Blaikies' omission leaves Cambridge blushing

4.00pm

Cambridge suffered an inauspicious and embarrassing start to their build-up for next Tuesday's Varsity Match at Twickenham - the 121st in this series between Oxford and Cambridge.

The Light Blues captain, Duncan Blaikie, committed an historic howler as he followed tradition and recited the numbers, names and colleges of his team members from memory.

The New Zealander jumped from No 12, fellow Kiwi Jason Wright at inside centre, to No 10, fly-half Owen Edwards - completely omitting any mention of Cambridge's speedy No 11, Aki Abiola from St Catharine's out on the left wing.

A blushing Blaikie, a qualified doctor in his home country, but who is now studying law as a post graduate in Hughes Hall, had to step back up to the microphone and own up to his mistake and rectify the error.

"Omitting a team member at the announcement is a heinous crime in Varsity eyes," said a grinning Tony Rogers, the Cambridge coach.

"There will be a severe punishment for that slip-up. It will be pretty awful whatever he is subjected to."

The last time a captain committed this cardinal sin was back in 1985, when Gavin Hastings, the former Scotland international, forgot to name his blindside flanker Steve Kelly.

Cambridge lost that match, ending a run of five wins on the trot. Next week Blaikie, the Light Blues' openside, has the tricky task of helping his side end another run - three successive defeats.

And Oxford, who are also captained by a Kiwi, the blindside flanker Fraser Gemmell, are confident that they have a balanced team that can turn in a better performance than either team managed last year.

With 43,000 tickets having been sold for the 10 December showdown, Twickenham officials are confident that the crowd will top the 50,000 who showed up last year.

Blaikie's was not the only bloomer. In his introductory speech Hamish Ritchie, the chairman of MMC who are sponsoring the Varsity match, referred to England's record breaking prop Jason Leonard as the American golfer Justin Leonard.

- INDEPENDENT