95-0

Montana taken care of, now on to Washington & Oregon
Thu - 22 Apr Written by Jeff Wilson
U19 v. Iron Horse (Montana) @ Rio Tinto Stadium

Iron Horse, from Frenchtown Montana, made their way to Salt Lake City to try and do what Arizona’s and Colorado’s best could not do: Slow down the Highland Rugby machine. The day began with promise for Iron Horse, who gave the High School squad from Highland everything they could handle in a 25-5 victory that was much closer than the score would indicate, with Iron Horse daring Highland to match its very physical brand of play. In the end, Kap Pauni and Jace Peterson provided the spark that Highland needed.

On to the main event, though. The Highland U19s, perhaps given a bit of a wake-up call from the tough contest given to the high school side, came out focused and ready to play against a very physically imposing Iron Horse U19 squad, and the boys in black would play their best game of the season in a 95-0 victory that was nothing short of domination at the beautiful 20,000 seat stadium, which will host this year’s HS/U19 national tournament.

#8 Maika Hafoka, recovering from a sub-par game in his last outing, took charge early with two tries that announced his physical presence. He took one ball off of a ruck from about 15 meters out, and another off of a 10m scrum. Both tries were punishing runs, and several Iron Horse defenders quickly found out that arm tackles would not be enough to bring the big man down. Also in the forwards, lock Sam Brookham showed that he would be a big presence all day, with complete domination in the lineout and physical play around the ruck. Following great field position from a weakside attack by scrumhalf Sean Harwood and wing Eric Pauni, Hafoka stole a lineout ball and immediately offloaded to open-side Ara Elkington, who touched right over for the try. The forwards would make it four in a row on the next possession as blind-side Aaron Hanson, continuing his stellar play, tackled and immediately poached the ball from an Iron Horse runner, then stepped over and found a gap which he took in for a 30-meter try.

After some uncharacteristic ball handling and passing errors, the explosive Highland backline finally woke up. Following a disallowed try off of a tap to prop Moises Peraza, Iron Horse foolishly tried to run the ball out of their own end zone off of scrum, and #10 Danny Tuai made them pay when he picked up a mishandled ball and put it down for the score. After a nice Iron Horse run on the next trip down the field, wing Josh Anderson got quick turnover ball and offloaded to Elkington, who then found fullback Tana Afeaki. Afeaki turned on the jets and outraced all defenders for a 50m try. A few nice phases got the ball wide for the next score, with the ball making its way down the line to center Brigham Tukukino for the try in the corner. The kicking game was the catalyst for the next score, as for the second game in a row Tuai’s kick found the deep corner and was picked up by Anderson who took it in for the try to close out the first half. Halftime found quite a bit of praise from the normally hard-to-please Highland coaches, who could find little to critique with such a complete performance.

A huge hit by Peraza on the second half kickoff showed that there would be no coasting, as the HR coaching staff began to work some alternate lineups by cross-training several players at their secondary positions. Hafoka took a ball from depth off of the ensuing lineout and bulled through the Montana defense for his third score of the game, and lock/prop Kesni Tausinga showed off his physical skills by picking up and moving an ENTIRE ruck back about 5 meters. After some back-and-forth kicking by both teams, Harwood took a quick tap and spun the ball wide, eventually finding wing Etu Moli for a corner try. After some sloppy play with the advent of numerous subs, wing Eric Pauni picked up a loose ball off of a ruck and powered his way over for yet another Highland score. Reserve center Tevita Bloomfield would add two more scores before the day was done.

Afterward, a nice exchange between the two teams saw hats and t-shirts presented back and forth. Iron Horse selected the #8 from each team (Kap Pauni for the HS and Hafoka for the U19) as the man of each respective match, while Highland acknowledged Iron Horse’s small but feisty scrumhalf as a standout player.

Highland continues to take on the best of the Western states, as they travel to Seattle this weekend to take on Chuckanut (WA) and Eastside (OR).

1: DJ Ferris (Matt Jensen @ 40:00), 2: Levi Card ( c ) (Kingston Liavaa @ 45:00), 3: Moises Peraza (Michael Western @45:00), 4: Sam Brookham (Justin Hill @ 45:00), 5: Kesni Tausinga (Nate Watchman @55:00), 6: Aaron Hanson (Josh Nilsen @ 45:00), 7: Ara Elkington (Andrew Jensen @ 45:00), 8: Maika Hafoka (Kap Pauni @ 40:00), 9: Sean Harwood (Kepu Lauti @ 45:00), 10: Danny Tuai ( c ) (Wini Elkington @ 50:00), 11: Eric Pauni (Josh Andersen @ 20:00), 12: Dion Stevens (Tevita Bloomfield @ 45:00), 13: Brigham Tukukino (Leva Bloomfield @ 50:00), 14: Etu Moli, 15: Tana Afeaki (Dane Madsen @ 45:00)

Scoring: (T) – Hafoka (3), T. Bloomfield(2), Hanson, A. Elkington, Tuai, E. Pauni, Anderson, Moli, Afeaki, Tukukino (Kicking summary not provided)