The Merchant Taylors’ school, an English public school that is more than 450 years old, is touring North America and stopped in the state of Washington this past week to face Chuckanut and Eastside.

Against a Chuckanut team with a couple of extra players thrown in, Merchant Taylors’ won 39-21. They followed that up with a 31-7 defeat of the Eastside Lions. Flyhalf Alfono Cornu scored Eastisde’s only try and was named Eastside's player of the game. Connor Pederson was Eastside's top player in the 2nds game.

Merchant Taylors’ has a long history in success in academics and sports, and was where former USA U20 captain Will Magie went to school.

Eastside coach Josh Young was very happy with the game.

“It was a good experience for our kids and our parents,” said Young. “Many of the parents had never hosted kids before, and were very complimentary of the way the Merchant Taylors’ players behaved. They had a blast, and mentioned how surprised they were at the size and speed of our players. They, on the other hand, really stick to their pattern and just played really well together.”

Eastside has hosted Auckland Grammar out of New Zealand and is looking to play touring teams in the fall, as well, including Earl Marriott, a school from British Columbia.

“We have players who can’t play in the fall because of other sports, but we’re able to do some training and play some games, and keep their head in it through the year. It’s been great to have these games.”