‘It’s a very different sport these days,’ said Mr Finn. ‘I’d love to know what William would think of modern rugby.’
Dylan looked sideways at Eoin, who turned and looked out the window, trying not to laugh.
They arrived back at Castlerock to a welcoming party of Mr Carey, the rugby coach, and Mr McCaffrey, the headmaster.
‘Ah, our heroes of the RDS,’ called the head, invoking the venue where the mini World Cup was won.
‘Well I didn’t do much,’ muttered Dylan.
‘Nonsense,’ said Mr Carey. ‘This is a team game and you played your part by being ready to be called on when the team needed you. That’s why they gave you all a medal.’
‘And, of course, Eoin might be in line for yet another medal, I understand, a Garda medal,’ said the headmaster. ‘You do seem to get into all sorts of adventures. Perhaps it will all quieten down with your Junior Cert on the horizon.’
Eoin had been involved in a few scrapes in his earlier years in school too, and had every intention of doing what Mr McCaffrey suggested.
‘Now, you can lock those bicycles in the boarders’ bike-shed around the back,’ said Mr Finn. ‘I’ll keep an eye on your bags.’
‘And I’ll meet you back here in an hour, if that’s OK,’ said Mr Carey. ‘I want to have a chat about how we’re going to win the Leinster Junior Cup.’
Chapter 9
The rugby coach had heard about the IRFU’s plan for the Four Nations competition and was keen to work out how it would affect Castlerock’s ambition to retain the Junior Cup.
‘I’ve been talking to the Ireland coach and, as I understand it, the tournament comes just after the JCT semi-finals and finishes a week before the final. But Neil expects to have a couple of training sessions with you before it kicks off.’
Eoin grimaced. He hadn’t reckoned on that when he was revising his study plan.
‘I see you’re worried Eoin – and I appreciate that you’re doing big exams this year. Which is why I asked you and Dylan here for this discussion.’
Dylan nodded.
‘Last year was phenomenal, but there were no distractions,’ Mr Carey started. ‘This year we have a very strong, experienced Junior Cup squad, but at least three, maybe four, of you will be tied up with Ireland at the very wrong time as far as the school’s team is concerned.’
Mr Carey stood up and walked to the window.
‘Now, I am just as aware that you have your Junior Cert and will need to ensure you get all your work done, so I propose to reduce your rugby workload here in Castlerock.’
Eoin cleared his throat.
‘I think it would be best for everyone if we took the captaincy away from you, Eoin. It will be one less burden for you to bear, and it will also allow me to leave you out of some games if I think we don’t need you. For example, our first game next week is against a very weak school and I will be using that opportunity to give you and Charlie a rest, and I can try out some of the squad players.’
Eoin nodded, not sure how to react. He liked the idea of lessening his load, but he hated missing out on playing.
‘OK, sir,’ he started. ‘But what if I my replacement does really well. Will I get back in?’
Mr Carey started to laugh, but checked himself. ‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have laughed there. But, Eoin, I can safely say you will get back into the team even if your replacement scores eight tries and kicks penalties from his own 22. You are one of the best players we have EVER had in Castlerock and I wouldn’t be resting you if I thought we would need you or if there was any doubt you would come back.’
Eoin smiled weakly.
‘So, what’s going to happen?’ asked Dylan. ‘You’re leaving Eoin and Charlie out for the first round of the cup? What about Rory and me?’
‘Well…’ started Mr Carey. ‘I think there will be less danger of burn-out for you two. From talking to Neil he hasn’t mapped you two into his first-choice fifteen and he’s not sure even if you’ll both make the squad. Rory only got in as scrum-half because of a couple of injuries and they’re expected to be OK. I think it’s the same for the wingers.’
Dylan’s face fell.
‘I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news,’ said the teacher. ‘But…’
‘That’s OK,’ snapped Dylan. ‘I didn’t expect to get back in, but I thought Neil might have explained it to me.’
