With no rugby on the first Six Nations weekend of the year Ambleside university players from the Centurions reached out to their university brothers for a friendly game to bridge a big gap in their home fixture list.
Lancaster University Development Team answered the call and the scene was set for a great day of rugby.
Lancaster travelled up to Cumbria with a full squad of 24 players and the Centurions had a squad of 26 players, twelve of them from the Ambleside campus.
The referee and both captains agreed too multiple substitutions to ensure all 50 players had a decent run out on a muddy Ambleside pitch.
Unfortunately, the first action was seen by the Ambleside first aider James Greenwood who expertly dealt with a broken ankle sustained in the first minute by a Lancaster player. After that the rugby action began in earnest.
Even though it was a friendly both young teams gave no quarter and crunching tackles came in from both sides.
Both sets of forwards enjoyed the tussle while the Ambleside backs wasted a few chances by not using the extra man in the overlap or being blinded by white line fever.
Finally, the ball broke right and who should pop up on the left wing but the Ambleside hooker Tyler Newall. Taking the ball on the halfway line he set off down the wing towards the try line beating two defenders on his way to score the first unconverted try in the corner.
Five minutes later big Eddie Messenger scattered defenders in his wake as he crashed over under the posts for his second try of the season converted by Callum Penn to take the score to 12-0.
Led by their captain Jack Hayes the Lancaster forwards started to win good ball and realised that they had to take down the big Ambleside forwards Butler and Taylor-Smythe by the legs.
Handling in the wet made things difficult for both sides and at half time both teams made numerous substitutions to rest tired legs.
The game slowed in the second half and again it was one of the big Ambleside forwards Tadgh Butler who crashed over in the corner converted by Penn to open up the score to 19 to nil.
At this point the young university players could have dropped their heads and given up but instead they rolled up their sleeves and worked hard for each other.
Then came the try of the game Luis Mcpherson smashed through some very weak tackling in the mid-field, something coach Matty Kaye will have to look at come training on Wednesday night.
Mcpherson stepped the Ambleside full back and scored a great try but the conversion was missed.
One of the finds of the season Mike Burton is turning into a one man try machine and when he was put away on the right wing he crossed the line without having a hand laid on him. The conversion was missed but they led 24-5.
Yet again the Uni lads came back at Ambleside and after a series of penalties conceded by the home side the referee had seen enough and awarded a penalty try which was converted to give a final score of 24 to 12 to the hosts.
Man of the match for Lancaster was Jack Hayes and Man of the Match for Ambleside was coach Matty Kaye.
Everyone then rushed to the bar to watch England v Wales and then the merriment lasted well into the night, culminating in a Pernod and cookie eating contest.
It was agreed by everyone the day had been a great success and hopefully will be repeated very soon with hopefully a varsity match being reintroduced next season between the Ambleside campus and the Lancaster campus as happened for many years pre-Covid.
