The sport of rugby union has been plagued by perpetual identity problems. Such an aggressively masculine sport with thirty well- built men wrestling for the ball, followed by a series of aggressive celebrations in the bar afterwards involving obscene songs and sexist jokes. Anyone feeling not part of that culture would inevitably be alienated, as former Welsh international Gareth Thomas discovered when he came out in 2009.
Made in the previous year, WALK LIKE A MAN chronicles the progress of two gay rugby teams - the Sydney Convicts and the San Francisco Fog as they prepare to do battle in the Bingham Cup, a gay rugby tournament held biannually in New York. We follow the training rituals of each time, witness their struggles in the changing-room, and actually see them involved in their progress towards the final challenge.
Yet Jim Morgison and Patricia Zargarella's documentary is much more than about rugby. It is about men and women making choices about themselves, abandoning their inhibitions and pursuing their life- dreams both on and off the field. Sometimes these decisions have been difficult to make (there was one particularly poignant interview with a member of the Sydney Convicts side, who admitted to having problems associating closely with any fellow human-being, until he discovered rugby), but in the end the players' courage had been triumphantly vindicated.
Rugby union at this level is a gender-blind sport, where women can play alongside men and be treated on equal terms. This proved particularly liberating for one San Francisco Fog player, whose parents, being both religious, could never admit that being gay is neither perverted nor ungodly. Their daughter had to find solace of her own, which she did so in the comfortable embrace of the rugby team.
This was the story of ordinary people from various walks of life brought together in a team sport which, although aggressive and often dangerous, had the power to give people both the courage and the power of self-determination. And this is really what sport should do. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone.