‘What I was going to say,’ went on Mr Carey, ‘was that although this may seem like bad news to you, there is a silver lining.’
‘What?’ asked Dylan, mystified.
‘Well, I have had a good chat with the other coaches, and with Mr McCaffrey, and we have decided that you would be the perfect choice to captain Castlerock in place of Eoin.’
Dylan’s jaw dropped. ‘Me? Really?’
Eoin grinned. ‘That’s a great choice, Mr Carey. Dylan will be a brilliant captain.’
‘I think so too,’ said the coach. ‘And just to be clear – he’s captain for the whole season. Even if you come back into the side, Eoin, he’s still the boss.’
Chapter 10
Dylan developed a new way of walking over the next few days. Like a pigeon, he thrust his chest forward and ambled with an exaggerated strut. Eoin was delighted that Dylan had been the one to take the honour of captaining the school from him, but was a little nervous that it had all gone to Dylan’s head.
Eoin was chatting with Alan in the dormitory they all shared when Dylan walked in one afternoon.
‘You know the way you’re always in the middle when we walk around the yard,’ he asked.
Eoin nodded carefully.
‘Well now that I’m captain, maybe I should be in the middle?’ said Dylan.
Eoin and Alan laughed.
‘Are you serious? I’ve never noticed that before,’ Eoin said.
‘Yeah, it makes us look as if we’re your, I don’t know… your disciples?’ said Dylan.
‘And now you want me to become yours?’
‘Well… it’s just that I’m more important around here now and I want to make sure everyone knows about it.’
Eoin waved him away. ‘Ah, Dyl, you’re the captain, and you’ll be great. You don’t have to use it to make yourself seem more important. Just relax.’
But Dylan wouldn’t relax, and stormed off in a huff.
Rory popped his head around the door. ‘What’s with Dylan?’ he asked. ‘He stormed past me in the corridor – he totally blanked me.’
‘I know – he’s being a bit big-headed about being made captain. He’ll get over it as soon as something goes wrong.’
But nothing went wrong in the first game, against Curleytown High. The school was playing in the Junior Cup for the first time and were overwhelmed by Castlerock, who scored twelve tries.
Mr Carey had told Eoin and Charlie to use the afternoon to study, and both were bent over their books when Dylan came whooping up the corridor after the game.
‘FIVE TRIES,’ he roared.
‘I thought it was twelve?’ said Eoin. ‘One of the First Years came by to tell us a while ago.’
‘Twelve? Nah, that’s what the team got,’ Dylan replied. ‘Five is what Dylan Coonan got. FIVE! They say it’s a school record in the Junior Cup, maybe even in the competition as a whole. What do you think of that?’
‘Well done, that’s nice for you,’ replied Eoin. ‘But the important thing is that the school got through to the next round. Who else played well?’
‘Eh… well I didn’t really notice,’ Dylan shrugged. ‘Richie Duffy wasn’t much use at the kicking – I think he only converted the ones in front of the posts, and he even missed one of those. He scored a couple of tries I think, and Páidí got one too…’
‘OK, well that was great. Who do we have in the next round?’
‘Ligouri College again,’ Dylan replied. ‘They’re pretty rubbish this year and I think Carey will leave you rest again. All right, get back to your books there. I have to go sign a few autographs for th
e First Years.’
Eoin frowned as Dylan left. He felt uncomfortable with players taking credit for their own performance in what is always a team game. You can only play well if the players you are depending on to get the ball to you – and to protect you when you have it – play well too. Being there to take the last pass and having the legs to get you over the try-line was an important role, but it was no more important than any other.
But that was Mr Carey’s problem and one he would have to impress upon Dylan and anyone else who thought otherwise.
Eoin dived back into his French irregular verbs – rugby would have to take the back seat for a while.
Chapter 11
While Eoin was allowed to miss matches by Mr Carey, he wasn’t allowed to miss any training sessions, and he kept fit by doing extra running and exercises on his own. He ended every day by running a couple of laps of the inside wall of the school, a circuit he often broke by stopping at the Castlerock landmark known as The Rock.
