Another Twickenham afternoon, another outstanding player says farewell. On Saturday it was Jason Robinson in the colours of the Barbarians, today it is another world-class wing in Joe Roff, who will lead out Oxford University in the 126th encounter with Cambridge University before drawing the curtain on a wonderful playing career.

“My wife has told me to stop embarrassing myself,” Roff, 32, said with a smile, but over the course of 86 appearances for Australia, including three World Cups, he seldom did that. He also played rugby in France and Japan, yet the University match has always held an attraction for him. “It’s not the platform for international rugby, as it used to be years ago, but it still retains everything that’s good about rugby, without succumbing to the issues of professionalism,” he said.

He and Ross Blake, his Cambridge opposite number, are in little doubt that the nature of this annual fixture, which is now sponsored by Lehman Brothers, the investment bank, is changing. Where once it may have been the starting point for a top-quality player, now it offers an option at the other end of a professional career. Blake acquired a degree from Bristol University while playing professionally with the Bath and Bristol clubs and believes that growing numbers of players see the chance to study in their late twenties as a strong possibility.

“Oxbridge is somewhere in the middle, below the professional clubs, above most other universities, about club A-team standard,” the scrum half said and the results of the teams this term validate his point. They also make Oxford strong favourites to recover the trophy that has been lost to Cambridge in the past two years; apart from a mid-term blip against strong Northampton and Ospreys teams, they have developed effective combinations, with Roff playing in the influential inside-centre position.

“He’s an outstanding distributor of the ball, he has the softest and most precise hands I have ever seen,” Steve Hill, the Oxford director of rugby, said. But Hill’s main concern, after last year’s defeat, was his pack, normally a Dark Blues asset; a review suggested a significant overhaul, hence the arrival at Iffley Road of Jake Howard, the Australian scrum guru who spent many seasons coaching at the universities of Brisbane and Sydney as well as the Australian Universities team.

Cambridge’s answer has been to invite Shaun Edwards from London Wasps and Richard Graham from Saracens to add their expertise and they arrive at Twickenham on the back of four successive wins, even though their term has been badly disrupted by injuries. Not once have they fielded the same XV and two of their key performers, Ross Broadfoot at fly half and Jon Dawson at loose-head prop, have played relatively few matches.

But Blake believes that Cambridge have experience in the pack that they would be foolish not to use. Broadfoot has not had the chance to work up a productive midfield understanding, whereas Oxford’s back three have benefited from the work inside them and have enjoyed themselves.

Both universities, and the RFU, will watch the numbers going through the gates with interest, given the change from Tuesday to Thursday. Since the fixture moved to Twickenham in 1921, only four matches have not been on a Tuesday – those of 1921 and 1925 were Thursdays, 1945 was a Wednesday and 1947 a Saturday – but those who know about these things suggest that, in the City, Thursday is the new Friday and moving this match will prove popular on the trading floor, if not necessarily in the shires.

Teams

Oxford University: *C Mahony (Kings, Auckland and Keble); *J Boto (Ipswich and University), E Sadden (Westlake, Auckland and Keble), *J Roff (Marist, Canberra and Harris Manchester), *T Tombleson (Princethorpe and Wolfson); *C McMahon (Marist, Canberra and Linacre), B McKerchar (Merchiston Castle and Keble); R Allhusen (Blundell’s and Linacre), *D Rosen (Brighton College and Worcester), R Lutton (Ballyclare and Linacre), *J Chance (The Kings, Ottery St Mary and Kellogg), *D Alexander (Kearsney, Durban and Templeton), P Wright (Bradford GS and University), S Ackroyd (RGS Guildford and Keble), A Jackson (Bradford GS and St Anne’s). Replacements: *W Cowie (Westlake, Auckland and Keble), K Davis (Colston’s and Linacre), *R Matthews (Manchester GS and Wadham), R Payne (Eton and St Peter’s), T Henry (Woodhouse Grove and Linacre), P Clarke (Chepstow CS and St Cross), T Gregory (Oakham and Kellogg).

Cambridge University: *H Murray (Christ’s, Christchurch and St Edmund’s); A Stevenson (St Piran’s and St Catharine’s), *C Lewis (Radley and St Catharine’s), A Reid (Epsom and St John’s), J Wellwood (Harrow and St Edmund’s); R Broadfoot (Whitgift and Hughes Hall), *R Blake (Bristol GS and Hughes Hall); A Fitzpatrick (Saint Louis’s GS, Kilkeel and Caius), *J Clark (Barnard Castle and St Edmund’s), *J Dawson (Dulwich College and St Edmund’s), *T Boynton (Maritzburg and Hughes Hall), *J Blaikie (Otago Boys and Hughes Hall), *R Bartholomew (Berkhamsted and Jesus), J Wheeler (Oakham and St Edmund’s), J Lumby (Radley and Hughes Hall). Replacements: P Crossley (London Oratory and Homerton), A Reddy (Bedford and Trinity), *T Malaney (London Oratory and St Edmund’s), L Pilbeam (University College School and Trinity), J Astbury (RGS High Wycombe and Hughes Hall), J Fiori (St Benedict’s, Ealing and Jesus), J Greenwood (Latymer and Hughes Hall).

Referee: A Spreadbury (England).

* denotes a Blue