er yeah. Kinda forgot about that.

Forgive my ignorance, what's a full blue and a half blue? I didn't go to uni!

A blue, in the case of these Unis is generally awarded for being picked to represent the combined colleges of that University in a sporting or sometimes academic competition.
A half Blue is just a way of trying to keep the actual "blue' from being diluted.....otherwise they would be handing them out for knitting, Ironing and getting the most posts on a chatroom thread




In other countries, it can be awarded to a student who proved themselves the best at a particular dicipline, sporting or otherwise over the year across the whole country and generally at High School Leaving age.

LOL



can you imagine a full blue for trolling??

In reality it means RU is important and you get a full blue. RL is unimportant and is put in the same bracket as tiddly winks so that you get a half blue.

Discrimination by the powerful against RL has not gone away.

And, a bit of blue is for the dads

As stated though Oxford award a full Blue for playing, so perhaps only 50% of the powerful discriminate?

No apparently Oxford and Cambridge have exactly the same system. they both discriminate against RL although not In RU. In RL it is 13 full blues and 4 half blues to the rest of the squad to be shared out by the coach as he sems fit.


In RU all the squad get a full blue.

Seems like the establishment still discriminates against RL

I don't really see why this match is on Sky anyway. Seems like RL pandering to an organisation who can't be doing with us again.

I'd much rather see the Salford-Manchester or Huddersfield-Bradford Varsities or Loughborough-Carnegie on Sky.

For me Loughborough and Carnegie would be best. Oxbridge do have great academic achievement, but Loughborough are the two centres of sporting excellence for higher education in this country.

I'm guessing it's Sky's decision to screen the game, nobody elses.

The Oxford-Cambridge rivalry is the biggest one in British university sport. How many people do you seriously think are going to be interested in Loughborough playing Leeds Met at anything?

I can understand where you are coming from but you have to understand that showing this match has more to do with Sky -v- BBC profile and raising the image of RL than the actual quality of the game itself. Graduates of Oxford / Cambridge (or any University for that matter) will always follow how their former Univeristy is performing and for these 2 particular Universities the Varsity matches hold a particular significance. SKy are not able to show the Boat Race or the RU Varsity match so they have gone for the next best thing in their opinion, the RL Varsity match and piggy backed it on their Super League coverage. My moving the match from its traditional home of Dear Park to the Stoop, Sky are able to double up the coverage by holding a televised Varisty match on Thursday (a quiet sports night on TV anyway) followed by a televised Harlequins SL match on friday (no need to move broadcasting equipment). Easy win from Sky's point of view.

Th bonus from an RL point of view is that former Oxford / Cambridge graduates might watch the match out of curiosity. Given that probably a higher proportion of these Universities graduates end up 'movers and shakers' in the private and pubic sector it is good to appear on their radar. Whilst the crowds are still small the standard of footy is improving (although it now needs Cambridge to step up to the plate). Who knows, over time, former Oxford / Cambridge Blues might prefer to entertain their associates at the RL match rather than over the road. Now I'm not suggesting the RL will ever be as big as the RU match (128 years of history versus 31!) but increased exposure to curious viewers can only be a good thing, exposure that the sport is unlikely to get from Loughborough -v- Leeds Met.

On a seperate issue, I think that the University Championships / Final should also be shown on TV. The games are fantastically competitive and what better way to develop an interest in the game outside of the heartlands than by showing U21 sport on TV. RL clubs are croping up at Universities all over the country (I see Essex and Exeter have teams). It would make business sense for a university to get exposure by getting TV time from its 'successful RL team' (providing this is not at the expense of academia al the USA). WHo knows, a move like this could mean we get a march on other sports such as RU for once.

Aside from the boat race and possibly the Union match who outside of the two Unis actually cares about the Oxbridge sporting contests? Even then its debatable whether folk outside the Unis really care about the boat race and the union match. I can't imagine that the RFL will have had no involvement whatsoever in the decision, planning and consultation to broadcast the Oxbridge match.

A contest between the two centres of sporting excellence in higher education in this country seems a lot more appealing to me than two stuffy old red bricks. "Build it and they will come"; market it right and folk will turn up and get interested.

Hmmm... Good points there. My view is more about tapping into the physical and intellectual resources available at Lboro and Carnegie and strengthening the ties that are already there (as well as appealing more to a regional appeal). So, it would be a case of getting the best conditioners involved with the game or getting the latest knowledge on training.

But, I suppose this a very RL view; concentrate on the on-field product at the expense of the backroom. Whereas RU's view is concentrate on the backroom at the expense of the on-field product, which the Varsity match would open up .

The Uni comp has been on TV. Premier Sports have been broadcasting matches along with loads of NRL matches. Unfortunately, its only available on Sky and Virgin, which annoys me as BT customer.

It was on live TV, two weeks ago. Met won a thriller in the last minute.

[url=http://oxfordstudent.com/2010/06/10/me-my-blue-josh-halstead/Here[/url is another reason why televising this game is important. A few years ago both squads were made up of players that didn't make the RU squad. It was mention in commentry that Oxford now has a squad of over 45 players most of whom, like Josh, have chosen to play RL rather RU because of the set-up. I don't think that this would ever have developed had the matches not been televised. The proof in th pudding will be whether Cambridge address their obvious inferiority over the next 12 months, if not, I fear for the viability of this match.

On Premier Sports? Sorry but I'm not forking out another £10 per month on top of my already extortionate Sky package. Would be great if Sky or better still the BBC picked it up though.

Premier Sports put it on Free-To-Air.

But, it was only available if you have a Sky box. Gits!

Interetsing stuff there, Mr Blue

Lucky you that you knew when it was on to watch it. The lack of advertising (in a way undertstandable) and deefening silence on these forums (less your initial posting back in Jan) didn't help matters. Shame, I would definately have watched.

If you join Premier Sports' facebook group they're very good at keeping you up to date with latest matches and what is on FTA

Done!

interesting reading josh's reasons for joining the league club at oxford. i am an ex st.mary's player, and it is good to see him quoted as a high light beating simmies. its also good to see oxford getting back towards national standings. his experience with the league club at uni is refreshing, and hopefully it is being reflected across the elete universities across the country.
i went to the game last night, and oxford were a very good league team. they would have beaten most cambridge sides of old. it is a worry though that cambridge put in such a lack luster performance, as the occassion is a good one, and a competitive game would have improved a good night.
rugby league in the univerities needs to be nurtured, and promoted as this will be another way of improving the profile of the game.
figures on wiki intimate that 85k households tune into the game on sky, and i think this is a very encouraging figure, which can hopefully be built on year on year.

RLFANS have a discout promo code for Premier Sports here too --------------------------------->

If you fancy 150 NRL games this year... Just saying.

We have this thread around this time every year...

Two factors to add to this. One is the size of Oxford & Cambridge. They both have around 20k students each. As well as being older/richer/more academic, they're also a lot bigger than most other universities. The other is that both tend to produce a much stronger attachment in their graduates than other universities. I wouldn't cross the road to watch my old uni play against Leeds Met - but my father-in-law would support Oxford against Cambridge in anything, 50+ years after he graduated.

Both of those things mean that even if the game might appeal only to Oxbridge graduates, it could still get decent ratings and be an easy sell for Sky advertising buyers.