This rugby player proposed to his boyfriend in the best way at Liverpool Pride

Illustrated rainbow pride flag on a white background.

Not content to let London get all the adorable pride-posal videos, this Saturday Liverpool Pride saw its own wonderful rugby-inspired engagement in front of hundreds of people.

In a video posted on the official Liverpool Pride Twitter, rugby player Mark Bevan throws a rugby ball to boyfriend Mike Collins.

Collins, surprised, catches the ball and reads the message, which on one side reads “Hello.”

On the other side – “Michael, will you marry me?”

As Collins reads the message, Bevan gets down on one knee and takes out a ring.

Collins accepted, and the two kissed in front of a joyous crowd.

The pair share an embrace and crowds around them cheer for the happy moment.

Bevan has since told the Mirror online why he decided to propose to his partner at Pride.

He said: “I’ve been thinking about proposing for a while now. I decided to do it at Pride as it’s important to me.”


“It’s not only a fun place but it symbolises something so much greater. Me proposing there was for all those who aren’t allowed to marry their partners.”

The couple has been together for two and a half years, after meeting in a bar in Liverpool.

Bevan explained that it was practically love at first sight: “after a few months I knew he was the one.”

Bevan said he’d hadn’t been nervous until he’d gone to ask his future mother-in-law for permission.

This rugby player proposed to his boyfriend in the best way at Liverpool Pride
Mark Bevan and Mike Collins (photo from @LiverpoolPride on Twitter)

The two men play for Liverpool’s first ‘inclusive’ Rugby team, Tritons RUFC.

The team were celebrating an anniversary at Pride this year, having launched at the 2016 celebrations.

Bevan may have been inspired by a similar proposal from this year’s London Pride, when a player from the inclusive rugby team the Kings Cross Steelers, walked out of the parade to propose to his watching boyfriend.

Also at London Pride this year, the crowd cheered as a uniformed police officer was proposed to by her girlfriend during the celebrations.

Two army officers, who met at 2016 Pride, also got engaged in front of crowds at this year’s parade.

These policemen faced a tirade of online abuse after their 2016 London Pride proposal video went viral.