The sisters packed down together in the back row for Cambridge as they won the 30th anniversary Women’s Varsity Match 8-5 to make it two wins out of two in their brief rugby careers.
Although born in Bristol, the twins were raised in Swansea and went to the same Gowerton Primary School – Llanrhidian – as Wales outside-half Biggar, who famously led Wales to a World Cup win over England at Twickenham in 2015.
After that they went up to Olchfa School, which produced Welsh international scrum half Richie Rees, before heading up to Cambridge, where Jenni is studying medicine at Churchill College.
“We only took up rugby at Cambridge in our second year and it was amazing to be playing together in the Varsity Match. We both played last year, but Jenni replaced me,” said Fiona, who is studying veterinary medicine at Pembroke College.
“I can hardly smile I am that tired. I hadn’t been very well this week and I was saving myself for the full 80 minutes.
“We may have been born in Bristol, but we were raised in Wales and the Gower is very much our home. Our Dad always taught us how to throw and catch and we were always very aggressive and sporty growing up.
“We played netball at school, but only took up rugby two years ago. It was a really tough game, but great to get another win.”
The twins had a series of prompt words written on their hands going into the game. For Fiona it was ‘Hunt, Chop and Believe’, while Jenni had ‘Head and Ice’.
They flew into tackles, carried hard, and were particularly aggressive and successful at the breakdown as they helped to keep Oxford scoreless for 77 minutes before Katie Collis crashed over to cut the deficit.
Cambridge No 8 Emily Pratt scored a try in the first half and Alice Elgar added a penalty.
“It was really great playing together and even though I broke my nose in the first half there was no way I was going to stay off. Fiona urged me to come back on and I just told myself I had to give everything in those final 40 minutes,” said Jenni.
The ‘terrible twins’ should be back for more next year to try to make it a hat-trick of wins and they are keen to carry on playing once they leave university.
