Coventrians’ Culture Reflects their Community
Coventrians RFC are at the heart of what they call “a pretty diverse” community.
They’ve had players join from Jamaica, Kenya, India, Australia, America and across Europe.
Now they have welcomed on board the city’s first LGBTQ+ inclusive team Coventry Corsairs, who are celebrating their first birthday but, with the lack of a permanent home, had been playing on a local park.
With a rich heritage in a City of Culture, Coventrians are intent on using rugby to improve lives in their community. Team shirts bear the straight allies flag, they have run anti-knife crime and anti-racism campaigns and they host events for the Caribbean and Indian communities at the ground.
The club’s touch rugby side had an initial focus on achieving and maintaining a healthy weight but progressed to include mental health and wellbeing and to become a support network.
As their centenary approaches and plans are made for 2021, says club secretary Michael Douglas: “We want to be a club which reflects the whole of our community. We are proud to encourage diversity and to create an environment where everyone can come down and feel welcome and wanted in our club.
"When we discovered Corsairs were playing on Coventry’s War Memorial Park, we thought that’s not right, let’s invite them in and give them a pitch to play on.
“We work with a lot of charities and want to improve the local community for everyone. It’s difficult to measure the success but we are trying to challenge the old rugby stereotypes and we’d like to think that in having such a diverse set of members we are making a difference.”
For Coventry Corsairs founder member Diego Dominguez Domenech, the club’s comradeship underscores the positive experience he has had of rugby in England. Having left the Spanish Air Force, Diego came to study at Solent University where he helped start Wessex Wyverns before moving to work in Reading and found the Reading Renegades.
“Rugby and rugby clubs don’t care where you are from, if you want to play they offer support,” says Diego. “I’ve played in straight and gay teams, both have welcomed me. I’m 32 now but when guys of my age were growing up many didn’t have the courage to join sports teams.
“I didn’t even know what rugby was before coming to England, I’m from the Dominican Republic, but rugby has been awesome. Within a few weeks of us setting up in Coventry and launching a social media campaign, Coventrians were in touch and couldn’t do enough for us. They’ve been very welcoming and have helped us with numbers when we haven’t had enough players. They’ve been great, they just said ‘Come here to us, this is your place'.”
