// Workers AI · dad joke modeAre Berlin Bruisers tough? Bruiser-ly so.
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| Union | International Gay Rugby Association and Board | |
|---|---|---|
| Nickname | Bruisers | |
| Founded | 2012 | |
| Location | Berlin, Germany | |
| Ground(s) | Treptow, Neue Krugallee | |
| President | Ulrich Stadfeld | |
| Coach(es) | Ailish Brennan, Rodolfo Antinoni, Timothée Prouvost | |
| ||
| Official website | ||
| www | ||
The Berlin Bruisers are a queer rugby union club based in Berlin, Germany. They were founded in 2012, and are the first team of its kind in Germany. Although they are a primarily queer rugby club, the club is open to anyone with an interest in playing rugby union and includes members of all sexualities and gender identities. [1][2] The club is affiliated with International Gay Rugby. [3]
The Berlin Bruisers have three teams:
- a team for men*, which until the season 2023/2024 used to play in the German Rugby-Regionalliga North-East. The team also participate in the Union Cup, and the Bingham Cup.
- a team for FLINTA* (Frauen, Lesben, Inter-, Nongender, Transgender und A-Gender-Personen), which plays in the Rugby-Regionalliga for 7s and participates to the SG Berlin
- a all gender Touch Rugby Teams, which takes part to international, national and regional tournaments.
History
[edit]The Berlin Bruisers were founded in 2012 by Dave Egan. Their first training ground was at Tiergarten, and Tempelhofer Feld, with Michael Felts as coach. [4]
The first match was a friendly game against the Emerald Warriors on 16 March 2013 at Tempelhofer Feld, and was lost 45–22. [5][6][7]
Their first official match took place at Union Cup 2013 in Bristol against the Stockholm Berserkers.
They are also participated in the Union Cup (2013-Bristol, 2015-Brüssel, 2017-Madrid, 2019-Dublin, 2025 Oslo), and the Bingham Cup (2018-Amsterdam, 2024 Rom).
First trainings were at Tiergarten, Volkspark Friedrichshain and Tempelhofer Feld (coach: Michael Felts), later at Berliner Sport-Club (coach: Santiago Rubio, Rodolfo Antonini). During the season 2019/20, 2020/2021, 2021/2022 the Men* Team have formed a joint team with the second team of the Berlin Grizzlies (coach: Rodolfo Antonini 2019-2020 and then Michael Jackson). After that the team played one season without SG and then formed an SG with SC Siemenstadt (Coach Mattiu Peel). Since the season 2024/2025, they have been trained by Ailish Brennan.
The FLINTA-Team started during the season 2021/2022 in the Regionalliga for 7s Rugby. They formed with other berlin rugby clubs a joint team for Rugby XV. They are coached by Rodolfo Antonini.
The Touch-Team started 2023 and are coached by Timothée Prouvost.
The team trains in Treptow-Köpenick.
Crest and colours
[edit]The club colours are dark violet and white. The team crest is a shield with a bandaged head in form of a rugby ball on shoulders.
Bash About
[edit]Since 2014, the Berlin Bruisers have been organised a bi-annual barbarian rugby tournament in Berlin. At the first Bash About, Gareth Thomas, the Welsh and British Lions international was a guest coach.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bash About tournament had to be cancelled in 2020.
Documentary film
[edit]From 2016 to 2017 a documentary film about the Bruisers titled 'Tackling Life' was shot by Johannes List. It premiered in 2018, winning the Audience Award at Dok.fest München 2018 [8] and Best Documentary at the First Steps Awards 2018 .[9] The film was also shown at the Berlinale 2019 in the section Gast der Perspektive Deutsches Kino. [10][11]
Trivia
[edit]The Bruisers hold the Guinness World record for the most passes thrown per minute (237 Rugby ball passes in 3 Minutes). [12]
In 2018 the Berlin Bruisers performed in the video for the CSD anthem by Maksim Reimer. [13][14]
In 2019, the club was portrayed in a special edition of Meat Magazine. [15]
References
[edit]- ↑ "Entry at the Exberliner". exberliner.com. 15 June 2015. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
- ↑ "Entry at the FAZ (in German)". faz.net. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
- ↑ "IGR - International Gay Rugby: Members". igrugby.org. Archived from the original on 2016-10-27. Retrieved 2017-06-08.
- ↑ "Training at Tiergarten in 2012". youtube.com. Retrieved 2020-04-10.
- ↑ "Berlin Bruisers vs.Dublin's Emerald Warriors". youtube.com. Retrieved 2020-04-10.
- ↑ "entry at the Taipei-Times". taipeitimes.com. 27 March 2013. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
- ↑ "entry at the Rappler". rappler.com. 22 March 2013. Retrieved 2020-04-10.
- ↑ "Dok.fest 2018". german-documentaries.de. Retrieved 2020-04-03.
- ↑ "FIRST STEPS Awards 2018". firststeps.de. Archived from the original on 2018-09-25. Retrieved 2020-04-03.
- ↑ "Berlinale 2019 Archive". berlinale.de. Retrieved 2020-04-03.
- ↑ "imdb entry". IMDb.com. Retrieved 2020-04-03.
- ↑ "Guinness World Records entry". guinnessworldrecords.com. Retrieved 2020-04-03.
- ↑ "Maksim Reimer presents the CSD anthem 2018". queer.de. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
- ↑ "Maksim Reimer - Original Self (Video)". youtube.com. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
- ↑ "meat: The Berlin Bruisers". meatzine.com. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
