The Union Cup is a biennial European, non-professional, gay rugby union tournament, bringing together teams and joint teams from all over Europe.
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The first edition was held in May 2005 in Montpellier, France. The participating teams were Les Artichauds, Les Artichauds, Manchester Village Spartans, London Steelers, Emerald Warriors RFC, Cardiff Lions, Los Valents Montpellier, Les Gaillard Parisiens, and the competition was won by Les Artichauds over the Manchester Village Spartans.
The second edition was held in Copenhagen, Denmark in May 2007; the XVs competition was won by the Kings Cross Steelers London, while the 7s tournament was won by the Emerald Warriors RFC Dublin over the Cardiff Lions with a 10-5 final score.
The third edition was held in London in 2009, with visiting teams from Amsterdam, Bristol, Cardiff, Copenhagen, Dublin, Edinburgh, Manchester, Montpellier, Newcastle, Paris and a Barbarians side; the XVs competition was won by the Kings Cross Steelers London in a hardly fought 3-0 match against the Manchester Village Spartans, the Xs tournament was won by the Cardiff Lions who beat the Kings Cross Steelers Xs team 29-7 in the final, and the 7s tournament was won by the Bristol Bisons RFC in a 12-7 final against Les Coqs Festifs Paris.
The fourth edition was held in Amsterdam, Netherlands, hosted by the Amsterdam Lowlanders in June 2011 with visiting teams from Amsterdam, Bristol, Brussels, Dublin, Edinburgh, London, Lisbon, Lyon, Manchester, Montpellier and Paris. The XVs competition was won by the Kings Cross Steelers I London, over the Manchester Village Spartans and the Emerald Warriors RFC Dublin, while the Xs competition was won by the Los Valents Montpellier, over the Bristol Bisons RFC and the Kings Cross Steelers II.
A video was created by the students of a local art university,[1] and generally the competition found good coverage on the media, both on TV[2][3] and on newspapers.[4][5]
In July 2011, Bristol Bisons RFC were successful in their bid for the 2013 Union Cup over the Emerald Warriors RFC from Dublin, Ireland.