Caledonian Thebans Rugby Football Club is Scotland's leading inclusive rugby club and represents Scotland in international

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

tournaments for inclusive teams. Established in 2002, the Thebans were based at Edinburgh's

Murrayfield Stadium Murrayfield Stadium is a rugby union stadium located in the Murrayfield area of Edinburgh, Scotland. The stadium is owned by the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU) who has its headquarters based at the stadium, and is the national stadium of the Scotla ...

and have over 100 registered players. The club supports its players and supporters – whether gay or straight, experienced or new to the game – to enjoy rugby at a competitive level. Through twice-weekly coaching sessions and regular matches against both mainstream and inclusive clubs (whose members are often drawn from the

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

community), the Thebans aim to develop confident players and encourage participation in

from groups who may have been under-represented in the sport.

History

The Thebans was formed as a club primarily for gay and bisexual men who wanted to play rugby, but may have lacked the confidence to join a mainstream team. The club came to life on 18 May 2002 when Colm Cunningham, a gay man from Northern Ireland, put up a poster in the Laughing Duck – a now defunct Edinburgh gay bar. In 2006 the club became more performance orientated. Since then, the Thebans have gone from strength to strength and now benefit from extensive facilities at Roseburn Park. The club's playing squad now also includes a diverse mix of gay, bisexual and straight players, as well as establishing a women's+ team in 2023, the Caledonian Thebans Hydra – reflecting the Thebans' aim of promoting inclusion and encouraging participation in the game. In February 2016, the club played its first competitive fixture against Glasgow Alphas RUFC, the second inclusive team to be formed in Scotland.

International competition

Caledonian Thebans RFC has represented Scotland at international tournaments for inclusive clubs since 2002. The Thebans have been most successful at the biennial Union Cup, the European championships for inclusive teams. In the 2014 tournament, held in Brussels, a strong Thebans squad finished as runners-up in the Silver Plate final – losing 8–7 to hosts Straffe Ketten. May 2016 saw the Thebans travel to

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

to fight for inclusive rugby's world cup, the Bingham Cup, which takes place every second year. Unable to attend the 2014 tournament, held in Sydney, the Thebans are raising funds to send a full squad to Bingham 2020 to ensure Scotland is once again represented in this global competition. In 2016 we won the Hoagland Cup in Nashville, Tennessee.

Affiliation

The Thebans are affiliated to the

Scottish Rugby Union The Scottish Rugby Union (SRU; ) is the Sport governing body, governing body of rugby union in Scotland. Now marketed as Scottish Rugby, it is the second-oldest Rugby Union, having been founded in 1873. The SRU oversees the national league sys ...

, with whom the club has built strong ties. The Thebans are also part of the International Gay Rugby Association and Board.

Name

The club's name is a reference to the

Sacred Band of Thebes The Sacred Band of Thebes (Ancient Greek: , ) was an elite heavy infantry of select soldiers, allegedly consisting of 150 pairs of Homosexuality in ancient Greece, male couples which formed the elite force of the Ancient Thebes (Boeotia), Theba ...

, an elite and highly successful military unit in the Theban army of ancient Greece, which was made up of male couples.Paul Walter Ludwig, ''Eros and Polis: Desire and Community in Greek Political Theory''. Cambridge, 2002. The Sacred Band of Thebes was completely annihilated, however, by

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

under

Philip II of Macedon Philip II of Macedon (; 382 BC – October 336 BC) was the king (''basileus'') of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedonia from 359 BC until his death in 336 BC. He was a member of the Argead dynasty, founders of the ...

in the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Caledonian Thebans Rfc Rugby union teams in Scotland Rugby union in Edinburgh International Gay Rugby member clubs Sports clubs and teams in Edinburgh 2002 establishments in Scotland Rugby clubs established in 2002