The 2021–22 season returned the Spartans to full contact rugby after sixteen months without a match. It was also the season in which the club lost its first coach and one of its youngest players.

Back on the pitch

The club trained through early August in new kit, and on 7 August 2021 played its first rugby union match in sixteen months, a home friendly against Bumble Bees RUFC, England’s first mixed ability rugby union club. The Spartans won 52–5. In the visiting squad was Anthony Brookes, who had set up the Bumble Bees in 2009 and received the United Kingdom’s 160th Point of Light Award. The tops worn that afternoon were new, carrying the logo of UNISON North West LGBT+ Group, named later in the season as the club’s main sponsor. On the same day another group of members was at Salford Pride’s Pink Picnic in Peel Park alongside UNISON, AKT and Bar Pop. The club put its membership at 160.

Two more friendlies followed: the first XV at home to Littleborough RUFC’s third team on 13 August, and a combined second team squad away at Preston Grasshoppers’ fifth XV on 21 August, where the hosts won 45–17. Three Spartans turned out for an International Gay Rugby Barbarians side against Liverpool Tritons as part of the Tritons’ fifth birthday celebrations. The club took part in the Gay Olympics on Canal Street on 26 August, back after a long gap, and ran an expo stall at Manchester Pride, where there was no parade that year.

David Smyth

On 16 August the club announced the sudden death of David ‘Daddy’ Smyth, its very first coach, who had taken the team from its first training session in March 1999 and for years afterwards. His son Chris Smyth played in the first gay rugby match, between the Spartans and Kings Cross Steelers RFC, in August 1999. Smyth helped bring about the first international match, against Washington Renegades Rugby in Manchester, and the return trip to the United States out of which the Bingham Cup came. He had recently loaned the club his collection of rugby memorabilia, which was due to form part of a World Rugby exhibit that autumn. You can watch an unedited interview with David, recorded in 2019 in the old clubhouse, below.

Robert James-Gonzales

On 5 October the club announced the death of Robert James-Gonzales, a 23 year old first XV player who had joined six months earlier. He had played for XV Hortaleza in Spain from 2011 to 2019, as a player, a school coach and a referee. On 16 October the first XV played Burnage Rugby Club in his memory and won 47–25.

The First XV

The first XV came back to league rugby on 11 September, its first fixture in eighteen months, beating Didsbury Toc H’s third team 57–5 at home in the opening game of the NORWIRUL Division 4 East season. The match report on the club website was written by Tyler of the first XV. A home win over Didsbury Old Bedians followed on 25 September, and on 23 October the side beat Glossop RUFC’s third team 31–14, with tries from Oliver T, AJ, Emeka and two from Laurence, and conversions by Matt W. A home win over Ashton at the end of October took the Spartans to the top of the table.

They did not stay there. A 14–12 defeat away at Bury RUFC on 13 November dropped them to third, although they were second again by the 21st, and a 36–0 loss at Congleton’s second team followed on 27 November. The last home match of 2021 was against Hope Valley RFC on 3 December. The first fixture to survive the Christmas break was a 19–5 win away at Didsbury Old Bedians on 15 January, which held second place, but a home defeat to Marple Rugby Club on 5 February swapped the two sides in the table. The season closed with a 45–14 home win on 9 April and fifth place in the division.

The Second XV and the development side

The club had decided to enter a development squad into the International Gay Rugby leagues from September alongside the regular second team, and the two ran as the 2XV-A and the 2XV-B. Both found it hard going. The A side opened the club’s Northern Division 1 campaign away at Leeds Hunters’ first XV at Crag Lane on 11 September, where the teams held a minute’s silence for Mark Bingham and the victims of the 11 September attacks before a 63–0 defeat. A 34–10 loss at Sheffield Vulcans on 2 October still left the club third in the table, and Newcastle Ravens won 26–14 at Percy Park in November. The side’s first home game of the entire league season did not arrive until 15 January, against the Ravens at Sale Sports Club; that match and the visit of Leeds Hunters a fortnight later were both recorded as 84–7 defeats. Three further fixtures have no result in the club’s record.

The B side began in North Division 2 on 25 September away at Typhoons RUFC, in a game capped at 56–5 under game on principles, with several players making their first ever appearance in rugby. Its first home match came on 8 October against Chester Centurions, and it lost 70–10 at Newcastle Ravens on 30 October. On 13 November it played York RI Templars at home under captain Dan Travis, with Angus R as vice captain, the two teams holding a minute’s silence for Remembrance Day beforehand. By April, Travis was recorded as the club’s third XV captain. The A and B sides met each other at Sale on 9 April, before the first XV’s final home game.

Hadrian’s Cup

On 12 March the club took three teams to the Hadrian’s Cup in Newcastle, hosted by Newcastle Ravens: a first union XV, a second union XV and a touch team. Nine players made their Spartans debut over the day. It was the touch team that went furthest, reaching the final against Percy Park Pirates Touch and finishing second.

Touch

A new touch squad played together for the first time on 11 August, several of its players making their first appearances, and travelled to Liverpool three days later for the Tritons’ fifth birthday tournament. Ben Dawson was Director of Touch, and in December the club advertised for a touch coach to start in January. In May the squad took first place at the tournament hosted by Hull Roundheads RUFC, and on 6 June it won the second round of the IGR touch series, sharing top spot with Leeds Hunters. The section was the first part of the club to move its organisation onto the Spond app, with union to follow.

