| Director | Ryan Little |
|---|---|
| Genre | drama film, sport film |
| Runtime | 112 min |
| Country | United States |
| Box office | $719,556 |
Rick Penning (Sean Faris) is captain of his high school rugby team whose coach Richard Penning (Neal McDonough) is his father, and whose players indulge in drugs and alcohol. After losing the championship to their rivals the Highland Rugby Team, Rick drinks and drives, resulting in a crash that seriously injures his girlfriend, Tammy (Tyler Kain).
He is sentenced to a boys' Juvenile Detention Center in Salt Lake City. The manager of the center, Marcus (Sean Astin) puts him on the Highland rugby team much to his chagrin, coached by Larry Gelwix (Gary Cole). He struggles to adapt to this new team's ways. A friend sends him a rugby ball with drugs hidden in the stitching. He uses the drugs until influenced by something one of his new teammates tells him, he throws the drugs away. He works hard and finds the strength to become a member of the widely admired Highland team. Each day when he arrives at team practice he criticizes the coach for sitting around chatting with different team members and not doing any real coaching. Then it is his turn to sit with the coach and find himself confessing to the drugs hidden in the rugby ball. The coach deals with it and tells him his teammates want him to be a captain. He is influenced by brotherhood and can cope with his homesickness.
Driving home after a celebration meal, the team is helping a mother and two children with a flat tire when a passing car clips one of the boys. Rick now must deal with the death of his first true friend Kurt (Michael J. Pagan). Rick is released and returns to live with his parents. His father wants him to tell about the Highland team's moves and plays but Rick resists and they argue. His father makes it up by lending Rick the keys to his sports car, and Rick drives to meet up with Tammy and his old friends. They too become angry that Rick won't reveal the Highland team's secrets and a fight breaks out. They plant drugs and alcohol in the sports car and Rick is arrested when the police show up. Tammy tells the police what really happened and Rick is released. Rick finds himself again in the national championship, this time against the former friends on his old team coached by his estranged father. The game is hard-fought. Players from his old team try to hurt Rick through cheap shots to collect the bounty on his head. Coach Penning tells Rick if he stays down Rick will end up like him. Rick gets back up and, in the final seconds, scores the winning try for Highland. As the film ends it is shown that in real life, under Coach Gelwix, Highland has been winning almost every year.