Brevard Old Red Eye Rugby Club Captures Third Straight Florida Rugby Union D3 Championship
By Space Coast Daily // April 13, 2026
Brevard Old Red Eye Rugby Club crushes Palm Beach Panthers 52-24 at Turner Park in Sarasota
WATCH: The Brevard Old Red Eye Rugby Club captured its third straight Florida Rugby Union D3 Championship with the total demolition of the previously undefeated Palm Beach Panthers, 52-24, on Saturday, April 11, at Turner Park in Sarasota.
The Brevard Old Red Eye Rugby Club captured its third straight Florida Rugby Union D3 Championship with the total demolition of the previously undefeated Palm Beach Panthers, 52-24, on Saturday, April 11, at Turner Park in Sarasota.
Dozens of Red Eye fans made the trip to cheer on the team, while many more watched the live stream from all over the world.
The Red Eyes have a history with Palm Beach, making the victory mean so much sweeter to the club – especially the older guys who were around 6 years ago when the Red Eyes lost to them in the state final on a penalty-extended play, and they went on to win the national title in dominating fashion.
The Red Eyes lost to them in the championship the next 2 years as well, and then they moved up to D2 for 2 years while the Red Eyes beat Jacksonville D3 and St. Pete D3 to win their first-ever back-to-back state championships.
So, not just beating Palm Beach, but totally dominating them for a 3-peat, was so vindicating, especially after losing to them twice this season and people around the FRU saying the only reason the Red Eyes won their 2 state titles was that they no longer had to play Palm Beach.
But the fact of the matter is – Palm Beach, nor any other team the Red Eyes played this season, had seen this Red Eye 23, as it was the first time they were all healthy and available.
After trading penalty kicks in the opening minutes of the match, at 20 minutes the score was 25-3 Red Eyes, with one Palm Beach player having been replaced for a head injury and another sin binned, and the Panthers were arguing amongst themselves and wondering who these guys were that were totally controlling the game in the new red and black jerseys (with collars no less).
Before the half ended, another Palm Beach player was sin-binned, and their inside center was red-carded, as a referee finally called them for their continued offside and foul play.
Koby Deacon, the Red Eye Kiwi flyhalf, took advantage of the penalties to add 2 more penalty kicks, and fullback, Jean-Eric van der Elst, took a beautiful weak side pass off a scrum from scrumhalf, Brock Roper, to touch down on the sideline and outstep his opposition to dot it down in the corner.
The Red Eyes also had a sin-bin at 30 minutes for offside that Palm Beach took advantage of for a try, and the halftime score was 28-10.
Cody Johns, the Red Eye Kiwi strong side flanker, opened the 2nd half scoring by blasting through a hole in the Palm Beach defense for a try right under the posts, easily converted by Koby to make it 35-10 with 30 minutes left in the 2nd half.
Palm Beach had another yellow card, and Brevard took advantage of that with a Koby Deacon converted try off a tap, quickly followed by a powerful run by the Red Eye outside center, Austin Parrish, with a conversion by Koby to make it 49-10 at 60 minutes, at which point the Red Eyes began emptying their bench.
And then the Red Eyes were hit with a barrage of yellow cards – all due to offsides or foul play on the goal line while aggressively keeping the Panthers out of the try zone, but down to 13 players, they finally conceded a converted try.
Two more Red Eye yellow cards followed, but the match was essentially over. Man of the match, Koby Deacon, who accounted for a whopping 27 points, added a PK at 74 minutes to cap off the Red Eye rout.
