AL KHADER In the West Bank, where football reigns supreme, the sight of Palestinian players kicking and tossing an oval ball draws incredulous stares and bemused comments.

`What game are they playing?` asks one of the spectators at the Al-Khader football stadium where the Beit Jala Lions team practices. Another onlooker, a football pundit, suggested the odd game may be American Football.

The Beit Jala Lions, who call themselves the first Palestinian rugby team in history, are making do with improvised gear and a modest number of players, but all club members hope the game will eventually catch on in the occupied West Bank.

Their only audience at a recent training practice was a bemused football team waiting for their turn on the pitch and further away, a few rifle-toting Israeli soldiers looking on from a nearby watchtower.

On the synthetic lawn of the stadium, wedged against Israel`s controversial separation barrier which cuts off the West Bank, the rugby players practiced an attack strategy. The passes were at times clumsy and the outfits didn`t match, but the players` enthusiasm was evident.

The year-old team is the brainchild of anthropologist Martin Bisztrai, a former Hungarian national rugby player, who had travelled to the West Bank for his research.

`Martin had with him a strange, oval ball, never before seen in Palestine,` said Nicolas Fuad Stefan, the team`s 20-year-old coach. `We started playing on the street, making passes for fun. We quickly got hooked,` he said, wearing a blue training shirt and clutching a whistle.

`We are not yet pros, but we`re doing pretty well, I think,` quips Apo Sahagian, 18.

Although Christians count for only a small minority in the predominantly Muslim Palestinian society, around one half of the Beit Jala Lions are Christians.

George Maria hopes that their modest and often improvised undertaking would be a trailblazer which will put the Palestinians on the world`s rugby map.

`One day, the Palestinian flag will appear here,` Maria says, pointing at a rugby ball covered with different national flags he holds in one hand.

One of the biggest challenges for the fledgling club is getting rugby gear and training equipment, which are impossible to find in the Palestinian territories.

`We`ve got only four balls to play with,` says coach Nicolas.

But they get by. Members of Ireland`s Munster rugby club sent the Lions balls, shorts and training videos. A local businessman also agreed to sponsor their jerseys.

`The hardest thing to finds is scrum and tackling training gear, which is not manufactured here,` says Jason Pollack, 26, a US humanitarian worker in the West Bank who joined the team in June.

A growing number of young Palestinians are showing interest in the sport and some are slowly joining the club, including 15-year-old Bishara Jaanini.

`I only watched matches on television and the Internet, but I love this game,` he says.

`This sport has a great tradition and one has to be devoted to it. The team is like a big family and we are all brothers,` replies Apo Sahagian.

And because the team numbers only 10 players so far, they are limited to playing tag rugby, where tackling and physical contact is not allowed.

`We are going through a transition, but our end goal is to create a real team of 15 players,` says Pollack. `Then we will be able to take part in tournaments in the region, and who knows, maybe in Europe, too.`