From our Sherrington Building overlooking the University Parks it’s impossible not to notice the various sports being practised throughout the year, and at Oxford, Rugby is one of the most popular. On 8 March the Varsity Matches return, so we caught up with Jack Hamilton, a DPAG DPhil who also plays Scrum Half (number 9) for the Oxford University Rugby Football Club (OURFC) Men's Blues (1st grade).
Jack explains the significance of these particular matches, ‘For anyone unfamiliar with Oxford rugby, a "Blue" is the term for an award won for competing in Oxbridge university sport at the highest level. At Oxford, this almost exclusively means competing in the Varsity match against Cambridge. In rugby, Blues are awarded to any player that gets on the field during the annual fixture against Cambridge (that is, the starting 15 players plus any of the 8 reserves that are substituted on throughout the match) at the 1st grade level. An interesting fact is that there are fewer Oxford "Blues" in rugby than there are players who have played for England!’
Jack continues, ‘For me it’s always a privilege to pull on the Dark Blue jersey – regardless of the match – but the Varsity definitely has an extra special feel to it. As a World Rugby Hall of Fame event, it is the biggest game that most of us will ever play in. Coming off two consecutive losses (one of which I was part of last year), this year’s clash is crucial for us to get right – we are all eager for the opportunity that awaits on March 8.’
Beyond his Rugby ambitions, at DPAG Jack is a first year DPhil student in Professor Vlad Vyazovskiy's lab, funded by an Australian Ramsay Postgraduate Scholarship. His research is in the area of sleep physiology and he’s specifically interested in how the cerebral cortex homeostatically regulates sleep. Long term he hopes to understand more deeply the link between the cortical regulation of sleep and mental health.
Book tickets to the Varsity Matches on Saturday 8 March at StoneX Stadium here.
