STEELERS: THE WORLD’S FIRST GAY RUGBY CLUB
Cert 15 ★★★ On Amazon Prime Video now
London’s Kings Cross Steelers were one of the favourites going into the 2018 Bingham Cup in Amsterdam – a biennial tournament dubbed “the World Cup of gay rugby”.
So former Steelers player and first-time filmmaker Eammon Ashton-Atkinson was never going to be able to use the formula of the underdog sports movie.
But still, you have to admire the Aussie TV reporter for hooking a deal with Amazon Prime Video for this scrappy little heartwarmer.
His structure is more basic than your average loose-head prop – on field and dressing-room action is intercut with talking head interviews with three of its stars.
We hear from lesbian coach and former Welsh international player Nic Evans as she remembers her unusual grandfather and her struggles to fit in with the macho sport.
For fans of RuPaul’s Drag Race, we have beefy American Andrew McDowell preaching the need to express ourselves, while introducing us to his alter ego Drewalicious.
And, in the most moving section, Simon Jones talks about how the club saved his life after he came out, gave up on his ambitions to play professional rugby and fell into a deep depression.
As Ashton-Atkinson wants to focus on human stories, I get why we don’t get much about the history of gay rugby or discussions about queer identities.
I just wish he had gone easier on the syrupy, inspirational music.
Footage of a clearly nervous Jones mentally tearing down his defences is brutal in its sincerity yet his director treats it like an X-Factor sob story.