The Washington Renegades are a Division III and Division IV

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 ...

club based in Washington D.C. Established on October 24, 1998, by Mark Hertzog. In October 1999, the club played its first 15s match against the Roanoke Rugby Football Club. In July 2000, the team competed in a sevens tournament held in

London, England London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...

, against teams from London and

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

. In May 2001, the club held its inaugural International Rugby Invitational, which included teams from

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

. Also attending were individual players from

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, London and

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

. In 2002 and 2004, the club participated in the IGRAB Rugby Festival and Mark Bingham Cup, named for former UC Berkeley and San Francisco Fog RFC rugby player Mark Bingham, who died on September 11, 2001.

External links

Washington Renegades Rugby Football Club

IGRAB the International Gay Rugby Union & Board Site

Article about the club in Washington, DC magazine "Metro Weekly"

mentions Renegades in discussion of international phenomenon

* [https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/52594873.html?dids=52594873:52594873&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=APR+13%2C+2000&author=Buzz+McClain&pub=The+Washington+Post&desc=Joining+in+the+Scrum%3B+On+This+Rugby+Team%2C+Winning+Is+the+Last+Thing&pqatl=google "Joining in the Scrum: On This Rugby Team, Winning Is The Last Thing", Washington Post article] International Gay Rugby member clubs Rugby clubs established in 1998 Rugby union teams in Washington, D.C., Renegades {{WashingtonDC-sport-team-stub