Queering The PitchTG4, Wednesday 9.30pm
The very existence of the Emerald Warriors, Dublin's gay rugby team, is in itself a significant marker of how attitudes towards homosexuality have changed, since it was decriminalised in 1993.
However, this documentary about the Warriors made only token reference to the significance of the historical context of this gay rugby team taking on such a bastion of heterosexual manhood. Instead, it focused on the team's dismal performance in the Bingham Cup, a gay rugby tournament in the US. It then became more about what makes second rate rugby and how dirty the game can be at amateur level, rather than providing any insights in what it is like to be a gay rugby player.
The Irish team differed from their opponents in their apparent confusion over what comes first, being gay or being a rugby player. While the other vastly superior teams seemed to be rugby players who just happened to be gay, some of the Irish described how they had responded to an advertisement to join a team and only then had started playing rugby. This resulted in a motley crew with a foul-mouthed, vicious, straight coach, who instructed his team on tactics to get players on opposing teams "carried off on stretchers". In spite of, or maybe because of his best efforts, the Warriors not only suffered humiliating defeat, but also the serious injury of one of their best players.
Some of the players extolled the opportunity the team gave to meet gay men from other social backgrounds. Any other advantages of membership were coyly glossed over, as was the highjacking of the Bingham Cup in the US by the "Bear Club", a section of the gay community who like their men "big and hairy".
There was a sense of too much protest in the documentary's defiant assertion: "No matter what anyone says, the Emerald Warriors are here to stay". In fact, no one in the documentary suggested anything otherwise.
Certainly, for the Tallaght rugby team, who took them on in a challenge match, their only interest was in beating the Warriors, not their sexuality. The Rugby Union official stressed the inclusiveness of the sport, the sports journalist praised the courage of gay sportsmen who come out, and the family members of the players where unanimous in their support of the team.
So, in the end, it was the "So what?" attitude of the contributors to the documentary that best defines how Irish society has shifted in its attitude towards homosexuality. As for the Warriors themselves, the strongest message was that much more practise is needed before they host the Bingham Cup here next year. Poor rugby is poor rugby, whatever your sexual orientation.
• Review by clinical psychologist Olive Travers