Gotham 2010 Bingham Cup Champs

By Pat Clifton
(Gotham, ball in hand, netted club's first Bingham Cup. Photos by Dropkickphotos.)

The Bingham Cup will reside back in the United States the next two years, but at a new home. For the first time since the Cup’s inception in 2002, it’s going somewhere besides San Francisco or Sydney, Australia, as New York’s Gotham Knights defeated the two-time defending champion Sydney Convicts 18-15 in Sunday’s Cup final.

“It’s comfortably the best thing I’ve ever been a part of. It’s been the hardest but most enjoyable three days you could ever wish to be a part of,” said Gotham captain Joe Hunt. “I’ve been playing rugby a long, long time, and I’ve just never been part of something so challenging and so rewarding as that.”

Sydney entered the title match the prohibitive favorite, having won the previous two Bingham Cups and knocked out the San Francisco Fog, winners of the first two titles, in the semifinal. However, Gotham proved to be a worthy opponent, and the two contenders put on a thrilling show from start to finish.

“It was a very hard fought game, two very finely-tuned backlines, very large packs of forwards. The lead swapped four times, it was played in a very intense spirit, great running rugby,” said Convicts founder Andrew Purchas. “It was played in the great spirit of football.”

“They were awesome…They gave the biggest battle ever,” said Hunt. “The last three years this team has been through so many ups and downs, and we’ve just got good. We’re getting really good, since we’ve been sticking together, and that’s what we did. Sydney had so much talent, we just stuck together, and we managed to sneak it in there at the end. They were an awesome team, Sydney. Very nice to come out on top.”

For Hunt and Gotham, winning the Bingham Cup is more than just gaining a trophy and a title. It's validation of all the hard work they’ve put in and everything they’ve had to sacrifice on a daily basis.

“People live for things like the Olympics every four years, but for these guys, for amateur sportsmen, this is their Olympics. We’ve been building for this for two years. For those guys at the top of our club, this is a 10, 12 year process every time they try and build toward something like this, and this is their effort, big time. It really is the pinnacle of our sport, and it just means everything for so many people,” said Hunt.

“It’s everything, absolutely everything. We’ve trained in the snow, in the rain and lightning. We have to work so hard; it’s so expensive to play rugby in New York. It’s the most expensive place to play rugby in the world; paying for facilities, traveling. It’s not an easy thing.”

Hunt is hopeful that taking the Cup back to New York will not only provide the local gay community with a shot of pride, but also inspire others to get off the sideline.

“It’s huge. Trying to get people to take gay sports seriously is very, very difficult, but we’ve got a big gay field, and this should help take it off,” he said. “There are certainly talented sportsmen, and hopefully this kind of gives them an avenue to show what they can do on a world stage, and the fact that we’re taking the cup home now is really hopefully going to inspire people to come and play some sports.”

While the Bingham Cup is the top prize, it wasn’t the only hardware handed out in Minneapolis Sunday, with five other clubs going home trophy in tow.  

“There are probably three levels of teams. There are those which are pretty serious, like we are, there are guys which have been around a while and are developing skills and getting better, and there are those which are just beginning,” said Purchas, who also serves as IGRAB vice chairman.

“What IGRAB (International Gay Rugby Association and Board) attempts is to provide a competitive environment for all those different teams to be able to grow and nurture rugby in addition to supporting inclusiveness.”

Below are the champions of each Bingham Cup division.