Rugby Union: The right break for Lumsden at last: Steve Bale on how the Blue day dawns for an Oxford man at Twickenham next week

HAVING had the blues, now he has a Blue. But as Audley Lumsden could have died when he broke his neck playing rugby, his selection yesterday to play for Oxford when Cambridge defend the Bowring Bowl in the 111th University match at Twickenham next Tuesday was an honour to keep in perspective.

Even so, it is a triumph for Lumsden's unbreakable determination that he has recovered from that appalling injury, two subsequent broken ankles and, this term, persistent hamstring trouble to squeeze in on the wing (rather than his favoured position, full-back).

It is extraordinary to relate that Lumsden played on, his neck broken, for five minutes after being hurt making a tackle while playing for Bath against Plymouth Albion in March 1989 before anyone realised something was drastically wrong. 'Some doctors told me I should be dead; some doctors said I would never play rugby again,' he said yesterday.

Eventually, he found a specialist who said he could play. 'Once a doctor said I'd be fine, that was good enough for me. I was told to do specialist neck exercises but I never got round to it. I'm not a great believer in weight-training.' However, he did have to wear a neck brace for three months, a fearsome contraption from which his Bath team-mates used to hang their pint-pots.

Lumsden, a 25-year-old physics graduate of Bath University studying social administration at Oxford, considers himself a better player for his depressing experience, though he admits his tackling will never be the same. 'I'm more cautious. I don't tackle as well. If a big No 8 was coming towards me, before I would have tackled him head-on, but now I'll take him from behind.'

This self-confessed shortcoming evidently does not worry Oxford. Lumsden is included despite spending most of the term trying to get over a hamstring injury. He has had only three first-team games (two on the wing, one at full-back), plus a couple in the lower sides.

Last year his chance of a Blue disappeared when he broke his right ankle while making an unauthorised appearance in the Dubai Sevens less than a month before the University match. He broke the same ankle playing in the Voyagers Sevens at Old Deer Park in April.

Lumsden, an England B cap, is among an international Oxford collection: four Irishmen, three Englishmen, three Welshmen, three South Africans, a New Zealander and an Australian (and one of the Englishmen was born in Canada).

They have five old Blues in their side compared with Cambridge's six. The Light Blues include the first native of Cambridge - prop Dan Perrett - to play for the university at Twickenham since Phil Boulding, another prop, in 1976. After an admissions clamp-down which in effect reduced the rugby intake, the England B centre Damian Hopley is the only widely known newcomer for Cambridge.

A full-house of 54,000 will be present to see the Bowring Bowl contested for the 17th time. As it happens, C T Bowring is the Rugby Football Union's insurance broker. Perhaps now is the time for Audley Lumsden to take out an individual policy.

VARSITY MATCH LINE-UPS

OXFORD UNIVERSITY

M Joy (Marling Grammar Stroud & Keble); A Lumsden (Alfred Sutton Reading, Bath University & St Cross), *K Street (King Henry VIII Coventry & Christ Church), D O'Mahony (Christian Brothers Cork, Univ Coll Cork & Keble), D Spence (St Andrew's Coll, Natal University & Keble); N Malone (Belfast Methodist, Loughborough University & Keble), *S du Toit (Paul Roos Gymnasium, Stellenbosch University & Christ Church); I Buckett (Holywell, Swansea University & University), *M Patton (Campbell Coll Belfast, Cardiff University & St Catherine's, capt), *A Williams (Fishguard Comp & St Anne's), *D Evans (Bro Myrddin Carmarthen & St Anne's), J Daniell (Wanganui Collegiate, Eton & St Catherine's), B Nasser (St Joseph's Brisbane, Queensland University & Keble), B O'Mahony (Presentation Brothers Cork, University College Cork & Keble), C Lion- Cachet (Pretoria High, Cape Town University & Keble).

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY

CAMBRIDGE: *L Davies (Pencoed Comp, Cardiff University & St Edmund's); S Burns (St Dunstan's & Magdalene), D Hopley (Harrow, St Andrew's University & Hughes Hall), P Flood (Stonyhurst, Swansea University & St Edmund's), R Batstone (Epsom & Downing); *K Price (Aberdare Comp, Cardiff University & St Edmund's), *M DeMaid (Lady Mary High, St David's Coll Cardiff, Bristol Polytechnic & Hughes Hall); D Perrett (Perse Cambridge & Jesus), A Read (High Wycombe Royal Grammar, Loughborough University & Hughes Hall), P Callow (Oakham & Fitzwilliam), D Bickle (Nower Hill High, Weald Coll, Durham University, Birmingham University & Hughes Hall), *D Dix (Shore Sydney, Sydney University & Hughes Hall), *M Duthie (Backwell Comp & Queens'), *E Peters (Brentwood, Loughborough University & Hughes Hall, capt), R Jenkins (Oundle & Downing).* denotes Blue.

Wallabies ahead of clock,

Alan Watkins, page 28

(Photograph omitted)