Kieran McKay seldom smiles. He lives with his three brothers in a council flat in southeast London, his mother works punishing hours at a hospital, his father long ago returned to Jamaica and, for a nine-year-old, he is disarmingly melancholy.


But for this young black boy from Peckham, an area known for crimeridden estates, sink schools and violence, as well as strong support for Millwall Football Club, one thing makes him happy. For two years, Kieran has played rugby union for the Southwark Tigers.


Most of the players come from single-parent families and some attend special schools. On Sunday morning, these hoody-clad youths drift through holes in fences and clamber over upturned trolleys into Burgess Park — near where Damilola Taylor was murdered in 2000 — and train in the shadow of the surrounding tower blocks.

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