Cambridge bounce back from opening day Championship defeat to Chinnor with victory away at Caldy

Director of rugby Richie Williams hailed the reaction that his Cambridge players produced during Saturday’s 26-21 win at Caldy.

Williams’ side made the long trip to Merseyside having suffered a disappointing 57-24 defeat to newly-promoted Chinnor on the opening day of the new RFU Championship season the previous weekend.

However, the response was positive as tries from Kayde Sylvester, Jared Carew and Ben Brownlie – accompanied by some accurate kicking from Louis Grimoldby – saw Cambridge come out on top.

Williams told the Richie & Jacko Podcast: “We’ve done some soul searching this week. We spoke a lot around last week and how unacceptable that level of performance was.

“But the way the players applied themselves today, that’s what we’re about as a group.

“We challenged the players to bring that level of desire and emotional response to last week – they did that in bucketloads.

“To come up to Caldy and get a win – I’ve not done that before. Since being at Cambridge I’ve been here four times and that’s the first time I’ve won a game.

“It was always going to be a battle like that and it wasn’t the prettiest at times, but sometimes you’ve got to find a way to win and we did that. Huge credit and kudos to the players for doing it.

“We’ve laid down a marker now – that’s what we need to be about this season. Those are the foundations that we need to build on.”

The victory – Cambridge’s first in the league since January and only their third in the second tier of English rugby – has moved them up to ninth position in the early-season standings as one of four sides with five points to their name.

Cambridge will return to the home comforts of Volac Park on Saturday (5 October) when they play host to table-topping Coventry.

The in-form visitors having seen off London Scottish and Bedford Blues so far this term, scoring 45 points on both occasions.