Nine St Catharine’s students have been selected to play for the Cambridge University Rugby Union Football Club (CURUFC) in Varsity matches against Oxford. Six players were selected for the women’s teams and a further three students for the men’s teams.
CURUFC selected three St Catharine’s students to play for the women’s Blues side in the Varsity match on 2 March. Vianney Gomezgil Yaspik (an MBA student) and Alice Yau (a fifth-year medical student) have been named as replacements, while Alice Middleton (a Population Health Sciences MPhil student) has enjoyed a warm welcome back to the starting line-up for a fourth time after scoring a hat-trick in the Varsity match in 2015 (when the final score was 52-0) and captaining the Blues (2016–2017) during her Graduate Medicine degree at Lucy Cavendish College.
Alice Middleton commented, “I'm back at Cambridge and CURUFC after 5 years away, and I am so pleased to see that there are even more women playing rugby here now. There is more coaching and support for beginners, whilst the facilities and the overall setup has really stepped up a gear. It is great that we have representation from Catz across all the women’s teams – Catz women are definitely a valuable asset to CURUFC!”
The Tigers team that won 14-7 against Oxford on 25 February included Jyothi Cross (a third-year Human, Social & Political Sciences undergraduate), Lauren Hulme (a third-year Natural Sciences undergraduate) and Lucy Newton-Ingham (a second-year History undergraduate). In addition, Lucy and Lauren are both supporting the continued development of women’s rugby at Cambridge: Lucy is the Tigers’ Secretary and Lauren is one of two alumni liaison leads on the CURUFC Women’s Committee.
Clockwise from bottom left: Jyothi Cross, Lauren Hulme, Lucy Newton-Ingham, Vianney Gomezgil Yaspik, Alice Yau and Alice Middleton, joined by Nishita Basu (a first-year medical student) who has recently joined CURUFC women's squad
Men’s teams
The LX Club selected Joe Day (a second-year Land Economy undergraduate) at 11 for its starting line up on 24 February, with Johnny Daly-Lonergan(a first-year Land Economy undergraduate) on the bench. After last year’s 46-0 away win, the team was keen to replicate their success at home and eventually won 26-18.
St Catharine’s will also have representation in the men’s Varsity match on 2 March: Connor Collins (a third-year Human, Social & Political Sciences undergraduate) has been selected as a replacement for the Blues squad.
