Rugby Union: Whittaker's treble lights up Light Blues

CAMBRIDGE, spearheaded by the incursions of their fullback, Andy Whittaker, took their winning run in the Varsity rugby league match to five at Richmond last night. Oxford were widely supposed to have the grounding in the game to end their losing streak, but they had no answer to Whittaker, whose hat-trick of tries proved the difference between the sides.

Whittaker scored one of three well-worked Cambridge tries in the first half, with Paul Moran and James Floyd getting the others. Oxford only stayed in touch courtesy of a magnificent effort by Neil Dilworth, who went the length of the field.

The Dark Blues drew closer through Ian Ramsbottom early in the second half, but then Whittaker caught them out twice more and the Cambridge loose forward, Mike Count, completed the victory.

OXFORD UNIVERSITY: Melling (Hertford); Dilworth, Hull (both Queen's), Yarrow (St Cross), Ramsbottom (St Catherine's); Plumb (Nuffield), Farmer (Pembroke); Hobart (Keble), Jones, Aldwinkle (both Balliol), Shires (St Anne's), Molyneux (St Catherine's), Ferguson (Mansfield). Substitutes used: Jones (St Hugh's), Wosskow (New College), Bricheri-Columbi (Keble), Mullins (Queen's).

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY: Whittaker (Magdalene); Fulton (St Catherine's), Bidwell (Homerton), Hilton (Gonville and Caius), Flood (Peterhouse); Moran (Hughes Hall), Thwaites (Jesus); Cocks (St Edmund's House), Jones (Magdalene), Foote, Harris (both Christ's), Hill, Count (both Jesus). Substitutes used: Merrick (Hughes Hall), Crane (Jesus), George (St Edmund's House), Dixon (Gonville and Caius).

Referee: J Lee (Hull).