Mountain View defeated Nakahi 40-33 to win the Rugby Idaho boys HS final Saturday, coming back from a 28-7 deficit.

Nakahi struck first with a dominant set of phase play right up the gut of the Mountain View defense. The try was easily converted, putting Nakahi up front early putting them in a familiar position with high confidence. Mountain View answered this deficit, with several phases of heavy footed forward ball, by scoring their own heavily contested try. With a tied match at 7-7 at the 12th minute it seemed anyone's game. 

The next 13 minutes swung heavily to Nakahi’s favor. Dominant back play and ball handling by Nakahi suggested that the Mountain View Defense had come undone, resulting in 3 unanswered and converted tries putting Nakahi up 28-7.

Mountain View then made a series of adjustments that worked to turn the tide, shoring up their defense and offloading out of contact to keep the ball moving. Within ten minutes Mountain View had scored three tries to tie the game.

The second half was a low-scoring battle with Nakahi leading much of the way and seemingly in the driver's seat with only a few minutes left.  A late try and missed conversion by Mountain View tied the game at 33-33 with less than three minutes to go. 

Mountain View were awarded a scrum on their own 22 and made some offloads to get out to near halfway. Off of the ruck, a backline move back to the pack found a gap for a forward flying through to score from 50 meters out.

That made it 40-33 but the referee said there was more time to play. Nakahi took full advantage and put in an impressive drive while maintained possession through several contested rucks.  A fast backline move put them within 10 meters of scoring to only be stopped by a forward pass to the wing.   Moments after the ensuing scrum, a penalty to Mountain View resulted in the end of a fine day of rugby as the Mavericks decided enough was enough and opted to kick straight into touch.

When Mountain View head coach Hamish Bell was asked if he’d like to watch a recording of the match, he replied, “No thanks mate, I couldn’t survive another heart attack today!”


Here's the winning try for Mountain View