Video series the latest step in Van Horne's rugby journey

Jan. 14—The new YouTube series "Cross the Line" features former English rugby star and media personality Alex Corbisiero wandering the eastern San Fernando Valley, scouring football fields and basketball courts to assemble a brand new rugby squad from the best athletes the area has to offer.

Produced by World Rugby, the global governing body of rugby union, Corbisiero's series purports to bring together "American athletes that have barely heard of the sport" to leverage the country's untapped potential.

In the Jan. 4 episode, one of Corbisiero's conscripts, Jayson Jackson, recruits some "football friends," Donnie Duncan and Bakersfield's own Derick Van Horne. In reality, all three of these players have played with Los Angeles's Eagle Rock Rugby Club, one of the oldest such organizations in the country.

Indeed, for Van Horne, starring in "Cross the Line" wasn't the beginning of his rugby journey, but the latest step on a path he hopes will lead to a professional contract. Participating in the series got him the chance to learn from Major League Rugby coaches, a variety of ex-pro players and Corbisiero himself.

"I grew so much in a short time just from learning and practicing and training with them," Van Horne said.

Van Horne grew up in Bakersfield devoted to football, a scion of a family with four generations of ties to the Drillers. He played wide receiver at BHS until his graduation in 2016. But the athletic path he ultimately chose was guided by a different family tradition.

"My uncle (Johnny Purcell), he coached rugby and started the University of San Diego men's club rugby team way back in the day, and then coached for the Kern County men's club for years," Van Horne said. "I just grew up watching him and I'd go out to the games."

He wasn't able to play much as a kid, because the opportunities were so sparse. But while studying at Bakersfield College, he got his chance.

"I just went out to the local men's club in Kern and started practicing with them and playing a little bit," he said, "then just fell in love with it."

This led him to join the club rugby team when he transferred to CSUN, providing him a group of like-minded players to bond with as he finished college. Rugby players heap praise on the sport's culture, which is tight-knit due to its niche status in the U.S.

"(In) football, you have a disdain for the other opponent," Van Horne said, "You do in rugby too, but after you're able to come together and talk about it. It's much more welcoming, it's very friendly after — not during the game so much."

It's no wonder Van Horne now fits well with Eagle Rock, where he started training over the summer while working as an accountant. After its Southern California Rugby Football Union competitions, the home team traditionally takes the away team out for eating, drinking and general merrymaking.

"You go to any city in the world, you can go to a rugby club and you'll have like 30 friends immediately," said Scott Mitchell, a club board member and player, "30 guys you can go hang out with, run around with, have a couple beers with."

Eagle Rock was staging sevens matches — a faster-paced rugby variant — over the summer when Van Horne joined them. He got a chance to work with Jason Raven, who captained the U.S. in international sevens competitions, and was "very happy and shocked" by Derick's aptitude for the sport.

"Right away, (he) just showed a great deal of promise," Raven said. "Really super quiet kid, but he works hard and he's one of the best players out."

While Raven wasn't involved with Corbisiero's video series, he's also been invested in getting the United States' "best athletes in the world" to take up rugby, which he called a matter of "simple awareness." He said it's well-suited to those who have previously expressed interest in other sports because it accommodates a variety of skill sets.

"Boys and girls clubs, summer camps, just as they're having soccer and football and flag football and basketball ... rugby is perfect," he said. "Because everyone's involved, everyone touches the ball, everyone gets to run, everyone gets to kick.

"Everyone gets to practice their individual skill."

This is essentially Corbisiero's guiding principle in "Cross the Line."

Mitchell said he honestly doesn't know how Whisper, the production company behind the series, decided to feature Eagle Rock and its players. The club just got an out-of-the-blue email in its inbox ("In the beginning I was like, 'Is this one of those ads?'" Mitchell recalled). Van Horne remembered briefly getting interviewed, and then Corbisiero started showing up over the course of the fall, running his motley crew through drills at Eagle Rock training.

Although Van Horne and others aren't rugby neophytes as the videos indicate — which Mitchell suggested may be for player-safety reasons — Mitchell pointed out that the club currently has six or seven members who have never played a rugby game, and welcomes newcomers.

"I hope it attracts other players to come out and run with us," he said, "and I hope it just grows rugby in general."

For Van Horne, the series got him an introduction to Corbisiero, who's played the sport on levels Americans rarely achieve. And later installments earned him a taste of training with MLR's LA Giltinis, on whom he's hoping to make an impression going forward in order to further his rugby career.

New episodes arrive each Tuesday on World Rugby's YouTube channel.

Reporter Henry Greenstein can be reached at 661-395-7374. Follow him on Twitter: @HenryGreenstein.