This past Sunday, the Pelham Youth Rugby hosted the Manhattan Youth RFC in a series of games born out of a rivalry that is now five years old.

The two programs both started as youth programs and have expanded to include older age brackets as their kids have aged. SO now the meeting of the clubs involves U12s, U14s, U16s, and U18s.

Both programs started five years ago with just middle-schoolers, and are co-founders of the Metro NY Youth Rugby League, which has also grown from just middle-schoolers to older ages.

Manhattan’s U12s won their game, and in fact Manhattan also won at U14 and U16 level, while Pelham took the U18 match 26-12.

Those oldest kids have played each other for five years, and Pelham has won all five of those games.

Captain Luke Persanis, along with Kevin Ndou, Matt Biskup, Kees Huisman, and Ryan Killeen played well for Pelham’s U18s.

The two clubs have been playing tackle rugby for five years, but in fat started seven years ago plying flag rugby for kids in grades 2 through 5, and moved to tackle rugby two years later.

For the last 4 years the teams have played int he metro NY youth rugby  league, a league created by Manhattan';s founder Christian Mayo and Pelham's founder Matt Persanis. The league started as a way for brand new youth teams to get together and play, and in its first year boasted four teams, Manhattan, Pelham, Rockaway and Ridgewood. The league now consists of the original four plus Union, Morris, Greenwich, Aspetuck, and Long Island.

The league has various rules changes depending on age level. For example, for the U12s, there are no scrums or lineouts, and there’s no kicking. Kids play 8-v-8 in three 12-minute periods.

At U14 the teams play 12-on-12 with no fullback or flankers, and scrums and lineouts are uncontested. There is no kicking from in front of your 22 except for a penalty.

U16 and U18 levels follow standard high school rugby rules. All of the teams use rotating subs.