Summerdraft, the club’s draft style tournament and, by its own account, the first of its kind in the United Kingdom, returned to Sale Sports Club on 11 June after a year lost to lockdown. A fortnight later the club hosted Pride in Touch on the same ground, welcoming Chester Centurions, Typhoons, Misfits Touch, Liverpool Tritons, Newcastle Ravens, Wigan Warriors and two Clapham Feelers teams. The Spartans won three matches, lost the cup quarter final to Wigan Warriors and took the bronze plate against the Clapham Feelers’ Emerald side; Clapham won the tournament. Helen, Babs and Lindsey of Manchester Chargers played in a mixed Spartans squad that day. In July the club sent four teams to Touch My Brum at Sutton Coldfield Rugby Club, three squads and a very old boys side, and hosted a round of the IGR touch series at Sale.

The club off the field

The season opened with the Spartans in a Myprotein campaign. The sports nutrition brand partnered with the club on United by Ambition, which ran through July and August 2021 and included a video featuring a club member on Myprotein’s YouTube channel. In November fifteen Spartans appeared in the Worldwide Roar 2022 charity calendar, photographed at Manchester Rugby Club that August in support of Sport Allies; the club described itself as the first rugby club to join the Worldwide Roar and the first UK rugby team to take part in the naked charity calendar, which promotes positive masculinity and body positivity. Profits from a weekend of calendar sales through the club website went to local HIV and AIDS charities to mark World AIDS Day. Several members attended a preview screening of the Sky series Positive, and the Club President laid a wreath with healthcare colleagues at the World AIDS Day vigil in Sackville Gardens.

From November the Spartans were featured alongside the Kings Cross Steelers in a six month World Rugby Museum exhibition about LGBT inclusive rugby pioneers. In February the club’s own history reached Manchester classrooms through The Chesters Model: A Schools History of Manchester Village Spartans RUFC, a teacher training programme run with the University of Manchester PGCE. In May, players appeared as guest judges on BBC Two’s Britain’s Top Takeaways, including the series finale on 19 May, and in June England Rugby released a promotional film for grassroots rugby built entirely around one Spartan describing the barriers he had overcome in trying the game.

Members volunteered on a stand at Didsbury Pride in September, sharing the day with players from Didsbury Toc H Rugby Club, and in December the club supported Stonewall’s Rainbow Laces campaign, noting that it had been playing in mainstream leagues in rainbow colours since 1999. The Easter Bash was held at Bar Pop on Canal Street on 11 April, organised by Christian John, with players from the union and touch squads performing on a Stars in their Eyes theme. Wolf Whiskey launched a Spartan Edition decanter set in May and gave the club a set of glasses for the bar at Sale Sports Club. The club’s Christmas message had thanked its sponsors and partners: UNISON North West LGBT+ Group, the Albert Kennedy Trust, Mermaids, Bar Pop, Via Canal Street and Worldwide Roar. In May the club also marked the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia with a statement congratulating the footballer Jake Daniels.

Sale Sports Club and a new structure

At the ground, new LED floodlights were in use for touch training by January. The pitches kept waterlogging, and Matt Whiteley was liaising with Trafford Council for permission for drainage work. A rugby inspired stained glass window had been saved from the old clubhouse before it was demolished.

The larger change was constitutional. Following a vote at the 2021 AGM, Manchester Village Spartans RUFC was becoming the rugby section of Sale Sports Club, and the club’s own structure changed with it. A new Club Captain role was created for each of union and touch, as a representative post and the voice of the players in that section.

The officers for the coming year were Gareth Longley as chair, Chris Goodman as secretary, Scott Melville as treasurer, Ale Lewis as Director of Rugby Union, Ben Dawson as Director of Touch Rugby, David Fox as club captain for union and George Harvey as club captain for touch. Earlier in the season the club had thanked assistant coach Jen as she stepped away from coaching.

The Rugby Football Union vote

In July the Spartans joined the English clubs of International Gay Rugby in condemning a proposed ban on transgender girls and women in rugby union, and the chair, Gareth, wrote an open letter to every member of the Rugby Football Union council. On 29 July the council voted to impose a blanket ban on transgender women playing rugby union. The club said it was dismayed, and recorded that 28 of the 61 voting members had either voted against the ban or abstained. Members were at Twickenham that day alongside Brighton and Hove Sea Serpents RFC and The London Stags RFC.

The awards dinner

The Annual Awards Dinner returned as an in person event at Sale Sports Club on 18 June 2022, limited to eighty places, with a three course dinner put on by the ground and the evening organised by Tom. The inaugural Robert James-Gonzales Memorial Award for Supporting Rugby Values was presented by Robert’s father and sister to the club chair, Gareth Longley.

The club ended the season running three men’s union squads and two mixed gender inclusive touch squads, with roughly 15 per cent of its players identifying as straight, and with a committee structure rebuilt to match. A group of Spartans went to Ottawa for the Bingham Cup and played for the tournament’s composite sides.