Norman's conquest as Oxford triumph

By MICHAEL KNOX SALUTE Norman Celliers and his heroes, who restored pride in Oxford University rugby at Twickenham yesterday.

After losing the last five Varsity Matches, the Dark Blues looked on the verge of a record sixth successive defeat when they trailed Cambridge 13-3 at half-time.

However, Celliers, the never-say-die captain, inspired his side to produce a dramatic second-half comeback and snatch only their third triumph of the 1990s.

Oxford were still trailing 13-9 with six minutes left, when hooker Peter Nicholas, who was about to be substituted, threw into a line-out six metres from the Cambridge line.

Lock Simon Miall caught the ball and Oxford drove for the line. Their initial push was halted by the Light Blues whose defence had been vice-like all game.

But they couldn't block a second drive and flanker Luke Sherriff emerged from a sea of bodies with the ball after the decisive try.

This was much to the delight of Sherriff's 100-odd Mexican-clad supporters from St Anne's College in the 55,000 crowd.

Toby Beer, picked simply because he could kick goals, did precisely that with the conversion and Oxford were ahead 16-13. In recent years, the final twist in the tail has often gone against Oxford. This time there was to be no repeat and soon the Dark Blues were hugging each other and doing a rare lap of honour.

Then, to the cheers of their supports, Celliers lifted the Bowring Bowl six years to the very day that another South African, Chad Lion-Cachet, had last got Oxford hands on the trophy.

This scenario seemed most unlikely after a slipshod first half in which nervous Oxford had made lots of mistakes and just could not get to grips with the dominance of Hamish Innes in the line-out.

Cambridge scored after only four minutes. Taking advantage of Oxford's disorganised defence, former Dark Blue Ben Rudge put his left wing Robin Morrow over for a simple unconverted try.

Things got even darker for the Dark Blues in the 22nd minute when slack defence by full back Phil Graham and Simon Danielli allowed Morrow, this time turning up on the right, to keep Ken Iwabuchi's grubber kick in play. The Japanese fly half followed up to touch down.

Beer landed his first successful penalty from 38 yards after Cambridge had been penalised at the very first scrum of the game in the 26th minute. But Cambridge full back Gary Paulin, who had missed his two conversions, restored their ten-point lead with a penalty.

Just before half-time, Oxford started to stir and recycled the ball an amazing 12 times inside the Cambridge 22 but were unable to break through.

It looked like the Dark Blues were on the way to yet another defeat. But Celliers did not believe it, and stirred his side to new heights as they dominated the second half

With the driving play of flankers Sherriff and Dave Kelaher, Oxford began to win good ball which half backs Seb FitzGerald and Jamie Weston used to good effect with astute kicks.

Two Beer penalties brought it back to 13-9, but the Old Etonian appeared to have cost his side the match when he smacked the left post with a simple penalty attempt. This failure was one of the factors in Celliers' mind when they were awarded another penalty with six minutes left. This time, the skipper opted for a line-out - and the rest is glorious Oxford history.

Oxford: P Graham, T Beer, K Shuman, J Kinniburgh, S Danielli, S FitzGerald (S Weenink 16-18), J Weston, R Lehner (H Jeffreys 50), P Nicholas (M Parker 77), A Collins, A Russell, S Miall, L Sherriff, D Kelaher, N Celliers (capt).

Cambridge: G Paulin (N Buoy 78), G Williams (O Jones 70), A Bidwell, B Rudge, R Morrow, K Iwabuchi, G Peacocke, J Cooke, J Hamilton-Smith, N Hennessy, H Innes, A Innes (capt), A Graham, M Haslett, M Count.

Referee: C Thomas (Wales).

Story date: Wednesday 08 December

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