Fifteen determined players advance up the pitch. They run toward their opponents, kicking, passing, and driving their way forward. Some get tackled down, yet they continue on their way to their goal. The left wing player runs the ball past the goal line. A whistle is blown; the Green Peninsula Beavers score a Try and earn themselves five points.

Peninsula Green Rugby Football Club is just one of the many rising boy’s Rugby teams in the Bay Area. USA Rugby has eight unions, one of them being the Pacific Coast Rugby Football Union, under which is the sub-area union, Northern California Rugby Football Union. Peninsula Green is part of this union. They come in the Skyhawk conference, along with teams from around the area, according to the Peninsula Green Rugby website www.peninsulagreenrugby.com.

The team is comprised of players, ages 13-18 who live in Menlo Park, Atherton, Palo Alto, Redwood City, and Woodside. Peninsula Green’s coach, Paul Negus has been coaching the team since 1998, the year of its creation.

Rugby has grown considerably more popular in the US over the last few years when many of these teams were created. Live Oak from Morgan Hill is the closest school to Paly that has a rugby team.

"We are working on other schools to adopt it [rugby], but it is a slow process," says Negus.

Negus explains the game of rugby to be a mixture of three other sports; football, soccer, and basketball. The game is similar to football with the scoring system, type of ball, and physical contact. Rugby is a continuous game, like soccer, and much of the plays and tactics are up to the players. There is little instruction from the coaches during the game.

"There are no time-outs, there are no defensive teams or special teams, once you are on the field, it is up to the team to win or lose," Negus said.

Rugby also requires the ball-handling skills and coordination of basketball. It does not have "downs" like football, either.

There are 15 players on the field during the game, playing both offense and defense. Negus emphasizes the role of each player in the game. "Every player has the opportunity to handle and run with the ball, every player must be capable of making and taking tackles and every player must be capable of playing offense and defense," Negus said.

The Peninsula Rugby team has had much success since the program began. They have placed either first or second every year in their Skyhawk conference. From the team, two players have gone on to play on the US National team in the under-19 level.

Woodside senior Zack Test has played rugby for three years. Test is currently on the US under-19 rugby team. "[It is an] honor to play on the National team. [We] play some big, fast guys," Test said.

Sacred Heart senior Travis Benson is also on the US under-19 team. Benson has been playing for almost five years. Benson’s dad, Robert, is one of the assistant coaches for Peninsula Green.

Since there is no rugby program at either Woodside or Sacred Heart, Test plays football and Benson plays soccer during rugby’s off-season. Both say that these sports help keep them in shape for rugby.

Currently, it is still pre-season for rugby and Peninsula Green is training hard. They practice Saturday afternoons for two and a half hours.

Jared Braun, another stand-out player on Peninsula Green tells about the team’s success from previous seasons. According to Braun, the team lost in the semi-finals in a Stanford tournament and then lost in finals in a summer tournament. Benson also agrees that the team has a lot of potential.

Although rugby is not yet integrated in most high schools, the sport is definitely on the rise in the United States, according to Negus.

"In order for US rugby to be able to compete, it is imperative that high schools adopt rugby as a varsity sport," Negus said.

"First of all, anyone can play regardless of size," Negus said. "Secondly, it is a game [in which] players can go on and play at college. We provide an outlet to football players after the season ends to maintain their fitness and play in a contact sport."

Test, Benson, and Braun all agree that rugby is moving in the right direction toward being integrated in popular American sports.

"[It’s becoming] like soccer [in this country], more people want to play," says Braun.

At the moment, there are no Paly students on the Peninsula Green team, but Negus encourages anyone to come out for the sport.