Three good reasons for Scottish fans to tune into this year's Varsity match

• On the run: Sam Hunt scores for Fettes in the Brewin Dolphin Schools Cup final

Cambridge University boast three Scots in their starting XV, all of whom come with their own story.

Hooker Jamie Gilbert left school at 17 to join the Royal Navy and only now at the age of 24 has he returned to full-time education.

Until relatively recently he was chasing pirates off the Somali coast as a helicopter pilot in Her Majesty's forces. Incidentally his father Martin is boss of Aberdeen Asset Management, who just happen to sponsor Edinburgh Rugby.

Sam Hunt turns out at scrum half. He captained Fettes to the Brewin Dolphin Cup two years back but declined the invitation to play representative rugby, firstly because he wanted to concentrate on his academic studies and secondly because he actually prefers cricket to rugby and has high hopes of gaining a Blue in his chosen sport this summer.

According to long-serving Cambridge coach Tony Rodgers his Scottish scrum half only dabbled in rugby in his first year, playing a few games for the lower teams, but a crisis this season persuaded him to give it his all. Hunt has now made the No.9 shirt his own and the scrum half's trademark breaks should liven up what can occasionally be stodgy fare.

Finally the former Edinburgh Academical Paul Loudon will start in the light blue 13 shirt. Quick enough to play on the wing and fiercely competitive, Loudon was viewed as an interesting prospect when younger. He represented Scotland at sevens while just 17 and he played in the same, highly successful, under-20 team as Richie Gray two years ago. His main drawback is that, while he punches well above his weight, Loudon barely casts a shadow at noon in a world inhabited by giants, too slight perhaps for the professional game.

The centre spent one year in the national academy straight out of school but his desire to win a professional contract came second to his determination to gain a degree. He is now on his second. After three years at Durham where he emerged with an economics degree he is spending the next two years studying land economy at Cambridge.

"I have absolutely no regrets about doing what I've done, I wanted to study and play rugby to a high level but I would say to anyone who wants to play professional rugby that going to university probably isn't the best way. It may still happen for me, and look at Simon Danielli, Ed Kalman and, more recently, Joe Ansbro, all of whom got Blues before they signed professional forms, but doing what I did probably isn't the best way to get yourself noticed."

While university rugby in Scotland is not of a particularly high standard things are different down south where Loudon reckons that Durham's matches were the equivalent of Scotland's Premier Two, simply because of the students' lack of physicality. However he insists that the slightly older Cambridge University squad could hold their own with the best of Scotland's clubs in Premier One and this despite a noticeable change in the balance of the squad this year.

The Varsity Match has occasionally attracted condemnation for its liberal use of older, post-graduate foreign players who are brought in for one or two years simply for their rugby. For example, Wallaby great Dan Vickerman captained Cambridge last season.

Now Loudon sees a subtle shift in emphasis with it becoming ever more difficult to squeeze players past the university entrance authorities purely on their athletic qualifications.

"There are definitely more undergraduates involved this year," says Loudon, who is still only 21 himself.

"I think the match is reverting to what it used to be which is a game for British undergraduates rather than one that is dominated by foreign postgrads."

"I am really enjoying my time here and I can't wait for Thursday.

"I have played in front of 30,000 at the Wellington Sevens but I'd still say that this match will be the biggest of my career so far."