Oxford and Cambridge Universities have competed against each other at rugby in what is known as The Varsity Match since 1872.

The first encounter was played at The Parks in Oxford and won by the home team, one try and one goal to nil. Cambridge currently lead the overall series in the men’s competition 64 wins to 62 (with 14 matches drawn).

Numerous venues have been used to stage one of sport’s longest-running fixtures but after games in Cambridge and at the Oval, Blackheath and the Queen’s Club in London, it found a permanent home in Twickenham Stadium in 1921.

The Varsity Match has been played at the home of English rugby ever since except during the two World Wars, and in 2021 when the fixture was moved to Leicester’s Welford Road due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For many years, the Varsity Match was broadcast live on BBC TV and played in front of very big crowds.

In what was a major step forward, the first women’s Varsity Match took place at Oxford University’s Iffley Road ground in 1988 and was won by Cambridge, although the Dark Blues hold the upper hand in terms of overall wins, 19-15.

In 2015, the women’s Varsity Match was held at Twickenham for the first time and, to reflect the continued integration between the women’s and men’s clubs, the following year the event was rebranded ‘The Varsity Matches’.

For Home Nations players the Varsity Matches acted almost as an unofficial international trial during the amateur era, while for overseas stars, even now, the history and prestige of the event makes appearing in the fixture one of the highlights of their careers.

Almost 700 players from Oxford and Cambridge have played test rugby, including New Zealand’s Rugby World Cup 1987-winning captain and Hall of Fame inductee, David Kirk. The scrum-half famously won ‘a Blue’ for Oxford  – the term given to players who compete in the fixture – a year after lifting the Webb Ellis Cup. In total, 18 players who studied at Oxford or Cambridge, including William Webb Ellis himself, have been inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame.

In 200 years of rugby, the sport has constantly evolved and The Varsity Matches are no different. In 2022, to mark the 150th anniversary of the men’s match and the 35th anniversary of the women’s, it was decided that the event should be moved in the calendar from its traditional pre-Christmas, midweek time slot to a weekend date in Spring.