For the boys of St. Augustine and Point Loma, it was the dreams of childhood, coming home caked in mud and not having their moms angry for coming home so dirty. 

In a game played in a sometimes heavy rain on a muddy field scheduled to be resodded this week, the Saintsmen of St. Augustine opened the first ever season of high school rugby in San Diego County with a 20-5 victory over Pt. Loma at the North Park campus.  Alex Sacco and Joe Cook each scored two second half trys for the Saintsmen after a scoreless first half, as the Saints asserted their strength advantage and deep bench early in the second half to wear down the Pointers.  St. Augustine Man of the match Dominic Carusillo quarterbacked the attack as the Saints won every one of their scrums and controlled the majority of play, not surrendering a try to Point Loma until the game was in hand.

Sacco started the scoring just a couple of minutes after half time, making a break down the right sideline to score the first try in a competitive rugby match between schools in San Diego.  Cook, a lock who played for the Aztecs Youth club last year, scored on a powerful run before Sacco added his second midway through the second half.  

Matthew Fowler, Cook’s teammate last year at the Young Aztecs, scored the only try for Point Loma to cut the margin to 15-5 before Sacco capped the scoring with his second long run a few minutes before full time.  

The sloppy conditions, which included the center portion of the field becoming a mud pit, prohibited any of the conversions from being successful.

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Rugby supporters have hopes more schools will give it a try

Long-term goal is to gain approval as varsity sport

By Zach Jones, SPECIAL TO THE UNION-TRIBUNE

Thursday, January 7, 2010 at 12:01 a.m.

For high school boys who like to run into each other, the winter season is no longer a dead zone. For years, the contact-inclined have split their time between the fall and spring, playing football into December and picking up a lacrosse stick for the spring months.

January 6, 2010 | Photo by Earnie Grafton

Torrey Pines High School’s Hyung Min Park (center) fights through a gantlet of Cathedral Catholic tackles to advance the ball during their recent rugby game at Cathedral Catholic.

If all goes according to plan for a group of local rugby coaches, those boys — and anyone else adventurous enough to try — will soon have a new option to consider. Long a prep staple on the East Coast and in Northern California, rugby has been gaining converts at the youth level in San Diego and is making headway at several local high schools.

Eight teams began their inaugural season last month and will play through January.

“It’s something that’s been talked about for years,” said Ramon Samaniego, director of coaching for the San Diego Mustangs Youth Rugby Club. “The whole idea behind starting a high school league is first and foremost to grow the sport.”

The long-term goal is approval as a varsity sport by the California Interscholastic Federation, but between that dream and today’s reality, players and coaches have a long road ahead of them.

Rugby, which to American eyes looks a lot like football without pads or helmets, has a perception problem. For eight teams to become 10 or 12 next winter, people like Nevin Kleege will need to win the hearts of parents, coaches and school administrators.

“What this sport does for kids is unlike anything else,” said Kleege, who is the head of the Young Aztecs Youth Rugby Club and is working to establish teams at San Diego schools such as Point Loma and Clairemont. “The biggest obstacle I’ve faced is a misunderstanding of the sport.”

Before schools in the San Diego school district can field official teams — even at the club level — the sport will need the approval of the school board, and that will mean allaying fears about injuries and insurance costs.

“It’s not a collision sport, although it is a contact sport,” Kleege said. “Usually, our best tacklers are our smaller players.”

Coach Eric Dent has fought the same battle at St. Augustine, but the school has recognized rugby as a club sport and is offering players varsity letters.

“When I first mentioned it to the administration, I had to wait for the insurance people to sign off on it,” said Dent, who introduced rugby as an elective class last fall. “This year, we’ve had a few injuries. It’s a huge challenge, especially being a new sport.”

Saints senior Travis Webb, a former three-sport athlete and a student in Dent’s class last year, has given up football, basketball and baseball for his new love.

“(The class) was the first time I’d even seen a rugby ball,” Webb said. “Once you get the hang of it, it turns out to be fun, but my first impression was that it’s pretty intense.”

The game’s continuous rhythm (play proceeds even after the ball carrier is tackled) lured Webb, and it’s a hook that helped boost the Saints’ roster to more than 60 players this winter.

“The other sports were almost too slow, and so rugby kind of fits me perfectly,” Webb said. “Right after you make a tackle, you have to jump back on your feet and run to the ball. It’s constant moving, constant running.”

Teammate Peter Hulburt said the game is a football lineman’s dream.

“It was kind of neat because, playing football, I’d always get stuck out on a lineman position,” said Hulburt, a sophomore. “Then I go into rugby, and I’m in a position where I get to have contact with the ball. I get to be a playmaker.”

Work remains to be done, but the numbers are growing. With the sport’s inclusion in the 2016 Olympic Games and the debut of the rugby-themed movie “Invictus,” rugby boosters are hoping to bring the wave of positive publicity to the high school level.

Among other schools with students playing rugby are Cathedral Catholic, Fallbrook, San Pasqual, Torrey Pines and Serra — though in some cases, there is no official affiliation between the school and team.

“There’s really a position or role for everybody,” said Cathedral Catholic coach Matt Baier, a San Diego native. “I’m jealous because I wish I’d had the opportunity to play when I was younger.”