Mark Bingham, a rugby fanatic and openly gay man, was on United Flight 93 on September 11, 2001 when terrorists hijacked the plane. Mark, along with a couple of other passengers, managed to crash tackle the terrorists in an effort to regain control of the plane. Despite all their efforts, the flight went down in the fields of Pennsylvania. No one survived. In Mark’s memory, the Bingham Cup, an international gay rugby world cup was founded.
Not only are the Sydney Convicts hosting the Cup this year, they are also the defending champions. But since moving up a higher grade in their local league competition, the Sydney Convicts A team has been beaten fair and square in just about every match. Nobody likes to lose, least of all the Convicts.
The pressure is on. Charlie, the coach of the Convicts A team, is holding a heap of that pressure; he’s the man tasked with winning the Cup for the Convicts. Sure the Convict’s B and C teams are also competing, but it’s the A team that everyone has pinned their hopes.
From more than a hundred hopefuls, Charlie has to choose the winning combination of fifteen players. Fifteen starting players means a lot of guys, talented guys that have been training for the last two years, aren’t going to get much of a look in.
Self-assured Canadian jock, Brennan, has been a been a solid fixture of the Sydney Convicts A team since leaving his previous rugby club after they found out he was gay. As a utility forward, specifically loose head prop, Brennan loves playing in the scrum, but his spot on the team isn’t secure since quiet, shy Aki arrived from Japan. Despite being comparatively small, Aki competes fiercely, particularly in scrum as a loose head prop. Nobody likes sitting on the bench, but then again; no body ever played rugby for individual glory.
Meanwhile Irish backpacker Pearse lied when they asked him if he’d ever played rugby before, truth is he’s never passed a ball let alone packed a scrum. But Pearse is big and in rugby, size does matter. He’s also determined to push himself, to be part of a team, particularly a team that doesn’t sneer at him for being gay.
Scrum is not sentimental, Scrum pulls no punches. Being a part of the Convicts means you’re more than a team, you’re brothers and it’s that sense of brotherhood, that sense of being there for your man, that pushes the players to do whatever it is they have to do for their team, their club, for gay rugby.