The University of Sheffield continued their impressive Men’s Rugby Union 2s recent Varsity record, coming out 21-19 victors in a closer-than-expected Varsity thriller at a raucous Hallam Sports Park.
Hallam, coming into the game having lost the two corresponding fixtures in 2022 and 2023 36-0 and 84-0 respectively, started brightly here with Ben Bowden offloading neatly to Dan Van Amersfoort who went over to give them a 5-0 lead after just 2 minutes. Ben Renison was unable to convert the try from a tight angle to the left of the posts.
Their advantage was dealt a setback on 19 minutes though, when Arthur Tetlow was ordered to spend 10 minutes in the sin bin for persistently being offside.
Unsurprisingly with a man advantage, the team in Black and Gold grew into the contest however, and after originally having a try disallowed for a knock-on in the build-up, did draw level 3 minutes after the yellow card, with Ecuador 7s international Juan Cabeza-Sisa finding a small gap in the defence to score the University of Sheffield’s first try. Oli Clark cooly knocked the ball over to add the extra two points and put them 7-5 ahead.
Tom Bacon was unlucky not to put Uni of further ahead when he ran from deep inside his own half to within 10 metres of the Hallam line, he did win a penalty within kicking distance, although his side opted for the scrum instead.
This turned out to be a good call as it created a sustained period of pressure right on the Hallam line, and after some spirited defending initially, Joe Clarke found space further wide to the left to go over the line and place the ball right under the posts, allowing namesake Clark to comfortably convert and stretch the lead to 14-5, three minutes before the interval.
At that point, many would’ve expected one-way traffic, but Hallam rallied and responded immediately, with back Emilio Ramirez making good progress down the right before cutting infield, allowing Dan Walker to score in the left-hand corner. This time Renison impressively converted from a tight angle and in strong winds to reduce the arrears to 14-12 at half time.
The second half was relatively uneventful, with no immediate addition to the score. Both sides had conceded cheap penalties for coming in at the side and not releasing, but neither side could take advantage, always opting to kick for touch rather than at goal.
That was until Renison kicked at goal from over 25 metres out, with the opportunity to give Hallam the lead, but saw his attempt land just wide of the right-hand post after 66 minutes.
The Black and Gold capitalised on this 5 minutes from time, with replacement Tom Brown mazily running through the defence to score in front of the posts, giving the Uni of a 21-12 lead when Clark added the +2.
Although Hallam once again responded quickly, when Ben Bowden, who had lost his boot earlier on in the half, added a converted try to his side’s tally, Dan Griffiths soon kicked the ball out of play when the game restarted giving Uni of a 21-19 Victory.
Uni of lead in the overall Varsity tally, with the Athletics to follow on Friday.
All Image Credits: Owen Roberts