Will’s Word On Warwick: A tale of two universities – Concrete jungle vs campus bubble

As we gear up for Varsity this weekend, it seems high time to revisit one of Warwick’s most enduring cultural adversaries, Coventry University and its students. Though this feud is generally limited to the floor of Kasbah and the various surfaces on which Varsity fixtures are played, there is no doubt that this fiery rivalry impacts both Warwick and Coventry students, each and every day.

While tensions have always been high, there have been specific moments when the rivalry has grown so intense that it threatened to destroy the relationship completely. Back in 2017, Coventry’s Sports Officer described his Warwick counterpart as a “muppet”. This saw talks resurface over whether Coventry University would be best placed to rival another local university, such as the slightly further afield Birmingham or Oxford.

Image: Loic Verstrepen Sande / The Boar

Other incidents have seen as yet unconfirmed allegations of a raffle rigged in Coventry’s favour back in 2012. Alongside this, there have been reports of classist chants, such as “your dad works for my dad”, jeered by Warwick students in 2022, and Coventry University winning no matches last year. All of which have caused extraordinary friction, with the reportedly rigged raffle presumably bringing Cuban Missile Crisis levels of tension to the relationship.

Coventry students mock Warwick for its refusal to accept our placement right next to their city (which I would note is not the same thing as being in Coventry, and no, I don’t want to talk about postcodes or our proximity to Warwick)

Over the years, there have been many calls for a Gorbachevian-style easing of tension and a metaphorical disarmament on both sides, and there’s no doubt that for many Warwick students, Coventry University is no longer the communal punching bag that it once was. Perhaps here Warwick reflects its geopolitical context, as post the heady years of Blair and the GFC, we begin to look more at internal rather than external issues. In fact, it remains true that neither Blair nor Clinton has visited the University of Warwick since 2000, and Coventry has fared no better, with neither leader stopping by Coventry University or the club currently known as Kasbah in this century or the last.

For years, university meme pages and confession accounts made a living off this rivalry, with it serving as the go-to avenue for a smug joke, a slam-dunk, or a general complaint. Accounts like Warwick Uni Spotted fuelled a hearty debate and many likes by repeatedly dunking on Coventry University through the power of memes. Again, however, recent years have reflected a far less fractured place, not in the real world obviously, but in terms of the Coventry-Warwick rivalry. Last year, confession accounts The Warwick Tea and Covfessions even came together for a joint post marking Varsity and the fun competition it brings. Perhaps the world (of the Varsity rivalry) is healing.

Image: Warwick Uni Spotted

A major point of tension is geographic. Coventry students mock Warwick for its refusal to accept our placement right next to their city (which I would note is not the same thing as being in Coventry, and no, I don’t want to talk about postcodes or our proximity to Warwick). Meanwhile, Warwick students look down on Coventry for its poor national reputation and European urban safety rankings. Notably, Kasbah acts as something of a demilitarised zone. A common ground where students of both Warwick and Coventry can come together to either take the mick out of each other, make diplomatic friendships, or get so drunk they don’t know what they’re doing.

Over recent years, the rivalry’s intensity has sadly waned, with Warwick’s 35-year winning streak and Coventry’s failure to hit double points since 2022 having had a peculiarly adverse effect on the competition’s fire

Of course, Coventry students will likely allege that those at Warwick live in a campus bubble, while they live and study in the ‘real world’. To this, I would say that we have consistently proved that sports like football, rugby, and tennis – supposed exports of that outside world – seem to have broken through rather more successfully at Warwick than at Coventry. At least according to the last 35 years of results. Though perhaps the issue is simply a lack of grass on which to practise, in the concrete jungle they call home.

Over recent years, the rivalry’s intensity has sadly waned, with Warwick’s 35-year winning streak and Coventry’s failure to hit double points since 2022 having had a peculiarly adverse effect on the competition’s fire. Some would allege that proper rivalries depend on competition, and when looking at the periods when the rivalry was most intense, you’ll see that this overlaps with Coventry’s sporting golden age, following additional investment and a focus on improving sporting prestige at the university.

Image: Will Moores

Perhaps then we should look away from the concrete jungle and towards the redbrick, forming a rivalry with the more prestigious University of Birmingham or even slightly older institutions like the University of Oxford Brookes or Oxford. Although this may be unwise, as it carries the risk that we might actually lose.

There have even been some years where the point totals were too close for comfort. In 2010, Coventry were just two points behind, in a Varsity that ended 36-34

However, the one-sided nature of the rivalry in no way limits its prestige. In fact, the oldest rivalry in football, England and Scotland, is famously uncompetitive, with England proving time and time again just how useless a football team can be.

There have even been some years where the point totals were too close for comfort. In 2010, Coventry were just two points behind, in a Varsity that ended 36-34. Back then, the rivalry was in full flow, and looking at the points tally, it’s easy to see why.

Image: Will Moores

Off the field, competition has remained intense. Last year, Warwick SU’s VP for Sport, Louis Gosling, faced off against Coventry’s Activities Officer, Chris Eban, in a series of five sporting head-to-heads. Impressively, Gosling secured a commanding triumph in two out of five. Many pundits believe this result was down to a combination of Eban’s luck and Gosling’s generosity, though some critics have noted that Gosling’s losing the final, deciding round of ping pong, may have been the only time students felt passionate nostalgia for his predecessor.

While a phoenix can breathe fire, fly, and revive itself, if you’ve ever seen a YouTube short of Joe Rogan, you’ll know that bears continue to be pretty formidable creatures in their own right

Entering a more abstract realm, it’s been noted that if Warwick and Coventry’s signature animals, the unshackled bear and the phoenix, respectively, were to fight ceremoniously, this could settle the squabble once and for all. While a phoenix can breathe fire, fly, and revive itself, if you’ve ever seen a YouTube short of Joe Rogan, you’ll know that bears continue to be pretty formidable creatures in their own right. Not to mention that our bear has recently been ‘unshackled’, following our logo redesign, meaning it’s likely more mobile, vengeful, and dangerous than ever.

With 2026 comes yet another instalment of this beloved rivalry’s Varsity competition. Whether Coventry will rise from the ashes of 35 straight defeats or if Warwick will finally falter remains broadly known. However, the general apathy and overconfidence with which some Warwick students look upon the rivalry may lead to an overconfidence-fuelled upset. With our bear freshly unshackled, the law of averages looming, and the phoenix’s tendency to come back from the dead, it seems likely that this year’s edition will be fiercer than ever.