It’s that time of the year again: Saturday is LGBT pride day in the streets of Brussels! As last year, you’ll see us marching in the parade, between all the crazy, colourful floats, in full rugby kit. Feel free to join our group to carry our colours and our message of openness and diversity in sports!

Tackling homophobia is more important than ever: this year the parade will honour the memory of Ihsane Jarfi, a 32-year man from Liège who was recently killed in a homophobic assault. At 14:00 there will be one minute silence, and at 15:30 there will be a sit-in, where all participants are invited to let out their anger and suffering in a collective scream.

>> read the full programme on the Belgian Pride website

The tournament takes place on June 1, 2 & 3 at Manchester's Broughton Park RFC. Come along as a supporter — where else will you find more than 1,000 gay ruggers in one single location? That sounds like fun You can fly directly to Manchester, or to Liverpool with a short bus shuttle to Manchester.

Held every two years, the Bingham Cup was previously organised in Minneapolis, Dublin, New York, London and San Francisco. It is named after Mark Bingham, a member of the San Francisco Fog RFC who died in the September 11, 2001 United Airlines flight 93.

This Sunday 22 April we’re heading to Sivry, where we played our very first complete match, back in November 2010. We’re invited for a 4-team tournament organised by XV du Cerf, along with the Ciney Blues and RC Lustin. Come support us, and eat sausage from Wallonia! Check out all information on the tournament’s FB page – the pitch address is Rue Là-Haut, in Sivry. If you want to join the carpool: we leave at 9:00 from Place des Palais –but please get in touch to make sure there’s a seat in one of the cars.

XV du Cerf – Blues de Ciney 11H-11H40

Lustin – Straffe ketten 11H50-12H30

Blues de Ciney – Lustin 12H40-13H20

Straffe ketten – XV du Cerf 13H30-14H10

Straffe Ketten – Blues de Ciney 14H20-15H00

Xv du Cerf – Lustin 15H10-15H50

Next weekend we’ll be hosting Les Gaillards de Paris, along with a small delegation from Lisbon’s Dark Horses. Besides a few “players only” events, the weekend will of course include a match against our guests (Saturday 14, 14:00), as well as a “Straffe Ketten Street Party” from 22:00, where Belgica & Le Baroque carry our colours.

See our calendar for more information,  or go directly to the Facebook event pages for the SK/Gaillards match & the party.

Photo by Norton Cooper

So, just in time for our team's second anniversary, welcome to our new home, made by SK board member & player Iker Ortiz de Arri!  You can see that we've streamlined the navigation, adapted the look & feel to our team colours, and improved communication by finally adding a form to contact us directly.

We hope you like it!

Ciney Blues & Straffe Ketten after the match (photo: Norton Cooper)

We forgot to report about two matches we played outside Brussels recently: against RC Pajot on March 4 and Ciney Blues on March 25. Those matches didn't go too well, so maybe that's the reason we didn't rush to post about them

Pajot: that's a new team in Lennik, not very far from Brussels. Since they're new, we made the mistake of underestimating them. Never underestimate the enemy! That team is not your average new club, it was completely different from playing Lustin or XV du Cerf, two recently formed teams. The Pajot boys are coached by some of the best people in Belgian rugby today (including staff from the national team), they include some former top players, and you can tell that their organisation is excellent, almost professional. They've got great ambitions, a lot of resources, a ton of players and they are a very impressive "new" team. Our guys on the pitch definitely fought (some even got injured), but sadly we didn't manage to score on that day. From now on we'll be very, very careful not to dismiss an opponent on the ground that they're new… not a good message to give motivation to your teammates!

Ciney Blues: this was a special one. The match got confirmed at the last minute, meaning that most of our core players weren't available, and we didn't even have enough players to form a complete team. But we decided to go anyway, as we could always play 10 against 10 for instance. Turns out we did have 15 players, but that included 2 guys who hadn't played yet, 2 guys doing their 2nd match ever, no scrum-half or fly-half, 2 semi-injured guys and no captain. It was decided to play a full match anyway, as that's the best way to gain experience — and it was a beautiful day in the sun. Our team clearly lacked direction and experience, it was very experimental, and erh… it showed. A shower of tries! The Ciney guys were really happy with the score, can't say the same is true on our side But all SK's on the pitch learnt a lot from that game, especially all the new players — and we definitely had a great time in the sun after the match! And we're looking forward to playing that team again with our complete team!

