Orlando has enjoyed a nice start in the Florida Youth Rugby Boys HS DI, beating both Naples and West Pines but significant margins.

Even in chilly wind (chilly for Florida, anyway), they handled the ball well. West Pines was without their superb flyhalf, Martin Mairowitz, but still a 38-5 scoreline is impressive.

Orlando Coach Chris Quigley said West Pines was very strong in the rucks and No. 8 Chase Shor-Haskin was a handful.

“The score did not reflect how competitive the game was,” he countered. “They were a big physical team with powerful runners.”

And yet Orlando won comfortably. No. 8 Ieuan Nation had an excellent game.

“Simply put it was the most dominating performance that I seen from him yet,” said Quigley. “He has been playing for four years with us and his fitness and physicality were off the charts for this game.”

Forwards Sam Voegele, Jack Smith, Sam Barnett, and Zachery Dambaugh all broke the gain line repeatedly.

In the backs, Justin Smith scored three tries and handled the wind fairly well with his kicks, while flyhalf Harrison Barkham showed some good vision and distribution skills. Levi Philips and Robert Cintron were fierce in their running lines.   

So it looks as if Orlando could well make another state title run. Their defense has been stellar in the first two games - allowing one try in total. Quigley said he’s like to see better defense around the fringes of the rucks, but overall, it’s a good start.

Florida takes a week off for most of the teams before jumping back into it on February 6. At that point, 2-0 Orlando plays 2-0 Jupiter in the biggest clash of the weekend.