The high school rugby teams got their first taste of play on the new turf of the Cochrane High School to kick off their home schedule last night.

The CobraCats girls team came from behind to tie the HTA Knights in the final play of the game, 15-15. The boys fell 51-17 to the powerful Knights, who came second in provincials last season.

After a slow start, CobraCats assistant coach Brian Morgotch says they scored two tries within the last 10 minutes to tie the game.

"The first half was all HTA and the last half became us," he says.

"The biggest thing was HTA has a phenomenal defence. We couldn't do anything with it in the first 30 minutes. They kept pushing us back and pushing back but it demonstrated the resilience of the girls. We had a lot of our starters playing the entire game, and they found a way around it. They were able to rally, spread out and started playing as a team."

Having found their form, Morgotch is confidence they could have won the game had there been more time on the clock.

Playing at Cochrane High for the first time was a great experience for the teams, he says. Both rugby teams are formed of players from both schools.

"I know a lot of our Cochrane High kids were super excited and pumped about it," says Morgotch. "I even had a couple of Cochrane High grads that came out to watch. They were sad they couldn't be on the field for it."

The high school teams next play the Croxford Cavaliers on Mar. 30 in Airdrie. The sport is growing at the high school level in Airdrie and there are now 15s teams at both Croxford and Bert Church.

Last weekend, both Cochrane teams warmed up to the season at a tournament at the Calgary Irish Athletic Club. Their original home openers against West Island were cancelled due to poor weather last week.

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