Triumphant! Sydney Convicts celebrate rugby World Cup win. Photo: Sydney Convicts
They stripped off to fund their way to the gay rugby World Cup in The Netherlands, and now they’ve only gone and won it. Again!
Sydney Convicts won Bingham Cup in Amsterdam. Photo: Sydney Convicts
Australian gay rugby team, the Sydney Convicts have beaten off all the competition to claim glory and the 2018 Bingham Cup.
The Convicts beat the New York Gotham Knights 22 – 8 in the final on Sunday. It’s a record fifth time the club has won the championship.
Club president says team are extremely proud
‘Sydney Convicts are the extremely proud to win the Bingham Cup,’ said club president Don Rose. ‘The Amsterdam tournament has been the largest in its history with 2300 players and 72 teams.
‘After 3 days of Rugby the Convicts ‘A’ progressed unbeaten into the grand final and in an extremely tough and hard fought final against the New York Gotham Knights we came away with the Bingham Cup for the 5th time.
The Sydney Convicts B side also won the Bingham Shield. Rose and said both victories were a ‘testament to the preparation and hard work of the whole club leading up to the tournament.’
The team joined more than 2,300 other LGBT rugby players from all over the world to take part in the gruelling three day event in Dutch capital.
The International Gay Rugby Association and Board tweeted its congratulations to the Sydney team.
IGR congratulates the Convicts
The Bingham Cup has now been held nine times since it started in 2002.
Seventy teams in all competed for the Mark Kendall Bingham Memorial Tournament cup. The biennial event is named after Mark Bingham, who died in the 9/11 attacks.
All the teams are kicking back at a closing ceremony party in Amsterdam, but the Convicts will be focusing closer to home for their next challenge.
‘Next is going home and winning our Stubbs competition in Sydney’, a spokesman for the team told Gay Star News.
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