Rugby Flyer

by Gerard Siggins

  ‘Has that music stopped yet?’ he asked.

  Eoin looked over to where McCord was snoring.

  ‘Yeah, and it didn’t keep him awake at all,’ Eoin growled, pointing at the earplugs.

  Eoin called up Conor and they all got ready quickly and headed downstairs.

  ‘With a bit of luck he’ll be late and they’ll throw him off the program,’ chuckled Killian.

  The boys collected their breakfasts in the canteen and were tucking in when the door burst open and Marcus McCord stormed in, with just one minute to spare before the clock reached 7.30am.

  He glowered at the trio he was sharing a room with.

  ‘Thanks for waking me up, guys!’ he snorted. ‘Think you were being clever? Nice try, suckers. I had two alarms on my phone so I wouldn’t be caught out.’

  ‘But how could you hear them through the earplugs?’ asked Killian.

  McCord was speechless for a second, then turned his back on them and headed up to the food counter.

  CHAPTER 11

  The boys were quiet on the bus to Belfield, with most of them apprehensive about the day ahead. Rory tried to strike up a conversation, but Eoin ignored him, buried in his thoughts and the type of nerves that always seemed to get to him before big games for Castlerock.

  As they arrived at the university sports grounds they were confronted with a sea of plastic cones as far as the eye could see, and what looked like fifty men and women in blue tracksuits carrying clipboards.

  As they climbed down from the buses and gathered on the field, Ted gestured to the boys to gather around him. He welcomed them again and filled them in a bit more on what was expected of them that day, before splitting them up into groups of ten, each working with four coaches.

  Eoin enjoyed the little drills and games that were organised, but found the shuttle tests and press-ups a lot less fun. Everything the players did was measured and noted down on those clipboards.

  After an hour or so, each player was grouped according to his position so Eoin went to join the out-halves. He recognised some of the players he had come up against over the past season or two, and there were a few nods of respect between them. Despite what Ted had said about everyone becoming friends and fellow Leinster men, when it came down to it this weekend was about stealing a march on the other players in your position. These were the six guys who wanted to make the No.10 shirt their own and Eoin was in their way.

  A former Leinster and Ireland out-half came over to talk to them, filling them with praise for the skills that had got them to this session, but hammering home that they would have to work a lot harder to get on in the sport. He made a good point that the game was getting harder and faster and they needed to work more on their fitness than he had at their age. He told them a couple of stories from his own playing days, which didn’t mean an awful lot to Eoin or the other guys, but they indulged him with a laugh when he was finished.

  Ted came over and introduced the players to a few new drills and talked about developing their techniques for receiving and giving passes. He called over the scrum-halves and got the players to operate as little teams, running pass races to see who could be the quickest and most accurate.

  Eoin found the new approach very interesting and made lots of mental notes for how he could bring these drills back to his sessions with Dylan, and to Castlerock too. The morning went far quicker than he expected, with a half-hour lunch break spent lying flat on his back staring at the sky, trying to rest his body.

  While they refuelled with bananas, energy bars and litres of water, Eoin caught sight of Rory and Charlie holding each other up after a gruelling session in the sun.

  ‘Keep going, guys, it’s the same for everyone. Make sure you drink lots of water,’ he called out. Rory tried to grin but opted to save his energy for the afternoon, while Charlie guzzled down a litre of water in one go.

  By the end of the afternoon session every single one of the ninety-nine players was flat out on the grass. Ted went around between them, grinning at their exhaustion but also checking they weren’t too distressed by their exertions.

  ‘OK, that’s it for today and well done to everyone. There was some serious work done today and while some of you are really coming up to the mark, everyone is still in with a strong chance of making our squad for Twickenham.

  ‘Tomorrow morning we’ll have another session measuring your performance and then we’ll run three fifteen-a-side games in which everyone will get a chance to earn their place. We’ll head back now to Castlerock to change and after dinner we’ll all go on an outing.’

