The Florida Youth Rugby Boys DI league comes down to this weekend, finally, after a long season for all.

The big question has been whether teams could handle the new alignment, which required everyone to play everyone else - no geographic splits. This would mean more games, and more tough games for the upper echelon, and coaches have generally agreed that their teams have gotten better as a result.

Coaches have also agreed that sometimes the travel is tough, and sometimes finding a time and place to play a makeup game is tough, too. It’s supposed to be hard to win a championship, and this season no team ended undefeated. 

So now to the final and Orlando v Tampa. Both had their shaky moments, and in fact went into the playoffs seeded #3 and #4. But both are finishing strong.

For Orlando, winning their semifinal over Jupiter was a task in itself.

“Jupiter is just a big, big physical team,” said Orlando Coach Chris Quigley. “So for us the plan was to work the ball wide, work it to space. At times, our handling let us down.”

Even so, the team refocused and held on in what Quigley called “a huge team effort.”

Orlando beat Jupiter, in the end, on kicks after they tied 15-15. It’s a rotten way to move on, but, said Quigley, there’s nothing you can do about it when the rules limit how many minutes players can play in U19-level rugby.

For Orlando, then, the final push was that they have several players on the team who can kick. Sometimes, that’s what you need.

For Tampa, center Obie Cruz remains a definite threat for the Krewe on a team that is playing some smart team rugby, and defending very well. Jeremy Lemmon and Zach Deitz have also been excellent this season. For Orlando, captain Sam Voegele has been huge in the lineouts, and Igor Silva has been a real find at flanker, a player who continues to work hard and gets under other teams’ skins. And 6-2 flyhalf Harrison Barkham has been very effective.

Both teams will need all their players to make their mark this weekend.