Crouch, touch ... engage | My tip for avoiding the Varsity blues … embrace the dark side

The 133rd Varsity Match between Oxford and Cambridge universities takes place at Twickenham on Thursday (December 11), with a 14:30 (22:30 HKT) kick-off. Whilst it no longer attracts quite the crowd it once did, the fixture still holds a special place in the global rugby calendar and will be shown live here in Hong Kong on Setanta.

Hong Kong doesn’t have anyone playing in either the light or dark blues this year, but we have a close association with the event and there are many local veterans – known as “Blues”, unsurprisingly – here in our rugby community.

Among the most recent Hong Kong boys to run out at Twickenham are current national sevens captain Jamie Hood and second row Predee Anuvatnujotikul, who both starred in a Cambridge victory five years ago.

Reflecting back on his big day, Jamie told me: “In the build-up to the match we had been billed as the underdogs. I remember thinking this was a good position to be in as the arrogance of the ‘Other Place’ [Oxford] would be their undoing.

“We had actually only lost by a few points in our games leading up to the Varsity and were coming into some form. The match itself was a great spectacle with some really good rugby played by Cambridge. I remember jumping around like an idiot after scoring, and collecting the cup afterwards was a very special moment.”

One would imagine that appearing on the haloed turf of Twickenham would be a thrill in itself, but for Predee it never really sank in.

“The day was so emotionally charged and your mind so [focused] on beating the ‘Other Place’ and, for me, whether I’d get my Blue, that unfortunately I wasn’t able to fully absorb the experience of everything that goes with playing at Twickenham – the coach journey there, lining up in the tunnel, the national anthem, the crowd and running onto the pitch,” he said.