The Cambridge University RUFC captains, who are preparing their respective teams to face Oxford University in the Varsity Matches at the StoneX Stadium this Saturday (March 8), have outlined how plans to improve the outdoor and indoor spaces at the famous ground will be a huge benefit to students and the wider community.

The vision is to transform Grange Road into a thriving year-round venue that enables a greater range of sports to be played including rugby union, football, rugby league, Australian rules, and American football.

The ambition is to install a durable, high-quality, all-weather surface to allow far greater intensity of use for training and playing and making improvements to the related facilities to make the ground more accessible, enhance the spectating experience and increase the variety of purposes that the ground will serve.

“I think it would be really special for us,” says Hughes, who is hoping to lead the men’s team to a third successive Varsity Match win.

“Cambridge sport is in a really good place, and I think to create Grange Road as not only a centre for us—because we understand there is a massive history for us being connected to it—but for other sports to be able to form or reaffirm a history there as well, it can become a real Cambridge hub, rather than just a Cambridge rugby hub.

“Having that facility would be really crucial for us as well. Playing on 4G also prepares us much better for the Varsity Matches now because they are consistently on 4G.

“It would mean we could train more often without worrying about ruining the ground.” The supply of central, floodlit pitches in Cambridge is inadequate and the current Grange Road pitch is restricted to eight to 12 hours of play per week.

Development of the ground will enhance competitive sports playing and help promote physical wellbeing for students and the wider Cambridge community.

“It will be great for College sport,” says Jones, who also plays rugby league for the University and netball and football for Pembroke College.

“As a College athlete, we would be able to play football on the pitch—some Colleges have facilities of their own and some don’t—so it would be great to have that for the College community.

“Sometimes this pitch gets a bit destroyed and looks like it is just mud rather than grass so having a consistent pitch to be able to play on in any weather will be good for training, for consistent matches.

“We have three women’s and three men’s rugby teams and that is a lot of players on a pitch every week so it will be a lot more resilient once it’s a 4G pitch rather than just grass, which our groundsman does a very good job with.”