DENVER — Mike Petri has a vision for rugby in America — one in which fans embrace the game with the same fervor other countries around the world do.

First, though, he realizes rugby's bad-boy reputation needs an overhaul. He and his buddies on the U.S. national team are working on it.

"Most Americans who think of rugby have the wrong idea of what rugby is. They think, 'My college had a rugby team and they just threw great parties,'" said Petri, whose team hosts the England Saxons on Sunday in the Churchill Cup. "This is not how it is, especially in other parts of the world. This is a professional game. It's a matter of the right exposure to the game."

USA Rugby, the sport's governing national body, has 82,000 members. Chief executive Nigel Melville, who captained England's national teams in the 1980s, says the sport's image is stunting its growth in this country.

"I think the biggest challenge for rugby is to have people see the modern game," he said. "This perception of sort of a badly behaved, singing, drinking sort of culture has changed so much in the last 20 years for rugby."

Rugby's showcase championship is the third-largest sports event in the world behind only the Summer Olympics and soccer's World Cup. More than 2.25 million fans attended the 2007 Rugby World Cup and about 4.2 billion television viewers tuned in globally.

Today's game is a more intense, physical clash, with players who are faster and stronger than their counterparts a decade ago. It wasn't until 1995 that rugby was sanctioned as a professional sport.

"Since it's gone professional, rugby has become a much more fantastic, athletic game, totally different from years ago," Melville said.

In 2003, the English Rugby Football Union, Rugby Canada and USA Rugby formed an alliance and introduced the Churchill Cup to attract fans and players from the U.S. and Canada. The tournament gives up-and-coming players a rare chance at international competition.

"It's getting there," said Will Johnson, a member of the U.S. national team who played football at Harvard. "You sort of hear these stats bubble up: There are more American rugby players than there are in England, just because of our population size. ... But it's tough. In America, you're fighting to overcome some pretty big hurdles with baseball, basketball and football."

Terry Buewell, the Churchill Cup tournament director and co-founder, says rugby is up to the task.

"We need to profile top-quality international rugby so people could see its strengths, see a game of movement, a game of physicality and high energy, high skill and that compares very similarity to many American sports," Buewell said.

"American sports will recognize that the USA could be a major player on the world side," Buewell added. "It has the athletes, it has the professionalism, it has the infrastructure, but it just needs the right people in the right place playing the sport."

Petri is taking a two-month leave from his job in New York to play with the national team. He often invites friends to check out local games. He says they leave with a different perception.

"Anyone who's seen a rugby game, they may not understand it, but they really enjoy the overall energy and excitement," he said. "I think in America it just needs exposure."