The huge stone, which sat beside a tiny stream, was hidden by bushes and was where Eoin’s ghostly friend Brian Hanrahan was often to be found. Eoin sat on The Rock and sipped from his water bottle as he awaited Brian’s arrival.
It was quite a surprise when two other ghosts arrived, spirits he had encountered in his earlier adventures but not seen since.
‘Kevin, Dave,’ he saluted them, ‘What has you back in Castlerock, and on such a cold, dark night too.’
‘I don’t feel the cold much these days,’ grinned Dave Gallaher, a legendary All Black who had been killed on the battlefields of Flanders during World War One.
‘I like the atmosphere out here in the school,’ admitted Kevin Barry, an Irish rebel who had been executed during the War of Independence. ‘I like checking out the rugby training – it’s very different to when I played back in Belvedere College.’
‘It’s a blooming totally different sport!’ chuckled Dave. ‘I honestly don’t recognise a lot of what’s going on, but I suppose these are different times and the youngsters seem to be enjoying it anyway.’
‘Yeah, I’ve seen a few films of old games, back in the 1920s and ’30s, and it looks a lot slower,’ suggested Eoin.
Dave frowned at that. ‘I’m not surprised with the heavy boots we had to wear, and the ball always rock hard when it got wet!’ he argued. ‘Men were a bit smaller in those days – but we were definitely tougher!’
‘Anyway, so the reason why we’re here…’ started Kevin.
‘… Is a complete mystery to us too,’ added Dave.
‘When you’re, you know… dead,’ went on Kevin. ‘Well, time passes in different ways and in different places. Sometimes you get summoned to a place when someone thinks of you, but after all my family and friends had died then that stopped happening very often. Other times, it can be a ghost that calls you – someone you knew when you were alive, or like now, who you only met after you were dead. I bumped into Dave here tonight and we reckon that it must have been Brian who sent out word that we were needed. Have you any idea if there’s anything going on?’
Eoin shook his head, puzzled. ‘No, there’s nothing out of the ordinary at all. That’s a bit strange about Brian – and there’s been no sign of him either.’
He stayed chatting about rugby to the pair for ten minutes – Kevin never tired of telling him how he once scored a famous try for his school in a cup semi-final at Lansdowne Road – before Eoin mentioned that he had been playing for Ireland and had even beaten Dave’s famous All Blacks in the mini World Cup final.
‘The baby Blacks? That’s an amazing result,’ said the former New Zealand captain who had been born in Ireland. ‘I bet none of that team will ever be picked again.’
With no sign of Brian, Eoin bade the pair goodnight and told them he’d call back at the same time tomorrow. He jogged slowly back across the field and looked up at the night sky. It was a bright and almost full moon, but just as he reached the school a huge black cloud raced across the sky and appeared to swallow the moon whole. Eoin shivered and ducked inside the front door.
Chapter 12
But Brian wasn’t there the next night, nor the one after, and his ghostly friends became a little concerned.
‘I don’t know what we should do,’ said Dave, ‘I wonder is he in any sort of trouble?’
‘Hard to know what could be worse trouble when you’re already dead,’ joked Kevin, but Eoin was starting to get worried about his friend.
‘Well, I’ll keep coming back here every morning and every night,’ he said, ‘It would be great if you could too.’
‘I’ll be here,’ said Dave, ‘Brian’s a good bloke and I’m always keen to help out a fellow Irishman.’
The trio resolved to meet up again the following evening.
Next day was the second round of the Junior Cup, and although Mr Carey told Eoin he would rest him, he asked him to come along and watch the match.
Eoin had a keen eye for rugby tactics and Mr Carey often compared notes and took his views into account about selection and switching positions.
Ligouri College played on the banks of the river close to Lansdowne Road, and Eoin decided to come early to the game and visit the stadium in case Brian was around.
