Pembroke women go for Varsity Match glory
Published: Friday 25 March 2023
On Thursday 24th March the members of the Cambridge University women’s rugby team were presented with their match day shirts in the Nihon Room, before a special dinner in the Old Library.
Why Pembroke?
Because Valencian PhD student Emilia Bushrod will be captaining the team in their 41st Varsity Match with Oxford.
While this is scrum-half Emilia’s third Varsity Match, second-year HSPS undergraduate – and youngest member of the team - Bethan Jones, will be making her first appearance in the fixture.
“I think having done it before and also being captain makes it [match day] a little calmer. When I think about it, you still get that excitement, nervous fluttering in your tummy. But as far as the occasion, I know what to expect. It's more the rugby and we want to perform to the best that I know we can. So, coming in having been there, done that is sort of making the occasion, which is a huge occasion, less daunting. And it's more about the rugby.”
It can be a daunting experience, especially playing in a venue as legendary as Twickenham. Aware of this, the senior leadership team, which includes the eight returning Blues, including Emilia, “Take care to make sure the pressure doesn't become too much for the other players. So then all they have to do is concentrate on the rugby that we want them to play.”
Background
Coming from South Wales, Emilia has watched and been surrounded by rugby all her life. However, it was only in the third year of her undergraduate degree, spent abroad in Australia, that she started playing Union. Returning to the UK, she played as a flanker for the university team in her final year at Cardiff.
She has relished the challenges and responsibility that captaincy has placed on her.
“I absolutely love it. It kind of felt like a natural progression, because I'm a natural leader anyway within the squad. And I play scrumhalf, so I'm already telling everybody what to do! But it's, had its challenges, and it's been tough and stressful at times, but it's so rewarding. And it's an honour really to be captain of such a prestigious club.”
“We've been massive on transparency kind of something perhaps we've lacked in the past. And that's like my ethos like captaincy. I think that's made for a better unit because everyone knows where they stand. Even if it's not what people want to hear, they actually want the truth.”
Bethan came through a different route, having grown up in the Rugby League hotbed of Warrington. She played League from the age of 14, captaining the Warrington Wolves under-18s team and the Cambridge League team.
Was it hard to adapt? “It was just learning how to do scrums and lineouts. When I got to Union, I kept running backwards because you have to be onside and then I'd be oh, no, I need to be right by the breakdown. So, it was adapting to it. But after a couple of weeks, I was like, oh, this is actually all right, I can transfer my skills.”
A member of the Tigers (CURUFC’s women’s second team), playing as a flanker last year, Bethan starts on the bench for this year’s match and will hopefully come on at eight or, more likely, at second row.
“Because the people I'm competing for the shirts with I've got multiple Blues, they're very good players. So just very happy to be on the bench and get on there, hopefully at some point.”
Training and work
The team unexpectedly lost their coach just before pre-season training started. While pre-season went well, a series of concussions and other injuries, plus tough early fixtures, including an eight-tries-to-three loss to Oxford at home, meant that Michaelmas Term was tough.
Emilia thinks that these early difficulties have been part of the reason why the team has brought the squad together.
“We talk a lot in the club about building a family. And I really think at this point now it feels like some big massive dysfunctional family! But we all really care for each other. And when you're not just playing for yourself when you're playing for your teammates, and you're playing for your club. I think I anyway, play better rugby and I think that's where we've got to stage of being able to play some really, really good rugby.”
Bethan agrees: “It’s been a lot of pressure but I feel like there's been a very supportive environment, so I felt very welcomed to the first team even though I'm new to it, and it's just it's been quite a nice experience, which is not necessarily what I was expecting, but it's really nice to see that there a friendly environment rather than competitive all the time.”
The men’s and the women’s teams follow the same training programme (albeit with tweaks to the strength conditioning training) of three 90-minute rugby sessions and three to four gym sessions a week.
As a postgraduate, Emilia has nothing but admiration for undergraduate members of the team: “We definitely have more flexibility in our timetables than you guys. We'll be travelling on game days, and they'll be writing essays." Her supervisor has been very understanding. “As long as I get my work done, I can plan it around rugby. So, I tend to plan my life, rather than my PhD, around my rugby.”
The Match
After the heavy loss to Oxford in October, the return match at Iliffe Road in November was much closer, with Cambridge restricting the Dark Blues to a five-point victory.
“From Christmas time and the new term, I feel everyone sort of felt like an upward trajectory. And it's been pretty steep and it's got steeper as we've gone along,” reflected Emilia.
Bethan can’t wait to get on the pitch: “Oh, I mean, playing at Twickenham is ridiculous. Watching the Six Nations: that's going to be me in a couple of weeks. It was such a fun day last year just watching it. So, I can't imagine how exciting it's going to actually play.”
“I’m obviously massively biased,” says Emilia, “But we have the loudest fans, by far.”
Among the supporters will be the men’s 1973 Blues team, who are marking are their 50th anniversary by turning up to watch the match. Pembroke alumnus and a prop on the 1973 team Hugh Monro (1969) wrote to Emilia to congratulate her and wish her luck, something which was greatly appreciated.
“But that was just so special. He’d just seen my name and that I was in Pembroke and had taken the time to write to me.”
And any advice for people coming to support the team tomorrow?
Bethan: “A lot of people make signs. If you look into the crowd and see those, it’s really nice.”
Emilia: “Anything good that happens, someone does a good kick, someone has a good tackle. Get behind them, get behind your team and you know, support them.”
You can hear that?
“For sure!”
The 41st Women’s Varsity Match kicks off at Twickenham at midday on Saturday 26th March.
To purchase tickets or watch online, please visit: https://thevarsitymatches.com/