In September 1983, after a very successful 1982/83 season in which Cambridge had beaten Fiji, and played sparkling rugby with the boost from a young Rob Andrew at fly half, and Mark Bailey and Simon Smith on the wings. We were invited to tour in Japan at the same time as Oxford, with Tony Rodgers, who must have been in his late forties at that time, as coach with Mark Bailey as the skipper.
We were welcomed fabulously everywhere we went throughout Japan, and beat every team we played against, and then came the piece de resistance, a Varsity match in the national stadium in Tokyo. 
In the training session the day before the match, one of the first choice locks and the reserve lock both ran into Tony somehow, and bizarrely picked up injuries so that they could not play… so up stepped Tony, gallantly, and filled the vacant second row slot in the match against Oxford.
Anybody who knows Tony will appreciate his deep love for "all things Oxford” so there was absolutely no surprise when at the very first line-out there was a tremendous kerfuffle with all sorts of mayhem.  Suffice it say that Tony won every line out ball thrown to him, and Cambridge trotted out winners with a team containing probably the oldest player ever to represent Cambridge against Oxford.
Memory added on April 20, 2021
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