Cambridge winger Elias Caven opens up on RFU Championship struggles following big home loss to Ealing Trailfinders

While it has been a season of uncertainty, Elias Caven has admitted that he and his Cambridge team-mates must take accountability for their struggles.

Following last weekend’s hefty 89-19 home defeat at the hands of leaders Ealing Trailfinders, Cambridge remain rooted to the foot of the RFU Championship standings with a return of just three victories from their 18 outings.

That form has come following a campaign in which there has been upheaval off the pitch, with long-serving head coach Richie Williams stepping down in December.

Anthony Allen has since been in interim charge, with the newly-appointed Craig Newby expected to take control at some stage this month. But despite all of that, Caven believes that the players need to shoulder their share of the responsibility for the results.

“It’s been a real mentally challenging season,” said Caven, who joined Cambridge in the summer of 2023.

“We had Richie stepping away and then there was a time where there wasn’t clarity about who would be in charge and when.

“But we as players can’t point fingers at anyone because it’s us that go out on the pitch each weekend to perform.

“It’s been mentioned a few times within the group that losing cannot become something that we just accept.

“Yes, we know we’re not going to win every game at this level, but there’s no reason why we cannot be competing every week.

“That comes down to mindset. There have been times this season when we are losing and the negativity has crept in.

“But there have been signs in this latest block of games against the likes of Coventry, Nottingham and Hartpury when we’ve shown good signs.

“We have the quality to do it, but it’s down to us produce that on the pitch.”

Cambridge will aim to halt their nine-game losing streak when they travel to face third-from-bottom London Scottish on Saturday (10 May).

On paper it would appear to be Cambridge’s most winnable fixture of the four that they have remaining, but Caven does not agree with that mentality.

“We should look at every game as being one we can get a good result from,” he added. “We don’t want it to become a habit where we’re waiting for games like that to come around every six or seven weeks.

“The mentality has to be right every week. If we can make that happen then we’ll give ourselves a much better chance of picking up positive results.”