  The thought of going out on the town filled Eoin with dread, as he had already made mental plans for an early night to try to catch up on the sleep that he had lost the night before. Killian sighed, too, as they climbed aboard the bus.

  ‘I won’t be able to play tomorrow unless I get a decent sleep,’ he groaned. ‘Is there any way we can persuade him not to put on that music…’

  Eoin smiled. ‘I doubt he’ll listen to us, but I do have a plan.’

  When they got back up to Castlerock Eoin winked at Killian and hared off up the stairs to the dorm ahead of everyone else. By the time his three room-mates had arrived he was lying on his bed with his eyes closed.

  ‘Well how did you losers do today?’ bawled McCord. ‘I see Madden is already showing that he hasn’t got the stamina for it.’

  Marcus chuckled to himself as he went to the locker. ‘This is no time for sleeping! We need to get the sounds on and the energy up for our night out––’

  He stopped dead and swung the locker door open. ‘Which one of you muppets stole my sounds?’ he roared.

  Killian couldn’t help looking at Eoin who was by now sitting up staring at McCord.

  ‘Nobody stole your sounds,’ Eoin said. ‘How could we? We’ve all been out all day and the door was locked until two minutes ago when I got here. You were following me and there’s no other way out but the corridor. We’re in a dead end.’

  McCord checked all the lockers and wardrobes, and under the beds, turning purple with anger and frustration as he realised Eoin was right.

  ‘I’m going to find Ted to sort this out,’ he whined, storming out the door.

  Eoin grinned at his room-mates. ‘Ted will laugh him out of it,’ he said.

  ‘Did you have anything to do with this?’ asked Conor. ‘How could you have hidden it?’

  Eoin winked. ‘There’s nothing like a bit of local knowledge,’ he said.

  CHAPTER 12

  As Eoin predicted, Ted didn’t want to know about the mystery of Marcus McCord’s missing music machine. The coach was more interested in getting the ninety-nine young rugby stars fed and into the buses for their outing.

  ‘We’re going to a bowling alley,’ he announced.

  ‘But I’m useless at cricket,’ moaned Rory.

  ‘Not that type of bowling,’ Ted laughed. ‘Ten-pin bowling. It’s a good way to relax and get to know your teammates. We’ll have a little competition with a trophy and prizes for the winners.’

  The mention of the word ‘competition’ was enough to stoke up the majority of the boys.

  At the bowling alley they changed their shoes and Ted organised them into teams. Eoin had never played the game before but quickly got the hang of it. Killian was quite an expert and coached his other team-mates skilfully while scoring highly himself.

  As the competition drew towards a close, Eoin and Killian’s team were in second place. Ted announced they would have to play a final game against the leaders, who included Marcus McCord.

  The tall loudmouth laughed when he saw who he was up against in the final, and high-fived his team before the game began.

  He was so confident that he bought a hotdog to celebrate. He held it above his head like a trophy and squirted some ketchup on the sausage before tossing the sachet on the ground. He was still guzzling the hotdog while he bowled his first ball.

  By the time the last round was coming to an end, Ki
llian’s team were ahead by three pins, but McCord had one more turn. As he moved to take his shot, Eoin noticed that the sachet of ketchup had stuck to the sole of his shoe. Eoin could see what was going to happen next – and even considered calling him back – but he knew that it would be McCord’s own fault.

  The loudmouth stepped into the lane to fire down the ball, but as he put his weight on his left foot – and the sticky sauce – it flew from under him, and he skidded head first down the alley towards the pins, wailing as he went. Mercifully he stopped before he recorded a strike with his head, but he had to let go of the ball and it ran harmlessly down the side gully.

  McCord found his feet and stormed back up to where the players – even his own team – were laughing at him. ‘Who put that there?’ he howled, blaming his woes on everyone but himself. ‘Was it you, Madden?’

  Eoin shrugged and smiled. ‘I think there was only one person eating hotdogs all evening…’

  McCord turned and left the alley, leaving Ted open-mouthed at his behaviour.

