It's an all-Iowa final for the Heart of America after last weekend's semifinals, and we get a rematch of Week #1 in the the final day of competition.

The Heart of America split geographically into a North and South after COVID in order to cut down on long trips; the conference covers Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas making it the largest conference in the country. Winning the North was Iowa State, while the University of Iowa took second place. In the South Kansas State and Kansas tied at the top of the merit table but Kansas State held the head-to-head tiebreaker. So it was Kansas State as the South winner and Kansas as the second place team. This set up the two semifinals with Iowa State hosting Kansas at Des Moines RFC and Kansas State hosting Iowa at Westwick Rugby Complex.

Iowa State Again

In a matchup of the two teams that have won every HOA conference final since 2017-18, Iowa State and Kansas went at it in Des Moines. The match started with Iowa State taking the opening kickoff and marching down the field. Once inside the Kansas 22 the Cyclones elected to take a scrum off a penalty. 

Coming into this match the Cyclones knew that while the Kansas forwards were the key to their defense, they had a large weight advantage in the scrum, the idea was to tie up their pack in the scrum and maintain possession. 

It paid off immediately as the Cyclones picked and popped to scrumhalf Gabe Arredondo, who dummied to the center and dove over to give the Cyclones a 5-0 lead three minutes into the match. 

Off the restart, the Cyclones again went to work finding themselves in the KU 22. This time the KU defense held firm, but as soon as the Jayhawks were able to get any breathing room, the backfield duo of flyhalf Justin Johnson and fullback Ian Klein immediately put the Jayhawks under pressure again.

After 10 minutes of this back-and-forth, it was Johnson who was able to call his own number and score out wide. Too wide for the conversion and it was 10-0.

A repeat of the previous passage of play ensued and it was again Johnson finding paydirt but the conversion bounced off the posts making it 15-0 Cyclones.

The Jayhawks finally found a chance off a clearance kick that missed touch. Jayhawk captain Jonah Dolphino had the Jayhawks in business as halftime approached. Drawing a penalty inside the 22, the Jayhawks kicked to the corner to set up a lineout five meters out. But the Cyclones pressured well on that lineout, forced an error, and kicked clear to end the threat.

The Cyclones were again able to draw a penalty inside the 22 and elected for the scrum. This time, instead of dummying to Marcus Von Teichman, the center got the ball, beat a defender, and dotted down to give the Cyclones a 20-0 lead. Four tries, no conversions.

At halftime, the Cyclones subbed on Edric Coleman, the player who suffered a scary moment three weeks earlier against Minnesota. The 6-6 lock immediately provided a spark in the lineout, making life difficult for the Jayhawks. The other player involved in that collision, senior prop Nolan LeBreck, made the most of it. LeBreck caught a ball of Ian Klein's hip and raced 50 meters to score under the sticks. Johnson converted and it was now 27-0.

The Jayhawks would not lay down though and, in the face of a raucous pro-Iowa State crowd, went to work putting in phases before sophomore flanker Conor Sexton was able to get the Jayhawks on the board to make it 27-5 in the 53rd minute.

The Jayhawks struck again quickly this time putting their wing over for the try and converting to make it 27-12 and in the span of 10 minutes had almost cut the lead in half.

The teams went back to exchanging blows in the midfield with both defenses making tackles feeling the next team to score would win the match. It was Johnson who found those points in the form of a long-range penalty to make it 30-12. 

Another penalty kick by Johnson was off-target but a high tackle on the return chase gave Iowa State a 15-on-14 advantage and it was Coleman who was able to score to give the Cyclones a 37-12 lead as the final whistle blew.