OXFORD University find themselves second to Cambridge in all the statistics ahead of this Sunday’s men’s contest in the Cancer Research Boat Races, writes John Wiggins.

The Light Blues have the edge on weight, height, age and returning Blues.

But Oxford do have one overriding advantage – and that is the habit of winning.

The Dark Blues boat have won the last three races, bringing head coach Sean Bowden’s tally of wins to 11.

That also brought Oxford’s overall score to 79, chasing Cambridge’s 81.

However, if recent performances are to be any guide, this year may see a delay in the quest for parity.

Oxford Brookes are the one club to have raced both of the blue boats and having been tactically naïve in the defeat by Cambridge, they served up a lesson in match racing to a still formative Oxford crew two weeks later.

Since then, however, Oxford have changed the crew and the seating order, bringing another Isis man, Nik Hazell, into the stroke seat.

He is the biggest man in the Oxford boat at 1.99m and 94.8kg and forms a very solid stern pair with Oxford’s one returning Blue, Jamie Cook.

Hazell shares his president Morgan Gerlak’s view that the Isis experience (he raced twice for the reserves before injury kept him out of the 2015 race) is just as valuable, though he welcomes having someone of the calibre of Cook sitting right behind him in the crucial seven seat.

Two of the Light Blues’ youngsters are, like Oxford’s Cook, from Abingdon School where they had success together as Henley winners in 2013 .

Cook, a graduate of UCL, jokes modestly, “Abingdon got better after I left.”

While Cambridge have the confidence of winning each of their pre-race fixtures, Oxford have learned the hard way about not only racing the opposition but doing battle with the elements.

Certainly, my observations of their rowing, suggest that they now have a sustainable and consistent rhythm throughout the boat. And, with their coach’s training load securely in the bank, will be in a position to tough it out over the entire four-and-a-quarter-mile course.

Coach Bowden cautiously expresses the view that “we are getting there.”

The women’s race may be easier to forecast.

Oxford seem to have the greater control in the boat and the drive to dominate a race.

This would bring head coach Christine Wilson her fourth successive victory as it would for past president Anastasia Chitty.

Their race is at 3.10pm with the men’s race an hour later.

The first Boat Races took place at Henley on Saturday, when Oxford’s lightweight women’s crew of Anna Robotham, Danielle Edmunds, Jenny Tran, Sarah Lucas, Kirstin Bilham, Jowita Mieszkowska, Genevieve Laurier, Laurie Bonfils and cox, Anna Corderoy, won by a canvas, but their lightweight men lost heavily.

OXFORD UNIVERSITY’S

BOAT RACE CREWS

Men: G McKirdy (bow, 76.8kg), J White (87), M Gerlak (85.8), J Bugajski (96.4), L Carrington (87), J Tveit (82.4), J Cook (84), N Hazell (94.8), S Collier (cox, 56.2).

Women: E Lukasiewicz (bow, 60.2), E Spruce (72), J Jansen (67), R Siddorn (75), E Luik (78.4), A Chitty (71), M Badcott (74.8), L Kedar (stroke, 65.6), M Baynham-Williams (cox, 60).