While strolling along the sideline at the conclusion of the Friday Night Rugby match between Notre Dame and Texas A&M earlier this month, I came across senior flanker for the Aggies, Dylan Dominey, chatting with someone who appeared to be his doppelganger.
Having been on the receiving end of a number of hits from the Notre Dame forward pack the previous day, all in the name of content, I thought at first I might still be seeing double. It turns out, however, that this was Dylan’s twin brother, Luke, also a rugger, who plies his trade at Aquinas College.
I was happy to chat with them because neither seemed to be the evil twin, though Luke does sport the crisp mustache that has been the hallmark of the evil twin in pop culture for some time. They were both smiling, and polite, and incredibly generous with their time. I learned later that Dylan is the student tournament chair for Texas A&M’s Gareth Jones Youth Rugby Tournament, held each year to remember a former club member who died by suicide. Luke and the rest of the Saints are playing Davenport this weekend in the Gold Game, a tradition they’ve begun this year to raise money and awareness to fight children’s cancer in Michigan.
Both players and clubs are excellent examples of the good that the sport of rugby can do in the world at every level. They’re also good examples of how, in rugby, that same compassion and charity can fall away when you step between the white lines.
“ I saw Dylan blow up a couple people right off the ruck, and he was, you know, he was talking his mess as he usually does,” said Luke, offering his appraisal of his brother’s performance in an interview with TCRS the following week. “ I think the Aggies did pretty damn well. They are very physical; very, very physical. And that’s something that every rugby team needs.”
It’s a rare treat for either of the Dominey twins to get to watch their sibling play in person, especially during the Fall season. Luke and Aquinas play the majority of their conference games in Michigan, while Dylan and the Aggies compete in the Lonestar conference in their home state of Texas. While Dylan hasn’t made it to any of Luke’s games in person, he watches the livestreams whenever he can. He’s also experienced firsthand some of the results of the strength and conditioning program put in place at Aquinas by revered S&C coach, Dr. Scott Brown.
“ The boys up in Aquinas, their backs are really, really athletic. They have a step like lightning,” Dylan marveled. “They came down to Texas over the summer, I think our freshman year, and we were playing rugby on the beach. And I don’t think I’ve met any backs like that, that could hit like that. Like, my ribs were sore the next day.”
Luke, who plays on the wing at Aquinas, says it’s partly because of his training as a back at Aquinas that he’s the faster twin. Though Luke will also admit that Dylan is probably the slightly better overall player despite the fact that it was Luke who first discovered the sport at their high school, Strake Jesuit.
“When we got to high school, we were both into aquatics, we did swimming and water polo,” Luke explained. “But then, my sophomore year, one of my good friends basically dragged me out to the rugby field … And I was like, yeah, this is definitely the sport for me. I’m going to keep playing this. I love the culture … And then a year later I got Dylan to come and go to practice and he loved it and he enjoyed it and he kind of excelled.”
“ He basically called me a wuss and I wasn’t going to let him get away with that. So, I had to join up,” Dylan added, laughing.
While they possess some different tools in their rugby toolboxes, both Dominey twins pride themselves on their work ethic. They’re both willing to go the extra mile in games, make the hustle plays all across the pitch, tackle anyone or anything that gets in their way. And if either of them gets pulled before 80 minutes is up, they take it as a personal hit to their pride.
There has always been a fierce competitiveness between the brothers that still drives them to this day. They have pushed each other to be better in almost every aspect of their lives, especially athletically.
“ To say we push each other on the field is an understatement. It’s more like, shove each other off the cliff,” Dylan explained. “Every time it’s like, ‘how much can you bench?’ ‘How much do you weigh?’ and ‘how much can you eat? I’m on my third plate, how many servings you got?’ It’s always a rivalry … and it transitioned into rugby. Now it’s like, ‘how’s your left-hand pass?’ It’s really, really a special thing.”
Just because the twins were competitive growing up doesn’t mean they weren’t close. Teachers often had to put them into separate classes in middle school and high school otherwise they wouldn’t stop talking to each other. And the decision to attend different colleges once they graduated was definitely not an easy one.
“ It was the hardest thing I’ve probably had to do,” said Dylan. “We’ve done everything together growing up … So, you know, it was a struggle because it was just like losing your best friend, somebody who’s been there every step of the way.”
“ The bond is inseparable and leaving that for your own college career is a very hard decision and you definitely have to put a lot of thought and preparation into it,” Luke added.
Ultimately, the brothers fell in love with their respective programs and felt called to attend, despite the temporary fracturing of the bond. Luke was enticed by the level of rugby demonstrated by the coaches, players, and program being built at Aquinas. He also wanted to experience something new and different from his home in Houston, and he seems to only semi-regret opting for the cold, snowy winters in Michigan.
Dylan, on the other hand, was taken by the story of what it means to be an Aggie and the core values of Aggie rugby expressed to him by a senior player on a recruiting trip to College Station. He felt connected to the place on a deeper level, and is very glad he made the choice he did four years ago, however difficult.
“ In the long run, I think it was good for us because we got to build our own identity. That’s something that I wrote my college essay about, actually, is just finding your own identity as a twin,” said Dylan.
“ I think that it’s a great thing that we separated,” Luke agreed. “But it’s also a great thing that we get to come together on the rugby field and have a great time and get to show each other what we’ve learned and how much we’ve progressed in our rugby career. And I think it’s, honestly, the best part about rugby is it brings people together.”
The Rugby Gods felt compelled to bring the Dominey twins together for the first time in their collegiate careers last spring at the College Rugby Championships, a moment neither of them will ever forget.
“ You get to play your twin brother on an opposing team at nationals or in any game whatsoever, it’s definitely a dream come true,” said Luke. “It’s definitely something that started from the little competitions we had when we were kids, and those little competitions have slowly built up into what are hopefully successful rugby careers … it’s been something that we’ve just been fighting through and pushing for, for a really long time. And it’s taken a lot of work, but we’re somehow here now.”
“ We’d always tell ourselves that we were going to be on the big stage one day and we got to compete at like the highest collegiate level you could play at, against each other. And it was just something so special … it was just like the culmination of everything we’ve been talking about for the last three years.”
While both of them said the moment was bigger than the score, Dylan couldn’t help but point out the Aggies were ultimately the victors in that match, winning 15-7. And it’s not something that Luke is ready to move past either. The brothers are both yearning for a rematch this spring to settle the rivalry once and for all before they graduate.
They might not follow in the footsteps of the Curry brothers, who made history in February as the first set of twins to play for England’s national team, but the Dominey’s are eager to help continue to grow the game in the US once their collegiate careers are done. And one thing’s for sure, they will both try to give just a little bit more of themselves to the game than the other.
Written by Zach Lanning.