Cardiff Lions

__NOTOC__The Cardiff Lions RFC ( _cy. Clwb Rygbi Llewod Caerdydd) is a gay and gay friendly rugby union football club based in Cardiff, Wales. The club was founded in 2004 and remains the only gay rugby club in Wales. The Lions were admitted as members of the International Gay Rugby Association and Board [*IGRAB [http://www.igrab.net/members] ] in 2006.

History

Union Cup

The Lions have competed in both Union Cup tournaments to date; 2005 in Montpelier and 2007 in Copenhagen. the 2007 tournament was a great success. 10 Lions players and fans were joined by 2 of the Newcastle Ravens and one player from the Bristol Bisons where the club recorded victories over NOP Amsterdam Rugby Club (35-5), Malmö Devilants (30-5 and 35-0) and the Caledonian Thebans RFC (5-25), drawing with the Emerald Warriors 10-10 on the way. The club missed out in a tense final in Copenhagen to the Emerald Warriors RFC 10-5 after extra time. [ [http://www.scrumrfc.dk/Union%20Cup%202007.html Union Cup 2007 ] ]

Bingham Cup

The Cardiff Lions travelled to New York, NY in May 2006 for the 3rd Mark Kendall Bingham Memorial Tournament where they came 6th in the Plate competition.

In June 2008 the Cardiff Lions travelled to Dublin for the 4th beinnial Bingham Cup hosted magnificently by the Emerald Warriors. The structure of the competition and seedings put the Lions in the lower tier and competing for either the second tier Plate, third tier Bowl or fourth tier Shield. A travelling squad of 23 players and 6 support staff made a vast improvement on the previous Bingham Cup results:

Friday 13th JuneGame 1, Cardiff Lions 41 Pheonix Storm 10Game 2, Cardiff Lions 36 Copenhagen Scrum 0

Saturday 14th JuneGame 3, Cardiff Lions 56 Manchester Village Spartans 0Plate/Bowl decider, Cardiff Lions 31 Atlanta Bucks 0

Sunday 15th JuneQuarter Final Plate, Cardiff Lions 21 Emerald Warriors 19Semi Final Plate, Cardiff Lions 5 Sydney Convicts 27

These results left the Cardiff Lions in 3rd place in the Plate competition after winning the 3rd/4th play-off boat race at the closing ceremony against San Francisco Fog RFC 2. A huge improvement on the previous Bingham Cup and with a lot more teams taking part (32 from around the world).

The Future

Next up for the club will be the Enfys Sheild in September. This is the annual 7's competition hosted by The Cardiff Lions and coincides with Cardiff Pride. The club also has ambitions to start competing in the Cardiff leagues for the 2008/2009 season.

References