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'Bingham Cup was an insane amount of rugby and fun'

A post-game speech at the Bingham Cup in Rome (Photo via Bingham Cup Facebook page)

After a wonderful few days of rugby, music, friendships and pure vibes, the 2024 Bingham Cup has come to a close. The much-celebrated World Cup for gay rugby players has once again opened the hearts and minds of thousands, as the holiday home of inclusive rugby did its job once again.

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For those uninitiated, the IGR Bingham Cup is an International Gay Rugby tournament named after Mark Kendall Bingham, an openly gay rugby player and hero of United Airlines Flight 93 on September 11, 2001.

Established in 2002, it is held every two years and involves LGBTQ+ and inclusive rugby teams from around the world. The Bingham Cup promotes diversity, inclusion, respect and solidarity, offering a platform for LGBTQ+ individuals and allies to compete in a welcoming environment.

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This year, situated in the romantic city of Rome, over 100 inclusive rugby teams and thousands more spectators gathered for a four-day tournament that was designed to provide enjoyment and competitiveness that left no soul untouched.

After a thrilling opening ceremony to kick off the proceedings, the first day of competition saw the teams in all their bright-coloured glory, soaking in the Italian sun as rugby took precedence for those who had made the journey.

 

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It wasn’t just an occasion for rugby, however, it was about much more than that. As you walked around the venue, the collaboration between those from different parts of the world and different styles of life was there to see as clear as day.

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Whether you were involved in the 100-person Macarena or were busy chatting to new friends at the spaghetto van, the vibes were pure joy.

The feedback about the tournament has been largely positive, with social media awash with responses from those who attended. Excited about the next location in 2026, one person expressed their desire to return, saying: “Bingham Cup was an insane amount of rugby and fun.

“Rome is a beautiful city but I definitely can’t wait for the next location”, while another added that the “Bingham Cup is such a great experience!”

The top tier of the men’s Bingham tournament was won by the French side Les Gaillards, beating the Sydney Convicts in the final. Les Gaillards president Vianney Mosser was very proud of his team’s performance, telling the gay publication Outsports: “This is the biggest tournament in the world for rugby players who aren’t professional.

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“We have been preparing since last September and around 30 of our 75 players had never played rugby before that. So this is a great recognition of our work.”

Former champions King Cross Steelers were defeated in the quarter-finals by the Sydney Convicts but did gain victory over Los Valents de Montpelhier in the Bingham Bowl.

Gotham Knights defeated Seattle Quake to take the Bingham Plate, while Washington Renegades nulled Philadelphia Gryphons to take the Bracket M knockout stage as their own.

The London-based Steelers’ second string took victory in the Hoagland Cup, while Canadian side Montreal Armada beat the Chicago Dragons to win the Bowl. Australian talent Melbourne Chargers won the Plate, Baltimore Flamingos the Shield, Sydney Convicts B the Vase, and Washington Renegades the Tankard.

There was a victory for Scottish side Caledonian Thebans in the Gladiators Cup, French team Touwin took the Bowl, and Israeli side Tel Aviv the Plate. In the women’s competition, Amsterdam Lowlanders RC took control of the Amanda Tier, with a huge 62-point victory in the final.

The Challenger Tier was split into multiple knockout stages, with Irish side Cork Hellhounds winning the top-level Cup. English team Yorkshire Roses took the Bowl, while rivals Wessex Wyverns excelled in the Plate.

The home side and hosts Roma Libera won the Shield, Colchester Kings won the Vase, Wisconsin Beer Bulls the Tankard, Brighton and Hove Sea Serpents the Scepter, and Montreal Berserkers the Spoon.

  • Click here for the full results from Bingham Cup 2024
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J
JW 8 minutes ago
Does South Africa have a future in European competition?

I rated Lowe well enough to be an AB. Remember we were picking the likes of George Bridge above such players so theres no disputing a lot of bad decisions have been made by those last two coaches. Does a team like the ABs need a finicky winger who you have to adapt and change a lot of your style with to get benefit from? No, not really. But he still would have been a basic improvement on players like even Savea at the tail of his career, Bridge, and could even have converted into the answer of replacing Beauden at the back. Instead we persisted with NMS, Naholo, Havili, Reece, all players we would have cared even less about losing and all because Rieko had Lowe's number 11 jersey nailed down.


He was of course only 23 when he decided to leave, it was back in the beggining of the period they had started retaining players (from 2018 onwards I think, they came out saying theyre going to be more aggressive at some point). So he might, all of them, only just missed out.


The main point that Ed made is that situations like Lowe's, Aki's, JGP's, aren't going to happen in future. That's a bit of a "NZ" only problem, because those players need to reach such a high standard to be chosen by the All Blacks, were as a country like Ireland wants them a lot earlier like that. This is basically the 'ready in 3 years' concept Ireland relied on, versus the '5 years and they've left' concept' were that player is now ready to be chosen by the All Blacks (given a contract to play Super, ala SBW, and hopefully Manu).


The 'mercenary' thing that will take longer to expire, and which I was referring to, is the grandparents rule. The new kids coming through now aren't going to have as many gp born overseas, so the amount of players that can leave with a prospect of International rugby offer are going to drop dramatically at some point. All these kiwi fellas playing for a PI, is going to stop sadly.


The new era problem that will replace those old concerns is now French and Japanese clubs (doing the same as NRL teams have done for decades by) picking kids out of school. The problem here is not so much a national identity one, than it is a farm system where 9 in 10 players are left with nothing. A stunted education and no support in a foreign country (well they'll get kicked out of those countries were they don't in Australia).


It's the same sort of situation were NZ would be the big guy, but there weren't many downsides with it. The only one I can think was brought up but a poster on this site, I can't recall who it was, but he seemed to know a lot of kids coming from the Islands weren't really given the capability to fly back home during school xms holidays etc. That is probably something that should be fixed by the union. Otherwise getting someone like Fakatava over here for his last year of school definitely results in NZ being able to pick the cherries off the top but it also allows that player to develop and be able to represent Tonga and under age and possibly even later in his career. Where as a kid being taken from NZ is arguably going to be worse off in every respect other than perhaps money. Not going to develop as a person, not going to develop as a player as much, so I have a lotof sympathy for NZs case that I don't include them in that group but I certainly see where you're coming from and it encourages other countries to think they can do the same while not realising they're making a much worse experience/situation.

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