They may have suffered a heavy defeat on their debut, but the Berlin Bruisers trudged off the pitch buoyant and proud after Germany’s only gay rugby team played their first competitive match.
In freezing temperatures on a snow-covered public soccer pitch adapted for rugby, the Bruisers lost 45-22 to Dublin’s Emerald Warriors on the site of the historic Tempelhof airport.
A flurry of tries by the Warriors — Ireland’s first gay rugby team founded 10 years ago — in the final 15 minutes may have flattered the guests, but the frozen conditions should have favored the hosts.
Photo: AFP
“The Warriors had never played on snow, while our four previous training sessions had been in blizzards, so we’re well used to it,” said English-born forward Adam Wide, who helped found the Bruisers in April last year.
The Bruisers had also carefully planned their pre-match tactics.
“We were very good hosts and took them around Berlin the night before with the aim of getting them very drunk. One of the Warriors stayed out all night, but still managed to play,” Wide added with a smile.
Photo: AFP
“The Warriors are very experienced and the difference told late in the game, but that’s what happens when a team which has been playing for 10 years takes on one which has been training together for six months,” Wide said.
Rugby is one of the fastest growing sports in soccer-mad Germany, with about 13,000 active players last year, including 2,000 women, but the sport is relatively unknown in the capital outside the expat community.
The world’s first gay rugby team, London’s Kings Cross Steelers, was founded in 1995 and there are gay rugby teams scattered across North America, Australia and Europe.
The Bruisers have already attracted plenty of support from Berlin’s gay community, with 500 members and 35 active players training three times a week.
The Bruisers can also claim a world record, having completed 237 passes in three minutes, and the first run of their nude calendar sold out — all in their first year as a registered club.
“It all came about down the pub when a few of us asked the question: ‘Why isn’t there a gay rugby team here?’ We decided to do something about it,” Wide said.
With their first match out of the way, the Bruisers’ next goal is to find a permanent ground to train at to prepare for the Union Cup, the biennial tournament for gay European teams, hosted in May in Bristol, England.
Playing against straight teams in a league is the club’s ultimate aim.
While the vast majority of the Bruisers team is gay, their American coach Michael Felts, who played college rugby in North Carolina, is straight.
“I’ve had a few surprised looks when I tell people I coach a gay team, but all the comments I have heard have been positive,” said the 24-year-old, who normally plays on the wing, but played at outside half against the Warriors.
“Occasionally, you hear the odd colorful conversation in training and generally the guys are slightly less aggressive than straight players. I was pleasantly surprised by how much a few of them performed in the game, they threw themselves into the rucks and mauls. It was awesome,” Felts said.
With 15 nationalities represented amongst the Bruisers and a wide range of ages, English is the main language during training.
Having sought out a team to coach after arriving in Berlin last year, Felts took his first Bruisers training session last October on a spare patch of ground in Tiergarten, the city center park near Berlin’s iconic Brandenburg Gate.
“The first few training sessions, I just watched to see where we could start from and it was pretty much the bottom,” said Felts, who is also head coach of another Berlin rugby team.
“Some had never played the game before, but the benefit of that is they have no bad habits,” he added.
Despite Berlin’s sub-zero temperatures and regular bouts of heavy snow during winter, the Bruisers train in all weathers.
“We’ve trained when it’s been minus-eight or minus-nine. I told the guys I’d be there and a bunch of them showed up even when it was really cold,” Felts said. “We couldn’t put in any contact, a few of them were sliding around on the ice, but having a great time.”
Poignantly, the Bruisers train in Tiergarten just a few meters from the memorial to homosexuals persecuted and murdered under Nazi rule from 1933 to 1945.
“I feel that’s true Berlin fashion. The Germans don’t shy away from their World War II past, they don’t hide anything and they are trying to make amends. It’s now about moving forward,” Felts said.
OFFENSE SHINES: First baseman Pan Chie-kai hit a solo homer in the fifth inning as all 10 batters Taiwan used contributed at least one hit toward their team total of 14 One day after their first shutout loss at the WBSC Premier12, Taiwan yesterday bounced back with a commanding 8-2 victory over the US, keeping their hopes for a spot in tomorrow’s final alive. The win in the Super Round marked Taiwan’s first triumph over the US at a top-tier international baseball tournament since 2003. Their previous win over the US was at the 2003 Baseball World Cup, with only one win in the previous 10 matchups since 1999. Yesterday’s game was tightly contested through the first six innings, with the margin never exceeding two runs. However, the tide turned in the top of
Nikola Jokic on Saturday scored 34 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to spark the Denver Nuggets over the Los Angeles Lakers 127-102, continuing their dominance of the NBA rivalry, while Scotty Pippen Jr scored a career-best 30 points to lead the Memphis Grizzlies past the Chicago Bulls, 142-131. The Nuggets won for the 13th time in the past 14 contests against the Lakers, including ousting the Lakers in the playoffs the past two seasons. Serbian star Jokic failed to achieve his sixth consecutive triple-double, managing only eight assists, but his effort was plenty as Michael Porter Jr added 24 points and 11
TWO-NIL LOSS: Taiwan’s best chance to score came at the top of the fifth with the bases loaded and one out, but Venezuela’s Liarvis Breto got out of the jam Taiwan yesterday suffered a shutout 2-0 loss to Venezuela in the opening game of the WBSC Premier12 Super Round at the Tokyo Dome. Taiwan had seven hits, one more than Venezuela’s six, but catcher Carlos Perez’s two-run homer to left field in the bottom of the fourth inning delivered the only runs scored by both teams and secured victory for Venezuela. Taiwan’s best chance came at the top of the fifth inning with the bases loaded and only one out. However, Venezuela reliever Liarvis Breto struck out Chen Chen-wei before reliever Pedro Garcia finished the inning by allowing an infield flyball by Lin
As sporting celebrations go, it does not quite have the charm of Roger Milla’s hip-wiggling shimmy with a corner flag at the 1990 World Cup or the imperious swagger of Usain Bolt’s iconic lightning pose. However, a dance move inspired by US president-elect Donald Trump’s stilted on-stage boogieing has rapidly become the celebration of choice across the US sporting world. From the blood-soaked UFC to the hard-hitting NFL and the reliably decorous world of the LPGA Tour, athletes across North America have succumbed to the viral Trump dance craze in the past week. On Monday, US soccer star Christian Pulisic became the latest
RSS