Apart from the rainbow-coloured socks and pride flag flying next to the pitch it looked like any other rugby match, with players smashing into rucks, spinning passes wide and leaping at lineouts. And for the teams taking part in Saturday’s International Gay Rugby (IGR) event in Tokyo, that is just the way they wanted it.

The first match of the IGR’s International Inclusive Challenge Weekend saw World Barbarians RFC take on the Beijing Devils, with the game played less than 40 kilometres from where England beat Argentina at Tokyo Stadium in the Rugby World Cup. The IGR’s first tournament in Asia involved players from over a dozen countries and was aimed at promoting inclusion and tolerance through sport, said IGR chair Ben Owen.

“Our teams are going out there and saying, ‘We are LGBT people playing sport,’” said Owen. “The first time that you win against a team you see in their eyes ‘they beat us’. You know you have earned their respect. You have gone out and you have changed people’s minds about what LGBT people are, what LGBT people can do and we just want people to see we can play rugby like everyone else. It is all we have wanted to do and we are really glad we are able to do that.”

Not all the players in the tournament identify as LGBT but that is the point. The IGR’s 84 member clubs see inclusion as their core value and everyone is welcome.

“Rugby brings unique camaraderie, something that you don’t get in any other sport inside the U.S.,” said Mark Jordan, a player from Minnesota. Read more via Reuters