Brendan Gallagher feature: How the ale and hearty Varsity girls reached HQ

It all started in a pub, as most of the best rugby stories do, back in the summer of 1987 and so good was the evening that nobody can quite remember the name of the alehouse.
Oxford post-grad student Heather Lawrence, nee Bunting, the proud owner of an old banger, had been pressed into service as chauffeur for a scratch Oxford college team who had a match against their Cambridge equivalents at Fenner’s the following day.
Tradition demanded that they travel up the night before and take ale, as excessively as possible, with the opposition.
Bunting was a rugby fan and had, in fact, already organised a couple of ad hoc training sessions for similarly inclined ladies at Oxford although they had yet to play their first competitive game. Anyway, in the course of a very long night it emerged that the girlfriend of one of the Cambridge cricketers was doing exactly the same for the Light Blues and within moments, as if by design, a challenge had been laid down. The two universities would meet for the first ever Women’s Varsity Rugby match the following season. Now all they had to do was raise a team.
“Firstly I had to recruit and press-gang a few players and then we had to beg, steal and borrow everything,” recalls Heather. “We managed to get the Oxford authorities to let us play at Iffley Road and the Oxford 2nd XV, the Greyhounds, lent us their jerseys – they are not as big as the 1st XV! – so at least we could play in dark blue. If memory serves we had at least one warm-up game a crushing 4-0 win over Southampton Uni.
“On the day we led up to the final moments when they scored a very late try to win 8-6. It’s incredible to think that rather chaotic beginning started a journey which will see the two women’s teams run out on Twickenham on December 10. It will be quite a proud moment and we are organising a reunion of the original team to help celebrate.”
The late try-scorer that day at Iffley Road was Sophia Mirchandani, nee Peggers, the Cambridge No.8 and captain, and she picks up the story: “We had started playing at my college, Robinson, just for a laugh really because we were bored with other sports but the word spread and we got a team together with a few other more adventurous types from other universities. We trained and played on parkland or any pitch anybody would lend us.
“We weren’t allowed anywhere near the men’s ground at the time. I don’t think they took us very seriously.
“We weren’t allowed to use any of the light blue shirts, either, but I managed to get my Dad to bend a friend’s arm and get a little bit of sponsorship from Kent & Curwen who rustled up a set of jerseys for us. I think they were red and blue hoops. Those of us who were graduating passed the jerseys on so the newcomers to the team the next year would have the right kit.
“We managed just one warm-up and got absolutely hammered by Hull University. A couple of the boys did step in and try to help with some coaching as the game approached – Andy Mason and the Blues captain Mark Hancock. It would be fair to say we had low expectations going into the game and were pleasantly surprised to win.”
Women’s rugby at Oxbridge has grown in parallel with the women’s game generally, but only in the last 12 months or so have both women’s sections been merged into the respective men’s clubs. It was this necessary and overdue move – this is the 21st-century after all – which accelerated the holding of an annual fixture at Twickenham.
“Cambridge just pipped us to getting the merger organised, they did it last year and we have completed it this season,” says this year’s Oxford captain Carly Bliss. “We feel absolutely part of the club now, one solid unit and we enjoy the support of everybody concerned.
“I’ve been around here a long time now with my various studies and will be trying for my fifth Blue so I thought I knew what the captaincy would involve but I hadn’t necessarily reckoned on a match at Twickenham to prepare for.
“It’s a massive step for us because none of us have really ever played in front of a crowd so at the suggestion of Gary Street (former England women‘s coach) we have had a few talks about that and are trying to get ourselves prepared mentally. I want us to not only appear at Twickenham but to do ourselves justice. There Gary has been a great help, his assistance sort of fell into our lap. He is a hard taskmaster on the training pitch but we are very grateful. With his help we have already improved massively.”
Both sides have recently been given a tour of the stadium and pitch by the RFU staff and Cambridge skipper Nikki Weckman says they resisted the temptation to run out of the tunnel: “It was emotional enough just walking out of the tunnel but we wanted to save the ultimate for match day itself. The prospect of playing here has been a massive driver and it is also a great tribute to those women like Heather and Sophie who went before us and set the ball rolling. Thanks ladies.”