Two elite rugby teams, one from the West Coast and one from the East Coast, played to prove their dominance at Dominican College earlier this month.

Arriving at the Dominican field, the Marin Highlanders sought to defend their reputation as a California powerhouse against the Xavier Knights, a high school from New York.

After a close first half, Xavier pulled away with the win. Players on both teams had fallen with injuries in the heat of physical competition. The final whistle blew ending the match, and the Marin Highlanders and the Xavier Knights exhaustedly lined up and shook hands.

Early in the first half, the Highlanders took a 7-0 lead after Martin Van Der Wal, a senior from San Rafael, scored a try and Riley Sell, sophomore from Marin Catholic, kicked the conversion points.

The Knights responded with a 32-point run in the second half, silencing the Highlander’s early lead. In the remaining five minutes of the game, the Highlanders were able to score one last try making the final score 32-14 Knights.

After the aggressive match, the Highlanders welcomed the Knights to dinner.

“Nothing is more important than brotherhood in rugby,” Highlander and Redwood senior Omid Izadjou said. “That’s why after we tried to kill each other in the match, we went out to dinner together and had a good time with the other team. It’s rugby culture.”

Izadjou was sidelined from the match with a major concussion, which made him one of four Highlander starting players that got sidelined from the match with an injury.

“Playing against such an elite team was a grueling workout,” Izadjou said. “They weren’t like a typical California team we play. They were much bigger.”

In planning the exhibition game, Highlanders coach David Cingolani contacted the Knights coach Alex Magleby about potentially hosting them for a match in Marin.

Both coaches have established winning reputations for themselves. Last year, Cingolani led the Highlanders to Nationals in Utah, and they were ranked fifth in the country. Magleby is currently the U.S. National Rugby Sevens team’s head coach. The exhibition match had no impact on either team’s record because they are in different divisions. However, Izadjou said the National Rugby Association checked the score of the match to see how Xavier competed against the Highlanders, who were ranked 11th in the country before the match.

Izadjou said that Knights beat them because they were more prepared than Highlanders.

“They were able to execute their plays because of great coaching and preparation,” Izadjou said. “They knew what plays to run in all situations.”

He said that another reason the Knights dominated was because of their clean and precise ball movement between players.

“They barely missed a pass,” he said. “You don’t really see that type of precision at the high school level.”

Bouncing back from the loss, the Highlanders beat S.F. Golden Gate in their first playoff game Sunday April 14th.