The Manchester Village Spartans RUFC, a gay rugby union team in Manchester, are to play in the Bingham Cup, a biennial international competition widely regarded as the Gay Rugby World Cup. The team will travel to Minneapolis for the tournament which will take place June 17-20.

Although dozens of teams from around the world will be converging in Minneapolis, The Village Spartans are the only UK team to be fielding a squad.

Matt Whitely, team captain, said:
“Some of the newer teams aren’t quite ready to play in such a large scale competitive tournament and don’t have enough players to get them through three tough days of competition and others have competing priorities for their money.

“We’re former finalists and have been there in the latter stages of the tournament every time it’s been held.  We’re also coming off the back of our most successful league season ever and have a really strong squad with lots of quality and depth.  So we just need to make sure we get our preparation right and then perform as well as we know we can and if we get the bounce of the ball we could be flying home with a trophy.

“We’re under pressure because we want to win it for ourselves and get the reward for the hard work we’ve put in over the season. If we can succeed on behalf of the UK, then great – but we’re out there to win it for ourselves first and foremost and that’s pressure enough.”

For more information view:
www.villagespartans.co.uk