Rob Malaney has been voted the new Blues rugby captain at a special meeting last night.

He will take charge of the Blues for the rest of this term and then lead the team’s campaign to reverse last year’s defeat in the Varsity match at Twickenham. The openside flanker started at Twickenham and has consistently been one of the club’s outstanding performers since his arrival from Durham, where he captained the men in purple to a BUCS championship win.

The process of selecting a new captain involves all the players convening in the Steele-Bodger room at Grange Road in a meeting chaired by the Chairman of CURUFC.

Malaney in action at Twickenham in December

Initially, players are nominated for the job if their team-mates call out their name. Any players nominated will then leave to allow the remaining players to discuss the candidates further. Upon returning, each contender has the chance to speak for three minutes in an effort to persuade the team that they are the right man for the job.

Malaney, studying history at St Edmund’s, takes over from Matt Guinness-King, the former Canadian international who retired from rugby after the 2011 Varsity Match. The boots are big ones to fill, with the previous captains including South African Jimmy Richards in 2010 and Dan Vickerman in 2009, the Australian lock who used his Cambridge form to bag a spot in his country’s World Cup squad last autumn. Ollie Wolfe takes over as club secretary.

He picks up a team in need of a boost after a crushing 22-44 defeat at the hands of his old side Durham at the weekend. The Lent term sees matches against each wing of the armed forces, invitational sides and an Argentinian touring team.

The Blues’ next game is against the Army on February 8th

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