After a week of University Boat Race trial eights races, Oxford suggest that they might again prove to be the dominant force over Cambridge in 2015.

The four squads each aim to play their part in emulating the 2013 clean sweep for Oxford.

This year, it was three wins out of four, with only the lightweight men missing out on celebrations.

The trials pit the top 16 rowers and two coxes in matched crews over the racing distance and on the water they will experience against Cambridge in April 2015.

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For the lightweight men and women this will be on Easter Saturday, downstream over 2,000m at Henley.

Meanwhile, the Newton Women’s Boat Race, in its 70th year makes its inaugural appearance on the traditional Boat Race course from Putney to Mortlake a week later.

For many in the trial eights, it is the first and only time before the Boat Race that they will experience the full course in matched racing and for the coaches it is a crucial element of their selection process.

The men’s squad shows a noticeably higher proportion of home- grown talent than in recent years.

Only two Americans and two New Zealanders featured in the men’s trial boats.

Michael Di Santo (USA) and Sam O’Connor (New Zealand) are returning Blues along with president, Stan Louloudis the only Olympian in the squad and a current world champion.

The other New Zealander is James O’Connor, who joins his brother Sam having graduated from Harvard, in America.

Of the 13 colleges represented, Keble claims the highest tally with three triallists and a further Blue, Tom Schwartz (USA) missing the race with an MBA exam.

James Cook, one of the ten post-graduate students, is the only one locally educated, having learned his rowing at Abingdon School.

The men’s crews are named uniquely and this year, in honour of the 350th anniversary of the Royal Marines they chose their motto, Per Mare and Per Terram for the two crews.

After a very close contest with the boats overlapping for most of the race, it turned out to be victory for land over water as the president’s crew containing Cook, both O’Connors and the oldest member of the squad, James Stephenson.

At 38 and after a year out, Stephenson strives to step up from his 2013 selection in the reserve boat, Isis and become the oldest Boat Race rower since the 36-year-old Mike Wherley in 2008.

The women’s squad contains a similar balance of old and young, there is greater local background.

Of the six returning blues, Anastasia Chitty (Dragon School, Oxford) is the president, having shared Oxford success in 2014 with Alice Carrington (Oxford High) and Lauren Kedar (St Helen and St Katharine, Abing- don).

They are joined by Caroline Greves (Headington School), studying for an MBA and, most recently, captain at Wallingford RC.

The Cambridge men’s line-ups include two rowers from Abingdon School – Ian Middleton, cox of the 2014 Blue boat, and Felix Newman, from last year’s reserve crew.

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