SPIES LIKE US – Oxford v Cambridge Varsity Match 2026

In-depth preview of this year’s annual Varsity Match with Cambridge captain Phoebe Jackson and Oxford skipper Chloe-Marie Hawley (below) giving the lowdown on the intense rivalry, what the match means, what to expect, why you should come to watch at the StoneX.

And how both teams have managed to spy on each other…

We start by talking to Cambridge captain, Phoebe Jackson (below), who is currently doing her PhD in Polar Studies and will be skippering from the sidelines as she’s been carrying an injury. But this does not diminish her excitement at the upcoming Varsity Match.

Are you good as a spectator? Because it must be very frustrating for you.

Phoebe Jackson: It’s been unbelievably tough to spend the entire season on the sideline, to then be working and thinking that I’m coming back, pass all of my tests with my knee, train with the girls for two weeks, to then be ruled out for post-concussion syndrome.

It’s been a brutal rollercoaster.

But I’m going to be screaming and shouting for the girls from the sidelines till I lose my voice.

I’m so proud of them, and I just want them to be proud of themselves, too.

We mentioned your injury, but how do you manage to balance rugby with studying? How much time does it take up?

Not easily.

Yeah, rugby itself, we ask a lot of the girls, we ask for a lot of commitment. It does take up a large amount of time.

This year then also being captain has added even more time to that.

I’m lucky in the sense that because I’m doing a PhD I have a lot of control over my working hours.

It has been a challenge to balance the two, but it’s been also incredibly rewarding.

So it’s definitely been worth all the hard work.

What does the Varsity match mean to you? Its history goes back to 1988. And I know you can’t play because of injury, but are there bragging rights, is there a prestige thing?

Well, just being involved in a varsity match at all is a huge privilege.

A lot of women who have come before me have given up a lot to even have a women’s Varsity Match take place, let alone for the experience to be as it is, such a big day in a professional stadium.

For a lot of girls that play rugby at university level, it’s such a unique opportunity and experience, probably something that they won’t ever do again.

My first varsity match was the final Twickenham VM, in 2023, my was at StoneX last year.

Both of those matches I’ll remember, hopefully, for the rest of my life.

If you were persuading rugby fans who hadn’t been to a Varsity match before to come to the StoneX, how would you sell this latest match? How competitive will it be?

It’s every single year it’s a competitive game.

I think there’s something about it being the Varsity Match.

This year will be the first time that Cambridge and Oxford are playing having not previously played each other before in the season.

So I think the game itself is going to have a very different dynamic because in previous years we’ve been able to have that experience of playing them, working out who are their key players, what are their threats?

What are their strike plays? What’s their strategy?

Then try and spend the season working out, okay, what’s our approach going to be to this?

This time it’s just going to be turning up.

It’s going to be a much more reactive game.

I really think it will be whatever team can actually react and respond in the moment to what the opposition is putting in front of them.

So I think it’s going to be very exciting.

Have you had your spies out then looking at them?

We’ve done our best.

We’ve actually got some alumni, old girls, who have moved on to do postgraduate degrees at other universities that have played Oxford in the league.

So we’ve got a couple of spies out there.

We’ll see how that how that works in our favour.

Which Cambridge players should we look out for?

Maud Ringertz, she is such an attacking threat.

Then on her inside, Amelia Edwards, the two of them as a centre pairing.

I’m very excited to see what happens on the day, what magic they can create.

In our forward pack, we’ve got Sophie Martin off the back of the scrum, very strong runner, great tackler, alongside our two flankers, Freya Sharp and Izzy Miller.

So I think our back row and our centres are going to be quite the dynamic threat.

What would be a good result for you?

We obviously want the win, but for me, a good result is for the whole team to go out there and be able to do everything that we have been building.

And we’ve had a rebuilding year. So the team is very fresh.

We’ve been building that bond together throughout the whole season.

So I think if the girls can go out there and get around each other, support each other and gel, then for me, that’s what I would love to get out of the game.

I think if we do that, we’ll come away with the win, which would be perfect.

But I just want the girls to go out there and play their best rugby and have a similar experience to what I’ve had in my previous varsity matches, which is just taking in the whole experience and being a part of varsity match history.

Then we talk to Oxford captain, Chloe-Marie Hawley (above), currently working on coral genetics for her DPhil in Biology, who lights up when we talk about the upcoming Varsity Match.

What exactly does the Varsity Match and its history since 1988 mean to you – any family connections, and are there bragging rights?

Chloe-Marie Hawley: Well, no, no bragging rights and no family connections.

But I played my first varsity at Twickenham, which was a massive deal. That holds huge prestige, huge significance, especially for the women, because the women’s game is fairly modern.

It really conveys that sense of the history that Oxford and Cambridge have in the rugby world.

It’s the second oldest game of rugby after the England Scotland game.

And you really feel that by playing in such iconic venues.

It does feel slightly different now it’s at the StoneX. We’re incredibly privileged to play in a stadium of premiership rugby that has become so popular that a lot of the team members will have gone there before to watch either Sarries Women or Men.

