“My greatest moment in rugby”

Men’s Rugby Union captain Ed Wilkinson reflects on that incredible winning try in 2016 as he gets set for this year’s Varsity

His smile was beaming from ear to ear. It was obvious that Ed remembers the moment like it was yesterday. Being the man who scored the last-second winning try to seal Varsity 2016 is an accolade he wears very proudly. For a guy who has played rugby since the age of 6, calling that the “happiest moment of my life” just shows how highly he views Varsity and rugby at Warwick. It was an “incredibly satisfying” moment for Ed and it topped off a weekend when Warwick beat Coventry for the 26th year in a row. Here’s hoping that #TeamWarwick can make that 27 straight.

The location of last year’s victory wasn’t too shabby either. “It was great to have it staged at the Ricoh, but with it professional pitch, it was bigger than what we are used to. Also, it was partly artificial which made the pitch very hard. This led to many players cramping which allowed for more space behind the defence.”

The noise was huge and even if that added more pressure, it made for a significant occasion

But one thing that Ed couldn’t fail to appreciate was the support of the crowd. “The noise was huge and even if that added more pressure, it made for a significant occasion. This ultimately made us raise our game and thankfully we were able to win.” Clearly the stage was something all team members treasured and they will look forward to being back there on Sunday February 26 this year.

Though the Varsity build-up is gaining traction, Ed can’t escape the fact that the season so far hasn’t gone as expected. “The results haven’t been the best this year. We lost our first competitive fixture to Nottingham Trent and also lost to Leicester. They are top of the league we play in, but I still feel we should have won and due to some errors, we couldn’t.”

They play Leicester soon though; let’s hope that they can exact revenge. Even if those two results didn’t go to plan, there have been impressive performances. “Our best performance of the year was definitely against Harper Adams 1s – we won 46-26 to a team that we lost to the last time we played them, including a few spectacular long range tries. We had a thrilling game against Nottingham 2s as well, winning 31-27.”

Image: Facebook/Warwick Sport

The Rugby club have shown their talent this season, despite being down to the bare bones: “The turnout from the freshers and new players has not been as expected. We have enough people to fill out the three teams, but don’t have spare players to fill in when needed.” We hope that will change sooner rather than later.

Varsity is the most exciting event for us because of so many people watching…we get to be part of the spectacle

“Varsity is the most exciting event for us because of so many people watching and it gives us the opportunity of watching new sports that we wouldn’t otherwise”, says Ed. “We get to be part of the spectacle.”

If you think the preparation for Varsity will be just like any other game, think again. “One focus in our build-up to Varsity will be to have team bonding activities. For example, we will go out for a team meal the day before the game and we will also be looking at the game plan for match day.”

Walk around campus and you can feel the Varsity vibe growing. “Varsity is definitely gathering momentum on campus by becoming more popular among students”, notes Ed. “Also, the university is pushing us and trying to promote every sport to get the recognition they deserve. This builds Varsity’s reputation and makes everyone more excited.”

His message to Warwick, therefore, is simple: “get involved, watch as much sport as possible and be part of #TeamWarwick at Varsity 2017.”