University of St Andrews (in blue) face University of Edinburgh (in green) today
The teams have been announced for the “world’s oldest varsity match”, which returns home today.
The Universities of Edinburgh and St Andrews will contest at men’s and women’s first XV level on the international pitch at BT Murrayfield, with a crowd of more than 10 000 expected.
Their 2nd and 3rd 15s will also meet on the stadium’s back pitches.
The match – which pre-dates the battle between light and dark blues down south and which has attracted sponsorship from the Royal Bank of Scotland – pits 2 of the founder members of the Scottish Rugby Union against each other.
St Andrews are the current holders of the men’s trophy having triumphed on the last 2 meetings, when the fixture was contested at Richmond Athletic Ground as a means of connecting with Alumni in the London area.
David Adamson, head coach of the Edinburgh men’s team, said: “Both ourselves and St Andrews have worked hard over the last few years to have University rugby recognised for what it can provide for the game in Scotland and it’s great that Scottish Rugby is giving us this opportunity to stage this game on the international pitch at BT Murrayfield.”
His 1st 15 captain, winger and sport student Nat Coe, said: “This is huge. It’s probably the biggest game of our lives.”
While Edinburgh have a settled look, St Andrews have seen 7 of those involved in last year’s match move on and will field 4 freshers in their squad.
Captain, George Hailstone, a 4th year chemistry student, believes the newcomers will bring their own qualities to the team. “The guys who have come in are every bit as good or better than those who have left,” he said.
The women’s match, which kicks-off at 17:00 BST, sees Edinburgh field the more experienced line-up. “We’re probably underdogs,” said St Andrews captain, centre and 4th year international relations student, Agnes Chauvet.
Give rugby a try:
“It’s amazing and really good for the women’s game that we have this game. With the men’s World Cup on right now, a lot of girls might not necessarily think of rugby 1st-up but if this game encourages girls to give rugby a try then that would be great.”
Her counterpart at Edinburgh, 3rd year environmental geoscience student and prop, Katie Dougan, agreed: “This is a great opportunity to show what women’s rugby is about. I started playing as a 10-year-old at the Lochaber club in Fort William but as there was no girls’ team, then, it was only when I came to University that I decided to give it a go.”
The 2nd and 3rd 15 matches will kick-off at 15:30 BST, with the men’s 1st 15 match beginning at 18:00 BST.
Admission on the day is £ 5.00 with the main stadium turnstiles open from 16:30 BST.
Royal Bank of Scotland Scottish Varsity match:
Men’s teams:
University of Edinburgh: Iain Sexton, Jordan Lewis, Robbie Kent, Morgan Ward, Nat Coe captain, Scott Bell, Sandy Robson, Callum Simpson, Rob Thomas, Dave Le Bas, Jack Williams, Rob Putter, Aidan McCall-Hagan, Luke Buchanan and Nick Stephen
Replacements: George Hardman, Charlie Clegg, Gus Antons, Erik Martennsen, Raef Morrison, Ian Vance and Will Stephen.
University of St Andrews: Rory Cairns, Roland Walker, Harry Jose, Alex Kennedy, Brodie Hunter, Scott Docherty, Finn Murphy, Michael Thornton, Mattie Dawson, Dug Berezford, Ashton Squires, George Hailstone captain, Rob Lind, Ruari Bell and James Wardle
Replacements: Ben Peddie, Chris Cartmell, James Balfour, Joe McKay, Charlie Davies, Toby Hall and Rory Gardner.
Women’s match:
Women’s teams:
Edinburgh: Amy Walter, Rhona Lloyd, Hatty Cumber, Lisa Thomson, Lucy Winter, Helen Nelson, Louise Pullan, Helen Young, Hannah Kurtz, Katie Dougan, Liusaidh McMaster, DebbieLee, Ailsa Luke, Rachael Murray and Sally Stott
Replacements: Hatty McKay, Emily Marsden, Judith Oguguo, Nicola Howat, Cat Knott, Nina Friggens and Roisin Holmes.
St Andrews: Emma Lunney, Rhiannon Fox-Rothwell, India Roche, Agnes Chauvet (Captain), Comfort Ogbonnaya, Abbie Henderson, Lanita Gutieva, Kylie Courtney, Imogen Hooper, Jasmine Brand-Williamson, Nathalie Becker, Naomi Boon, Myrtille Genot, Dawnyshia Griffin and Fiona Cooper
Replacements: Kate Saunders, Lottie Sadler, Zora Harris, Niki Davies, Erika Machan, Ali Huntley and Alexis Jenkins.
scottishrugby
Am very pleased to see this event being given increased coverage and sponsorship. Am not very familiar with the University rugby scene but have often thought that it could be an area that may be tapped into and marketed/promoted/supported better to expand the game over here. Especially as it appears that Varsity Cup in SA has been quite successful. Now don’t want the ‘elitist’ tag the game seems to have here to be amplified by increasing the status of rugby at Universities so let me make it clear that think this is merely one area that can be looked into and that for me providing more resources to get increased partcipitation at State funded schools from primary school level already is the first prize in providing the building blocks to exanding the game here. Whether that can be done purely at the schools alone is debatable, possibly needs collaboration between the schools and clubs nearest them.
Not sure on the timings listed here, i.e. the Women’s match kicks off at 5pm while the Men’s match kicks off at 6pm on the same field. If this is not an error then is must be that the Women play for less than an hour in their game today?
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