To have those changing rooms, to walk out and feel that exhilarating thrill of playing good rugby is something everyone looks forward to. No matter what team, what season you’ve had or how new or old you are to rugby, it’s always that indescribable feeling of just the history, the power, the incredible thing that playing rugby at Oxford and Cambridge is.

Remind me, you’re studying coral genetics, is that right?

Yeah, I did my biology undergrad at Oxford.

In my Masters, I got access to this genetic data set of corals from Seychelles, which instigated my PhD proposal to come back and really delve into that data set and look at genetic adaptability of corals to climate change.

So how do you balance rugby with studying?

I’ve always balanced quite a lot of high-level sports with academics throughout school.

Hockey was my main sport, then I switched to rugby when I came here, but first played basketball and rugby blues, so I’ve had my fair share of experiences in terms of organisation and time management with sport.

Working hard in the day to me is only possible because I know I’m about to go run around the field for three hours with my friends and push our bodies and mentally connect on a team with other people that I’m so lucky to call my friends and teammates.

I can go through the annoyance and irritation of having to code day and day out, because I can release everything at the end of the day through a really good training programme.

If you were persuading rugby fans to come on down to the StoneX Stadium, how would you sell this latest Varsity Match? How competitive will it be?

The level has elevated every year, basically, for the women’s.

It is a very competitive game in the women’s section as well as the men’s section, undoubtedly.

It’s when we put absolutely everything into 80 minutes.

You need the fitness, you need the brutality.

Cambridge are very good at coming out super, super strong and completely chip away at our defence.

And that requires a lot of not only mental strength but physical strength and just keep going, keep going and see it through.

So they’ve been known to be like that, and we tend to be a bit of a smaller, more athletic team, which we can show the true colours of when we get to the second half when things are tied.

It’s a very competitive game of rugby and the pressure is very much felt by the players.

But that pressure is generated from the expectation of the spectators, the expectation of our two institutions and the fact that we have to carry the two badges with honour and actually play up to a standard that is worthy of the varsity match.

You’re not playing in the same league anymore, so have you had some spies out looking at Cambridge?

Well, spies would never disclose who they are.

But it has been interesting.

It’s a different shift in the way we’ve had to prepare because, like you said, we’re normally in their league.

We’d face each other twice before the Varsity.

Both teams can really refine our secret tactics in the three weeks that we don’t see each other.

Whereas this year, we’ve had all season playing against different competition and we – Oxford – have actually been playing against a really tough competition that Cambridge hasn’t.

So it’s been very much a case that we just focus on our own game. And whatever they bring, they will bring.

What are Cambridge traditionally good at?

Like I mentioned, coming out super strong in the beginning.

They’re really attritional.

We’ve just had to train by covering absolute every possibility of Cambridge’s attack and skill and strengths.

In terms of actual spies, we haven’t actually seen them play.

They played our twos, so we got some intel through them.

When you’re talking about your Oxford players, can you pick out two or three names to look out for?

Yeah, so Lilla Berry our number 13, our outside centre.

She’s a really big running threat, massively improved since last year.

I mean, she was on the wing last year for her speed and interception ability.

Now we just shift her inside because she’s so much of an attacking threat.

So you should definitely watch out for her.

You’ll see her making many breaks, hopefully.

Then in terms of the forwards, as always, given the last four years, we have Sophie Shams, she’s iconic.

You will see her play across all positions if needs be.

So she’s definitely like one of the beating hearts of this team.

But also Amelie Harris, incredible fitness, incredible drive to get into any tackle, any break.

She’ll always be running off the shoulder.

So I would say I’d look out for them too.

And I’d say our hooker, Sophie Goodman.

She was on the bench last year, but wholeheartedly deserves to be starting hooker now, and she’s got an incredible pass.

And one of the most reliable players that anyone can have in the team.

For you, what would be a good result for the day?

Oh, this is where you find out I’m quite superstitious and I don’t want to jinx anything.

What would make you happy then?

Well, we are looking to win, obviously. We’ve been training to win our games, to perform at our best in these high-pressure environments.

So what I’m looking for is a solid defence, and then our attack is where we’ll be definitely expressing ourselves and you’ll be able to see what Oxford women’s rugby is like.

And that’s where we put the points on the scoreboard in a way that forwards have done their job, we’ve defended, and then we get some absolutely beautiful tries, which is what I’m hoping for.

Then this whole experience is a massive part of the players’ university journeys.

So it’s really important to me, especially as captain, that everyone is able to control the nerves, to soak up the experience, because it is one of the best days of the calendar year.

2023 Twickenham is my favourite day of the past five years.

I really want every single player on my squad, whether they’re number two or number 24, to feel that and to cherish the opportunity we have to go and express ourselves on this elite stage. And do it surrounded by the support of our club, but also all our friends and our family.

Oxford v Cambridge Varsity Match, StoneX Stadium, from 12pm, February 28^th 2026.