St. John’s rugby team having a ball

DANVERS – It might look like organized chaos to most people, but to the players on the St. John’s Prep rugby team, it’s a work of art at high speed and with brutal force at times.Click here for a photo gallery.Since its inception nearly a decade ago, the rugby program at St. John’s has quietly become one of the most popular on the school’s rustic campus on Summer Street. With over 140 players in the program on the varsity, JV and developmental teams, the Eagles have become the team to beat in Massachusetts.Last season, the Eagles went undefeated and have won their first two matches this season – including a win on Tuesday over BC High. But if you ask Prep athletic director Jim O’Leary, it’s not about the winning in the rugby program.”The kids absolutely love it,” O’Leary said while standing in a wind-driven rain amongst the varsity and JV players for the Eagles on Tuesday.How popular is the sport in the Catholic Conference? On Tuesday, there was a varsity game and a JV game immediately following while the Eagles developmental team was practicing just down the hill on an adjacent field.”We’ve got 140 or something kids in the program and they all have a ball with this,” O’Leary said.The program was started by teacher Maureen McAleer and is now being shepherded by head coach Jamie Green and his assistant, Tom Collins.The athleticism and power needed to succeed on the rugby pitch provide a perfect place for some of the Prep’s football players to get a little offseason conditioning in through a competitive setting.Of course, O’Leary knows there’s another reason the big linemen like playing rugby.”They get to have their hands on the ball and score,” joked O’Leary. “But yeah, most of them play and really enjoy it.”