take place on Thursday 8 December. Tickets including the Men’s Varsity Match are available now from £28 adults and £10 students here.
Oxford University vs Cardiff Met: Sophie Trott; Imogen Duffy, Carly Bliss, Heli Copley, Gemma Robson; Catherine Wilcock (captain), Millie Rose; Jenny Smith, Pat Metcalfe-Jones, Cecilia Peker, Sophie Taylor, Elmarie Van Heerden, Leanne Robinson, Anna Gibson, Sophie Behan
Reps: Gwen Cartwright, Harriet McCay, Carolina Matte-Gregory, Beth Candlin, Princess Ashilokun, Katie Barber-Smth, Susy Rees
