New Oxford University captain Dan Rosen is probably the longest-serving player to have been elected to the post.

The 25-year-old hooker will be in his eighth year at Oxford when he leads the Dark Blues at Twickenham in December.

And Rosen, who first made the Varsity Match squad in 2004, hopes all this experience will stand him in good stead.

“I was pretty shocked and absolutely ecstatic. It still has not really sunk in yet,” said Rosen, who is taking a DPhil course in pharmacology.

“It is the pinnacle of my rugby career so far and probably will be for the rest of my life.

“It is something that you don’t really think about until you are presented with the opportunity.

“I think I would have been foolish not to have had a go at it.

“It is something I’m really passionate about, and I think the boys saw that.

“It seemed like the right thing to do.

“Next season will be my eighth and final year. I have got to get a job after that.”

Rosen added: “A key part of the captain’s role is off the field and I feel that the skills I have in terms of organisation and man managment will be important.

“Hopefully that will give me enough experience and knowledge to make sure this campaign is a success.

“I have seen what has gone wrong and what has gone right in previous campaigns.”

Rosen has played 75 matches for the Dark Blues, which puts him behind medical students Peter Enevoldsen and Rupert Vessey, who each won five Blues and made 120 and 116 appearances respectively.

But this year will be the sixth in a row that Rosen has featured in the Twickenhamm clash, although he has twice been an unused replacement, so he has the edge in terms of longevity.

Rosen has captained his school, Brighton College, his county, Sussex, and now every team at Oxford.

The former England schools player said: “I’m more of a lead-by-example person.

“There are many good leaders in the team, so you’ve got to allow them to use their attributes as best they can.”

Despite his position, Rosen was prominent as a runner in Oxford’s recent 62-3 thrashing of the RAF.

“We just said ‘let’s have some fun’,” he said.

“I would like to keep that going.

“I like to think I fit into running rugby.

“With the players we have got, we are certainly able to play expansively.

“I don’t see any reason to change that at all.

“If anything I will encourage it more.”

Rosen had to play second fiddle to former All Black captain Anton Oliver last season after starting in 2007, but was far from bitter at the experience.

“I’ve learnt so much from him over this past year,” said Rosen. “He is a great guy to have around.

“I still played a fair few games and had some good fun.

“There is no shame to be on the bench to Anton Oliver.

“I’m pretty sure that most hookers in the world would be in that position.”

Although he takes his fitness seriously, Rosen is also known by the nickname pudding.

He said: “When we went to Japan in my third year, I was a little bit overweight.

“The Japanese were very hospitable with their food.

“For some reason I got singled out for having second courses of pudding, and I got put on a pudding ban.”

This was later lifted and Oxford won the Varsity Match that year, but Rosen does not expect any repeat problems!

Rosen’s field of study is fairly complex, so he described it simply as “developing research drugs”.

He is confident he can manage his sporting and academic commitments.

Rosen said: “I am in the labs from 10-6. It is like having a job.

“Because I am so busy, I’m very organised.

“I’m lucky that my supervisor is very flexible. I can go in at weekends and in the evenings.

“A lot of what I’m doing now is writing up, so it will be good to have some breaks.”

The Varsity Match build-up begins in earnest in the autumn, but Rosen said the planning started now for him.

“It is now we get the boys to start their training programmes,” he added.

Rosen will come up against another Dan in the Varsity Match as his opposite number is former Australian international second row Dan Vickerman.

As for facing such an illustrious opponent, Rosen said: “I think we’ve got an Oxford and Cambridge meeting later in the year, but I am just focussing on our team.

“I’m not too worried about it.”