Caledonian Thebans Rugby Football Club is Scotland's leading inclusive rugby club and represents Scotland in international

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

tournaments for inclusive teams. Established in 2002, the Thebans are based at Edinburgh's

Murrayfield Stadium Murrayfield Stadium (known as BT Murrayfield Stadium for sponsorship reasons, or popularly as Murrayfield) is a Rugby stadium located in the Murrayfield area of Edinburgh, Scotland. It has a seating capacity of 67,144 making it the largest sta ...

and have over 80 registered players. The club supports its players and supporters – whether gay or straight, experienced or new to the game – to enjoy rugby at a competitive level. Through twice-weekly coaching sessions and regular matches against both mainstream and inclusive clubs (whose members are often drawn from the

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

community), the Thebans aim to develop confident players and encourage participation in

from groups who may have been under-represented in the sport.

History

The Thebans was formed as a club primarily for gay and bisexual men who wanted to play rugby, but may have lacked the confidence to join a mainstream team. The club came to life on 18 May 2002 when Colm Cunningham, a gay man from Northern Ireland, put up a poster in the Laughing Duck – a now defunct Edinburgh gay bar. In 2006 the club became more performance orientated. Since then, the Thebans have gone from strength to strength and now benefit from extensive facilities at Roseburn Park. The club's playing squad now also includes a diverse mix of gay, bisexual and straight players, as well as establishing a women's team in 2023 – reflecting the Thebans' aim of promoting inclusion and encouraging participation in the game. In February 2016, the club played its first competitive fixture against Glasgow Alphas RUFC, the second inclusive team to be formed in Scotland.

International competition

Caledonian Thebans RFC has represented Scotland at international tournaments for inclusive clubs since 2002. The Thebans have been most successful at the biennial Union Cup, the European championships for inclusive teams. In the 2014 tournament, held in Brussels, a strong Thebans squad finished as runners-up in the Silver Plate final – losing 8–7 to hosts Straffe Ketten. May 2016 saw the Thebans travel to

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

to fight for inclusive rugby's world cup, the

Bingham Cup The Mark Kendall Bingham Memorial Tournament or the Bingham Cup is a biennial international, non-professional, gay rugby union tournament, first held in 2002. It is named after Mark Bingham, who died on board United Airlines Flight 93 when it cras ...

, which takes place every second year. Unable to attend the 2014 tournament, held in Sydney, the Thebans are raising funds to send a full squad to Bingham 2020 to ensure Scotland is once again represented in this global competition. In 2016 we won the Hoagland Cup in Nashville, Tennessee.

Affiliation

The Thebans are affiliated to the

Scottish Rugby Union The Scottish Rugby Union (SRU; gd, Aonadh Rugbaidh na h-Alba) is the governing body of rugby union in Scotland. Styled as Scottish Rugby, it is the second oldest Rugby Union, having been founded in 1873. The SRU oversees the national league s ...

, with whom the club has built strong ties. The Thebans are also part of the International Gay Rugby Association and Board.

Name

The club's name is a reference to the Sacred Band of Thebes, an elite and highly successful military unit in the Theban army of ancient Greece, which was made up of male couples.Paul Walter Ludwig, ''Eros and Polis: Desire and Community in Greek Political Theory''. Cambridge, 2002. The Sacred Band of Thebes was completely annihilated, however, by

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, wikt:Ἀλέξανδρος, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Maced ...

under

Philip II of Macedon Philip II of Macedon ( grc-gre, Φίλιππος ; 382 – 21 October 336 BC) was the king ('' basileus'') of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia from 359 BC until his death in 336 BC. He was a member of the Argead dynasty, founders of the ...

in the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Caledonian Thebans Rfc Rugby union teams in Scotland Rugby union in Edinburgh International Gay Rugby member clubs Sports clubs and teams in Edinburgh 2002 establishments in Scotland Rugby clubs established in 2002