Not only men play rugby and it became obvious that there was a need for an IGR women’s tournament to be established; one that could be held in tandem and along with The Bingham Cup hosted every two years by different IGR member clubs.
Officially announced at the Bingham Cup 2018 Amsterdam, the Amanda Mark Cup is IGR’s women’s global championship that runs in tandem with and as part of The Bingham Cup.
Named after Amanda Mark, Mark Bingham’s best friend and long-time supporter of IGR and Bingham Cups, the Amanda Mark Cup was created to acknowledge the ever-increasing number of existing IGR clubs that have added female sides to their roster or the even more common establishment or joining of women’s rugby clubs.
As IGR has inclusion at its core, creating a separate women’s championship & competition as a component of a Bingham Cup was the logical progression to ensuring that female players, regardless of the type of team they happen to be on, have the opportunity to compete for hardware just as the men in the tournament do.
More importantly, with the constantly growing number of all-female rugby clubs or integrated rugby clubs that operate and support a complete women’s program and side, it was a critically needed addition to the IGR portfolio of tournaments. For IGR to be truly inclusive, having full access for all players regardless of gender or gender identification had to be delivered. Full stop.
The first full Amanda Mark Cup was held in Ottawa in 2022 with the next slated to be hosted in Rome in May 2024 with expectations that it will be even larger than projected.
Amanda Mark, originally from Sydney, Australia, is a life-long rugby enthusiast and supporter of the game. During the foreign visit of an American school to Australia, her school and its students boarded the US players – one of whom was Mark Bingham.
Amanda and Mark randomly met during his stay and instantly hit it off. The two became fast friends and remained connected despite the distance between them and saw each other at different times over the years.
In the late 1990’s while living in New York City, Mark encouraged Amanda to relocate to New York. With her career being in business, she coordinated a transfer with her firm to NYC in 2001 and after discussing the details, moved and became roommates with Mark.
The two last saw each other on the evening of Monday, September 10, 2001 with Mark leaving first thing Tuesday morning for Newark Airport and a flight to San Francisco. He would die a hero on United Airlines Flight 93 as one of the passengers who charged the terrorists that hijacked the flight and forced it to crash in a Pennsylvania field.
This women’s tournament, established in 2018 to address the need of having a venue for female rugby players to participate in the Bingham Cup, was named after Amanda not only for her close friendship with Mark Bingham but for her life-long support of rugby as well as being in attendance for every Bingham Cup since 2002.
Amanda J Mark is passionate about equality and supports LGBTQAI+ rights through her involvement with International Gay Rugby (IGR), the Bingham Cup and the Amanda Mark Cup.
A financial services executive for over 25 years Amanda is currently the Co-founder and Managing Director of MIntegrity, a specialist regulatory risk consulting firm that works collaboratively with financial services participants, exchanges, industry bodies and regulators to raise integrity standards across the industry.
Growing up in Sydney, Australia, Amanda developed a love of sports from a young age playing, watching and supporting. Her life was forever changed in 1988 when a school boys rugby tournament required her school to host a young team from the Bay Area in San Francisco where she formed a firm friendship with one of the players Mark Bingham.
Amanda and Mark were kindred spirits in their love of travel and sports and had many adventures through the years. Mark shared is biggest secret, he was gay, and was most disappointed when my response was the response was “I know”.
Relieved Mark went on, after as successful rugby career at the University of California, Cal, Berkeley, to join the San Franciso Fog, one of the first gay rugby teams and then helped found the Gotham Knights in New York. Amanda and Mark were sharing an apartment in New York city at this time.
After September 11, 2001 where Mark and others tackled the hijackers on United Flight 93 stopping the plane from reaching its destination and crashing in a field in Pennsylvania, I supported his mother Alice Hoaglan as she became a fierce advocate for LGBTQAI+ rights.
The Bingham Cup started in 2002 to honour the memory of Mark and has been played every 2 years since (apart from 2020 due to the global covid pandemic). The Bingham Cup is the world cup of gay and inclusive rugby union and attracts teams from around the world to compete in play over several day. To date Amanda has attended 6 Bingham Cups. Sadly, in the beginning Amanda couldn’t afford to go to the first few tournaments as she had relocated back to Australia.
