Rugby :)

chubster

Hey everyone,
I'm 33, Irish and gay. I left Ireland about 9 years ago for work, and I've always kept an eye on boards.ie to keep up to date with things going on back home.

Quite often I've seen topics on this LGBT forum about young guys who are finding it difficult to meet friends, who are looking for social groups, etc... I felt the same when I was in Ireland, and even more so when I moved abroad.

About 7 months ago I found my local gay rugby team, and I can honestly say that my life has improved dramatically since I joined that club. I have not felt as happy as I do now for many many years! The guys are just fantastic - genuine hard-working guys who just happen to be gay. I had zero rugby experience before, in fact as my user name suggests, I had minimal sporting experience at all before joining the club!

Last weekend we went to Manchester to compete in our first Bingham Cup (rugby union tournament for gay teams). What an amazing experience that was! For a 2year old continental team to beat a couple of UK teams was unbelievable!

Anyway, what I'm suggesting for any guys (regardless of age, regardless of athletic ability) out there who might be looking for something new in your life, is get in touch with the local rugby club (or gay rugby club, if in Dublin check www.ewrfc.ie)). I met some of the guys from that team last weekend - great guys - and I just thought how different my life could have been if I knew of their existence when I was studying in Dublin many years ago.

Anyway, thats it, thanks for reading

1ZRed

That's a brilliant idea man!:)
I'm trying to get myself back into training (not rugby) but I think this would be much much better. I used to play loads years ago but stopped and I lost some speed and agility in the process unfortunately, so I'm a bit rusty.
I would way prefer to do something like this over joining a gaa club considering I have no actual gay friends and it would be nice to meet normal guys that just happen to be gay as well.

One question though, would gay clubs like this just be centred in Dublin?

Pedant

Rugger, rugger, rugger!
Yum, yum, yum!

chubster

1ZRed: I'm not sure if there are other gay rugby clubs in the country (there used to be one in Belfast), but I can tell you, if you're looking for a group sport and looking to meet new gay friends, then I can't recommend rugby enough!!

If only I knew of the Emerald Warriors when I lived in Dublin!!

1ZRed

@Chubster

That's a shame because I'm in Galway. I'll look into what NUIG have going in the ways of gay sports teams. I'm starting in September and I'm dying to start getting back and joining new clubs.

I'll look into it. Thanks for the suggestion anyway, wouldn't have thought about something like this before:)

Annasopra

1ZRed wrote: »

@Chubster

That's a shame because I'm in Galway. I'll look into what NUIG have going in the ways of gay sports teams. I'm starting in September and I'm dying to start getting back and joining new clubs.

I'll look into it. Thanks for the suggestion anyway, wouldn't have thought about something like this before:)

I don't think Galway has much gay sports teams at all - my guess is none.

1ZRed

mango salsa wrote: »

I don't think Galway has much gay sports teams at all - my guess is none.

My hopes weren't that high about it tbh. It wouldn't put me off joining normal teams but I liked the idea of a gay sports team to just hang around with other gay lads and get to become friends with them.

I'm sure if worse comes to worst, I could always join a figure skating team?
Doubt a straight guy hasn't joined in decades so I'm all good:cool:

Pedant

Galwegians on here could rally together and create their own gay Galway rugby team. They could have boards.ie as their sponsor, it'd be good advertisement.

1ZRed

Pedant wrote: »

Galwegians on here could rally together and create their own gay Galway rugby team. They could have boards.ie as their sponsor, it'd be good advertisement.

Haha that's actually not a bad idea at all. I'm sure if the colleges were in on it and gave support and awareness, the LGBT societies could set up loads of different sports teams, not just rugby.

I wonder if they'd be up for doing it?

stephen_n

Chubster what team were you playing with at Bingham?

fizzyorange

I'm heading up to NUIG myself in September (hopefully!) and it'd be brilliant if the LGBT soc had some sort of gay sport teams. Feeling quite hopeful now.

Pedant

fizzyorange wrote: »

I'm heading up to NUIG myself in September (hopefully!) and it'd be brilliant if the LGBT soc had some sort of gay sport teams. Feeling quite hopeful now.

Maybe the NUIG and GMIT lgbt societies should gang together to form a Galway Gay Rugby team. Dublin and Cork colleges can do the same.

1ZRed

Pedant wrote: »

Maybe the NUIG and GMIT lgbt societies should gang together to form a Galway Gay Rugby team. Dublin and Cork colleges can do the same.

Don't you go round here stealing my ideas!!!:mad:

chubster

Stephen_n:
I play with Brussels Straffe Ketten (www.straffeketten.be)

stephen_n

chubster wrote: »

Stephen_n:
I play with Brussels Straffe Ketten (www.straffeketten.be)

Oh I met you on the Thursday with Brian I think!

chubster

Yup, quite possibly! I met a good few of the Warriors that day!

CdeC

hey,

A great idea is to set up a tag rugby team, get a core group together and go from there. Maybe with enough interest a rugby Union team might develop.

The Warriors play tag during the Summer and we always have a great time.

CdeC

nahiean.sa

Hi i'm a rugby lover Can you advise me, 
can I learn any rugby game? 
There are no rugby clubs around me. 
Kisu days ago, a bone of my hand broke in an accident, 
but none of my hands came in full tick.

baby and crumble

Please don't drag up old threads.

Also, nahiean.sa I'd advise you to take your address out of your "location" profile.

Thread locked.