“All photos (c) Norton Cooper.
A beautiful day in lovely Ciney. We brought an incomplete team with a lot of beginners (2 guys had their first rugby game ever, 2 had their second game ever), we improvised, we lost heaaaaaavily, but still… what a beautiful day!”

From Match – Ciney Blues vs Straffe Ketten 25/3/2012, posted by on 3/27/2012 (48 items)

Generated by Facebook Photo Fetcher

After watching Belgium make minced meat out of Holland at the King Baudouin stadium (58-3!), we played against the Amsterdam Lowlanders on our "home" turf at Kituro. For our first complete match against them (after two joint training sessions and a fun-loaded, on-boat Canal Pride, plus last year's fantastic Lowlanders-organised Union Cup), expectations were running high on both sides, and the pressure was on!

Barely 5 minutes into the game the Lowlanders scored a try — and doubt set in…. But we quickly regrouped and soldiered on, helped by the noisy cheers of our supporters. We were very successful in line-outs and scrums, regularly stealing the Dutchmen's ball, and halfway into the first half we scored our first (converted) try. At half-time (and with players injured on both sides) we were leading by two points. The second half predictably tourned into a tough, hard-fought battle — and within 15 minutes our team had scored a second, collective try. By the time the ref whistled the end of the game, the score hadn't changed: a sweet 12-5 victory at home!

During the dinner game, we were honoured to be presented with a beautiful trophy by the Lowlanders: the "Thalys Cup" — a symbol of many, many more SK/AL matches to come! Thank you guys for coming over this weekend, and thanks for this amazing suprise. We're all looking forward to our next time together — and we'll throw everything into the battle, to make sure the Thalys Cup stays in Brussels

“Attended Belgium vs Nederlands match together in Heysel, and after that we played a match against each other. Pics by Geert Claes.”

From Straffe Ketten 12-5 Amsterdam Lowlanders (25/02/2012), posted by on 3/01/2012 (46 items)

Generated by Facebook Photo Fetcher

Finally this weekend, the time has come to play a real rugby match against our best enemies: the Amsterdam Lowlanders, organisers of last year’s amazing Union Cup tournament, and our nearest neighbours in the gay rugby community. Come cheer for your favourite teams, and let’s see some great action!

Saturday schedule:

15:00 – Belgium / Netherlands @ Baudouin stadium
19:00 – Straffe Ketten / Amsterdam Lowlanders @ Kituro

Lowlanders at Amsterdam pride 2011 (photo: Kevin Scott)

Here are our confirmed match dates for the next few months:

1. Saturday 25/2 – Straffe Ketten R.F.C. vs Amsterdam Lowlanders (time & place tba)
2. Sunday 4/3 – RC Pajot vs Straffe Ketten R.F.C.
3. Sunday 11/3 - Straffe Ketten R.F.C. vs RC Lustin
4. Saturday 14/4 – SK tournament in Brussels (more details in March)
5. Saturday 19/5 – Kituro’s Country of Origin tournament (SK members in ‘Malta’ and ‘Argentina’ teams)
6. June 1-3 – Bingham Cup 2012 in Manchester

We’ll probably add a few dates in April and May. Come support us!

Photo by Iker Ortiz de Arri - SK

Straffe Ketten & their guests Stockholm Berserkers (photo: Iker Ortiz de Arri - SK)

Two weeks ago (how time flies!) we had the great pleasure of hosting the Stockholm Berserkers, a new gay rugby team from Sweden, for their first trip abroad. It was a fantastic weekend of playing rugby, making friends and partying like there’s no tomorrow. We’re really thankful that they accepted our invitation, and we’ll definitely pay them a visit in Scandinavia next year. Their player Mikael reported about the weekend on his blog:

After this weekend I understand what makes rugby so special. It’s not only the rough game. It is the friends you meet and the joy of the game, and everything around it that you share with other rugby players. It is a “family” filled with love, laughs and lot of rough games. I am glad to be a part of this family.

Read the rest on his blog!