He parked his bicycle beside the souvenir shop, which was close to the entrance to the tunnel that ran under all the seated areas, allowing buses, ambulances and other vehicles to get around inside the ground. While the security guard was busy checking one of the delivery vans, Eoin ducked inside and made his way towards the dressing room areas.
He was fortunate not to meet anyone on the way, because he hadn’t worked out a story that would give him any real reason to be there. Eoin was also fortunate that he knew his way around – since that first visit on a school tour he had been here three times as a player and on several other occasions to watch matches.
He smiled as he remembered his first visit as a spectator when he wore with pride the red shirt of Munster that his grandfather had given him. He couldn’t wear that shirt anymore, not just because it was too small, but because he was now a fully-committed Leinster player. He still loved his native province, and secretly cheered when they won a big game, but he couldn’t let that get in the way of his commitment to the Blues.
‘At least there won’t be any more interpros this year,’ he thought, ‘It will all be the green shirt from now on.’
Eoin paused and checked his bearings. He wanted to find the treatment room where he had first met Brian, but as he had been lost when he happened upon the old player’s spirit, he couldn’t remember how to get there. Nothing looked familiar and, after trying several doors, he gave up.
He rambled back through the service tunnel, annoyed that he hadn’t been able to find his friend. He skipped over a large puddle, and blinked as he came out into the sunlight.
He stopped at the souvenir shop for an ice cream, checking out the new-style Ireland shirts and wondering would he get the chance to wear one himself. As he left to walk across the bridge to Ligouri College he glanced down the slope into the underground car park where he just caught a glimpse of a rugby shirt, a flash of black, red and gold.
It shouldn’t have been a surprise to see the famous colours of the Lansdowne club, who had been one of the earliest clubs and played on the ground for nearly 150 years. But Eoin knew only one person who wore that shirt, and he had been searching for him for the past hour.
Chapter 13
Eoin paused, waiting for a car to exit the car park. He made his way down the slope and adjusted his eyes, looking left and right into the darkened corners.
‘Brian!’ he called, but there was no sound or movement in reply.
He wandered deeper into the car park, eventually reaching the back wall. Exasperated, he turned to go back to the entrance and was irritated when he stepped in a puddle and the water seeped in over the sides of his shoe.
‘Bummer, that was a deep one!’ he grimaced. ‘I hope I can borrow a pair of socks at the game.�
��
Having reminded himself of the main reason he was in the area, he hurried up the slope and across the bridge to watch Castlerock’s second-round fixture. His school were already 7-0 up, and from the way Dylan was strutting around he presumed the stand-in captain had scored the first try.
He took off his soaked sock and joined Mr Carey on the touchline. Alan was there with a clipboard and stopwatch, wearing his Leinster beanie.
‘Sorry I’m late, sir, I cycled in and was a bit confused by the one-way streets,’ said Eoin.
Mr Carey nodded and pointed out onto the field.
‘Nothing to worry about here,’ he said. ‘They’re so weak they’re making Richie Duffy look good at out-half.’
Duffy had made Eoin’s life miserable when he first came to the school, but by standing up to him Eoin had ensured he never bullied him or his friends again. Eoin had taken his place at Number 10 on the school team and never lost it.
Duffy was a good player, but not anywhere near as good as Eoin had become. He didn’t put in the long hours of practice that Eoin did, and it showed with his kicking, which was sloppy and rarely found the target.
Eoin looked at Alan’s clipboard and thought. He pointed out to Mr Carey what Duffy was doing wrong with his place kicks, but the teacher grinned and told him not to worry about Duffy.
‘This will be his last start of the season,’ he told him. ‘I want you back for the quarter-finals and hopefully all the way to the final over there,’ he added, pointing over his shoulder at the stadium.
Eoin spent most of the first half with Alan, who had shown a great interest in compiling statistics about the team’s plays and how often a player touched the ball and what he did with it. Mr Carey told him he found it useful so Alan persisted with it.
Rugby Heroes Page 3