  ‘Well, I hope he is a better loser on the rugby pitch,’ said the coach, before presenting Killian with a trophy that looked suspiciously like the replica European Champions Cup that sat in the Leinster Rugby offices.

  ‘You can’t keep that,’ he laughed. ‘But your team can keep these,’ he added, before handing them each a carrier bag filled with even more Leinster goodies such as baseball caps, DVDs and a season ticket for all the province’s home games.

  ‘Cool,’ said Andrew Jacks, who played for Springdale Secondary and was one of the best of the scrum-halves at the training camp.

  Killian looked as if he was already starting to regret winning the trophy. ‘Your man will be unbearable now,’ he said.

  ‘Not as unbearable as he would have been if his team had won the trophy though,’ chuckled Eoin.

  Killian was right though, and the double setback of losing his music player and the bowling prize had put Marcus in a particularly foul mood. He stomped around the dormitory, looking in every corner and under every sheet where he had searched five times before.

  ‘If I find that one of you has stolen it, you’ll be so sorry,’ he thundered.

  His three room-mates kept their thoughts to themselves and, quite exhausted, slipped into their beds and were asleep in seconds.

  Eoin was woken up around 7am by a muffled noise t like the sound made by a tiger if an elephant was standing on its tail.

  ‘That’s the music player,’ hissed Killian under his breath. ‘Where is it coming from?’

  Eoin grinned. ‘It’s under the floor,’ he whispered. ‘There’s a secret passage that starts in this room. I hid the noise-maker down there. It must have been set to go off to wake him up at this time every day to that racket.’

  Eoin hopped out of bed and went to the back of the room where he flipped up a trapdoor that was partly hidden by a curtain. ‘Sssshh,’ he gestured at Killian, ‘you stay there and let me know if he wakes up.’

  Eoin descended the steps into the room below, picked up the squawking device and hit its snooze button. He carried it back upstairs and carefully placed it under McCord’s bed before returning to close the trapdoor and slipping back under his own duvet.

  Two minutes later the music started again and McCord sat up with a start.

  ‘What’s that, what’s that…’ he called out.

  ‘There’s your sound system,’ yawned Eoin. ‘You mustn’t have looked under your own bed.’

  McCord hopped out of bed and picked up the player, looking confused. ‘But… but…’ he said, trying to start an argument with himself. ‘I’m sure I checked under there.’

  The other boys got out of bed and dressed silently, before heading down to breakfast. It was only when they left the room and were well down the corridor that they dared to laugh.

  CHAPTER 13

  The final morning of the training camp was less intensive, but the men and women with the clipboards were still buzzing around making notes. Ted and his coaching team went to each of the groups, which were split up again by positions, showing them a series of drills they could do on their own to sharpen their skills.

  At the end of the sessions Ted gathered the boys all together and explained that each of the exercises he had shown them would be detailed in the log book they would be given at the end of the day. In the book they were to record the amount of exercise they did, and the games they played. Also to be recorded were any injuries and illnesses, and any extended breaks from training. He told them that becoming a professional rugby player required great effort and commitment on top of the skills that they already possessed, and the academy would need to monitor how much work each player was putting in.

  After a break for lunch the teams for the three trial games were posted on a board. Eoin was out-half on the team called the Wolfhounds.

  ‘That’s a cool name,’ said Rory, ‘a lot better than my team… the Hedgehogs!’

  Eoin laughed as Charlie explained that each of the teams was called after one of the limited range of Irish mammals available. ‘There’s the Squirrels, the Foxes, the Badgers and the Elks – and that last crowd are extinct.’

  Charlie looked a bit glum when he realised he would be lining up behind Marcus McCord in the Foxes’ pack, but not as glum as Killian, who was upset that he hadn’t been selected on any of the six teams.

  ‘I’ve no chance of getting to Twickenham now,’ he sighed.

  ‘Don’t give up just yet,’ said Eoin. ‘They said everyone will get at least half a game so you’ll get called up somewhere. Keep warm and supple and be ready for the call.’

