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.

It is a far cry from the well-kept pitches of the public schools, where so many international players learnt their sport. Very few members of the latest England team went to comprehensive schools and only two were black.

Despite this lack of role models, more than 60 children attend Sunday practices. The club has six teams from the under-7s to the under-12s, a youth team, a girls’ team and a cheerleading squad, all run with immense enthusiasm by Vernon Neve-Dunn,45, the club’s founder, who played rugby at grammar school.

The teams rarely win, but the players benefit greatly. “Rugby is really good for them,” Mr Neve-Dunn said. “They can tackle someone hard and not get sent off — they get a pat on the back. We encourage them to take their stress out on the pitch.”

Azeez Suetan, 13, has been training every Sunday for five years. “He used to get really stressed out. He would storm off effing and blinding. He was almost excluded from school,” Mr Neve-Dunn said.

Now, Azeez was calm, attentive and only occasionally got into trouble. “I’m so proud of him.”

Even though the club membership fee is £10 a year, only half the children can afford it. The Tigers struggle to pay the £2,000 a year that Southwark council charges for the training field and it was only a month ago that they finally raised the £3,000 needed to buy their first goalposts. Before that, they “just had to pretend”, Mr Neve-Dunn said. Their clubhouse is a reclaimed shed. Team photos and trophies line the peeling walls, plastic furniture covers the lino floor, and curtains flutter at the broken windows. Shopping trolleys full of training equipment wait to be wheeled 500 yards to the pitch.

The Tigers play almost all their games away, usually against well-off clubs in Kent. Last Sunday, three minibuses took the Tigers to Vigo, Kent. Blocks of flats gave way to houses and fields. “Cows!” exclaimed Kieran, his face briefly animated.

Sitting behind him was Reece Simpson, 10. He likes playing teams from Kent because “they always act like they’re gonna beat us”. Kieran said: “Sometimes I want to beat them up.”

Storm Springer, 11, agreed. “I got anger-management problems,” he said. “Sometimes they make trouble. They make faces at me.” None of these three boys has a father living at home. None of their mothers has seen a match. For the Tigers’ many West African parents, Sunday is for church.

Three Tigers parents huddled in vain on the sidelines of Vigo rugby club’s pitch last Sunday. The other team did not show up. Instead, older, bigger and white Vigo players held an earnest training session at one end of the pitch, while the Tigers, in mismatched hoodies and tracksuits, scrambled about at the other end.

“It’s weird,” said George Luk, a 14-year-old Vigo player, as he glanced at the other team. “I’ve been playing rugby for 11 years. I think we’d probably beat them 53-5.”

Afterwards, the Vigo coach invited the Tigers back to the clubhouse, where the Vigo fathers drank beer at the polished bar. Two cooks churned out burgers, sausages and beans from a well-equipped kitchen. Pinned to the wall were plans for a £160,000 clubhouse extension. But the Tigers, full of food and fresh air, did not make the obvious comparisons. “I thought they was gonna be mean,” one Tiger commented. “But they was quite nice.”