Full throttle Blues soar past RAF
One might have expected the first of the Blues triad of clashes with Her Majesty's Forces to have been a dogged game of attrition, with fiercely contested fringe play, tight rucking and much tactical territory kicking.
Especially considering the wet conditions and the hangover of the post Varsity Christmas lay-off.
Fortunately, it was not to be. The Blues' audacious expansive style led to a scintillating display of pace that, out of their jets, the RAF fundamentally could not match.
It seemed that the RAF simply had no contingencies in their defence plans for the likes of Jonan Boto, John Bradshaw and Tom Maynard, who all had excellent games in a match more akin to Super 12 than University rugby.
Obviously, the slippery ball, distributive approach and the holiday rest combined to give a high error rate and penalty count that the Blues will be keen to suppress.
Nonetheless, they will be pleased that their match fitness and determination were sufficient to pile on three late tries in quick succession by Bradshaw, number eight Chris Abbott and replacement full-back Jon Rivers.
Impressively, all of the game's eight tries came by stretching and tearing the RAF defence through quick recycling and spreading the ball wide to either wing, where there was an excess of pace to burn.
The pack's ability to repeatedly win turn-overs and drive the RAF back on their own scrum was a telling victory for a predominantly greyhound tight five that boasted only one Blue.
With such a basis, fly-half Jon Fennell and his replacement Peter Jenkins, had the time and confidence to spread long lofty miss passes to the centre combination of James Whittingham and Bradshaw, who dummied and carved to create further space for full back Anthony Knox and wings Boto and Maynard.
Pressure only increased in the second half as the blues flooded the field with replacements, whose fresh legs and raw pace only compounded the point difference.
By half time the Blues had built a commanding, if patchy, lead of 18-3.
However, the second half witnessed a plethora of points as the Blues accelerated in supremacy.
The RAF first registered their second, and last, score, with a Tim Barlow penalty from the 10 yard line.
Chris Abbott quickly replied with the first of his brace by sliding over in the right corner, after the ball had been spread first to the left wing, rapidly recycled and then back through quick hands to Abbott on the right.
Whittingham, kicking in the place of the substituted Fennel, pushed the conversion wide from a tight angle.
Replacement Ali James made way for Jenkins at fly-half, and wing Maynard moved to scrum-half after the pacey Harry Edwards was substituted in for James Gaunt.
Edwards quickly made his impact half an hour in by picking up a loose, lofty pass in the RAF 22, spinning backwards out of a tackle and speeding to the right corner.
Whittingham, frustratingly, bounced the conversion off the far post.
Now with a comfortable 28-6 cushion, the Blues set about engaging their opposition in an entertaining last quarter.
First, an electric Boto try scored after Bradshaw had led a 50 metre break from his own try line.
Bradshaw careered into the RAF 22 before passing on to Rivers, who subsequently fed Boto for an easy converted touch down.
Bradshaw and Abbott then added a second score each after strong driving play from the forwards.
Whittingham made no mistakes with the conversions, with two mighty strikes just in from the right touchline.
Finally, Rivers muscled his way through a poor tackle to slide in near the posts for the final converted try, leaving it 54-6 at full-time.
27th Jan 2005