  Ted called them all to attention, and announced that Squirrels would be playing Badgers, Elks would take on Hedgehogs, and Foxes would play the Wolfhounds.

  Eoin grinned nervously and patted Charlie on the back. ‘Go easy on me Chaz. I promise I won’t make you look too bad when you miss your tackles.’

  The groups broke up and Eoin jogged over to where his new team-mates were gathered. One of the Academy coaches had taken over and was explaining how he wanted the team to play. The coaches had kept together the famous triplets Seán, Tom and Ultan Nolan who made up the front row of the Wicklow College Junior Cup team, and Eoin knew a few of his new teammates to see from previous games. Andrew Jacks was scrum-half and the two had a chat to sort out how the most crucial partnership on the team would work.

  Eoin wasn’t too worried about McCord – the Dodder Woods second row wasn’t quick enough to be a problem for him, but he knew he would have to keep an eye on him. The first few minutes of the game were nervous and scrappy as players struggled to get to know their team-mates. Eoin was delighted he had such a good scrum-half and Andrew ensured that every ball that he sent back was quick and straight into Eoin’s hands.

  The Wolfhounds led 10-3 as half-time approached, and had the put-in on a line-out close to half way. The ball took a bad bounce off the ground and came awkwardly to the scrum-half, who stumbled before flipping the ball up to Eoin. The Foxes’ second row came barrelling through the line-out and crashed into Andrew just after he released the ball, sending him flying to the ground and finishing up on top of the smaller boy.

  Andrew roared in agony, and the referee blew the whistle instantly. He checked how the young scrum-half was and signalled for the physio to come on, then immediately turned to Marcus and waved a yellow card in his face.

  ‘If this was a schools’ cup match I’d give you a red,’ he started. ‘That was a very reckless move.’

  Andrew was lifted to his feet, but the way he held his arm meant everyone knew he had suffered a break. That was the end of his trial and an ambulance soon came to take him to hospital.

  Ted came over to see what the fuss was. He tried to console Andrew, then he glowered at McCord before talking to the Wolfhounds’ coach who realised there were no more specialist scrum-halves among the reserves. ‘We only have one spare back,’ Ted told him. ‘He plays on the left wing for St Osgur’s, but I�
�m sure he can fill in. It will be worth checking out how he does under pressure.’

  Killian was summoned and the situation explained to him. Eoin grinned and reassured him that although he had never played No.9 before, he would be there to make him look good.

  CHAPTER 14

  Marcus was steaming on the sideline as he had to sit out the first ten minutes of the second half, but the Wolfhounds were unable to use the advantage to extend their lead. Killian was struggling badly in an unfamiliar position and had knocked-on the ball a couple of times in promising situations.

  Eoin had a word with him. ‘Don’t rush things, Kil. Take your time with the ball, let it lie inside the scrum or ruck till you decide what you’re going to do. The forwards can hold them up for a few seconds if you need more time. When you’re ready to pass, just aim the ball at me and follow through on the throw.’

  Killian was better after that, and was able to set up Eoin for a pinpoint kick into the corner with a few minutes left. Because of the hold-up with the ambulance the other two games were already over and all the other players had gathered around the pitch to watch the closing stages of the Wolfhounds versus the Foxes.

  Marcus McCord won the line-out for the Foxes but dropped the ball, which broke loose at the back of the line. Killian set off like a hare and scooped up the ball at full speed as he broke through a troop of Foxes. It was as if he forgot that he was a scrum-half and had gone back to being a speedy winger. He brilliantly sidestepped the Foxes’ full back and sprinted over the line before diving between the posts.

  ‘Fantastic break, what a try,’ called out Ted from behind the goal where he had been stationed. ‘Well done, Nicholson.’

  Killian was chuffed, and Eoin gave him a clap across the shoulders before taking the ball from him for the conversion. He smacked the ball over the bar just before the referee gave a long blast on his whistle to give the Wolfhounds a 20-6 win.