Rugby Flyer (4 page)

C
harlie laughed and Rory groaned as they got off the bus. A second bus was also parked in the driveway and more boys were getting off and collecting their gear.

‘I didn’t think we’d be back so soon,’ chuckled Eoin as they went to collect the bags and make their way to the main hall where the coaches were waiting.

Ted, was at the top of the hall waiting for the boys to settle down.

‘Alright everybody, welcome to the Leinster Academy, and I am delighted that every single one of you we invited was able to come, except poor Ben from St Osgur’s, who we hope recovers very soon.’

Ted went through a few ground rules for the weekend, and reminded them what a great honour it was to play for Leinster. He explained how and why they had been selected, and that they were now what he called ‘in
the system’ with Leinster.

‘You will still continue to play with your school or club, but your rugby will be monitored by Leinster Rugby from now until you leave school in four years’ time. The very best of you at that stage, those who we believe have a future in the professional game, will be offered a chance to continue playing with this great club.

‘There are ninety-nine of you here this evening, the cream of schoolboy rugby in the province. Each summer until you leave school we will invite most of you back for training and assessment. We will teach you drills and exercises for you to take back to your school or club. And once a year we will select a team from the best of you to take part in an international tournament.’

He pointed at a line of men and women in blue tracksuits standing alongside him. ‘On Sunday afternoon these coaches here will sit down and select the thirty-three or so boys we will be bringing to Twickenham at the end of August, where they will play in a prestigious week-long European event.’

The boys
ooh
-ed and
aah
-ed at this news, and Charlie whispered aloud, ‘I definitely want to be in that team!’

‘That means one in every three of you will be going to London, so that’s pretty good incentive to work hard and show us what you are capable of tomorrow,’ continued
Ted. ‘This evening I want you to relax, go for a short run inside the grounds if you like, but get to bed early.

‘Tomorrow you will be served breakfast at 7.30am and, fully dressed for the academy session, you will be taken by coach back to Belfield at 8.30am sharp. Anyone late for either of those appointments can pack their bag and head home – there’s a bus stop just outside the gates.’ Ted dismissed the boys, who started forming little

groups, almost all confined to the schools they attended during the year. The coach went back to the top of the hall and called them to order once again.

‘I apologise, I forgot to mention that you will be staying in dormitories in the next building. You have each been allocated a room and will not be sharing with anyone from your school or club. It is important this weekend that you meet new people and make friends from other schools. This isn’t about being rivals for Rostipp or St Xavier’s – it’s about becoming teammates for Leinster.’

After a buffet meal the boys wandered out of the hall and Eoin pointed out a few of the landmarks of Castlerock to Killian.

‘Let’s go to find out where we’re sleeping,’ suggested Rory.

‘Fire ahead,’ said Eoin. ‘I just want to go for a walk. I’ve a phone call to make.’

Eoin jogged down to the quiet corner of the school grounds where a small stream flowed and where he often went to get away from it all. He sat on the large rock which had the rather obvious nickname of ‘The Rock’, and clicked on his mother’s telephone number. He explained to her how the day had gone, and how funny it was that the sleeping quarters were in Castlerock. He promised to do all those things that his mum always made him promise when he was away from home, like brush his teeth, eat his vegetables, take regular showers and wear his mouth guard while playing rugby.

‘You’ll be glad to know I have a brand new mouth guard, Mam. It’s blue with a Leinster logo on it – as is almost everything I’ve seen this weekend besides the tomatoes we had for tea.’

They made their farewells and Eoin sat back on The Rock for a moment.

‘I hear you rustling around in there, come on out and say hello,’ he laughed.

A man dressed in rugby gear with a black, red and yellow hooped shirt pushed his way through the bushes.

‘Howya, Brian,’ said Eoin. ‘Bit of an early return to school for me this summer, eh?’

‘I was wondering was it you – what’s happened?’

Eoin explained about his selection and why he was back at Castlerock.

‘And would you believe I had a dream about you too?’ he told Brian.

Brian grinned. ‘Was it about whether you should take up the Leinster offer or hold out for a better one with Munster?’

‘Yeah…’ replied Eoin, puzzled.

‘That was no dream,’ Brian laughed. ‘One afternoon I found myself back on the pitch at Lansdowne Road getting asked this question and next thing I was standing beside your bed in Tipp. I gave my answer, but I could see you were half asleep so I didn’t wake you up, and I left immediately.’

Eoin blushed.

‘Really? I must have been talking in my sleep again. I took your advice anyway, as you can see, and no regrets so far. What’s new with you?’

‘Nothing much,’ said Brian. ‘It’s all been quiet since the drama with Kevin and Eugene. They cleaned out that room, I see.’

The previous term Eoin had helped to solve a mystery
involving a hidden room, an abandoned arms cache and a tragic hero, which dated back almost a century at Castlerock.

‘Yeah, I wonder if they have sealed up the trapdoor and the secret passage too?’

E
oin wandered back to the dormitory building and met Killian coming down the steps.

‘We’re in together,’ he grinned, ‘but I never heard of the other guys – do you know Conor O’Sullivan and Marcus McCord?’

‘Oh, no!’ said Eoin. ‘McCord is that big blond lad we met coming in earlier. I remember hearing about him. He’s from Dodder Woods School and is well known as a bit of a loudmouth.’

‘Oh. Well, it’s only for two nights and we’ll keep out of his way,’ said Killian. ‘Do you fancy going for a run?’

Eoin agreed, and after dropping his bag up to the dorm and locking the door the pair set off on a tour of Castlerock.

‘Is it good crack being in boarding school?’ asked Killian as they circled the rugby field.

‘It has its advantages, I suppose,’ replied Eoin, ‘but you
do miss your home comforts and the food is sometimes pretty horrible. I’d never had to share a room before, although I was lucky that I got on well with the rest of them most of the time.’

‘Our school is a bit boring really,’ said Killian. ‘The lads and teachers are grand, but unless you play rugby you just go home at half past three. It’s in the middle of the city and nearly everyone has to get a bus or a train home. I’d love the crack of a boarding school.’

Eoin smiled. ‘Well, there’s many a night I wish I could get a quick bus home. But you’re right about the crack. There’s a few great characters here like Charlie that make it easier.’

‘What do you think of this trip to London?’ Killian asked. ‘I don’t think I’ve much chance looking at the rest of the left wingers here. They’ll definitely go for Shay from St Xavier’s, or maybe the lad from Clontarf.’

‘I’d say you’d have as good a chance as anyone. They’re going to be looking at everyone in a new light and if you put your heart into it you’ll surely have as much of a chance as anyone.’

The boys rounded off their run with a warm-down and headed back upstairs to their dorm, which was on the same corridor as the room Eoin had slept in during the previous school year.

‘This was Richie Duffy’s old room,’ Eoin remembered as he neared the door, which was wide open and the source of the loud, pulsing music that had drawn several other boys out of their rooms to see where it was coming from.

Lying on the bed nearest the door was Marcus McCord, with a music player sitting on his chest turned up to maximum volume.

‘Good sounds, eh?’ he roared as Eoin and Killian made their way gingerly past his bed. Eoin shrugged and turned his back on the noise.

‘What’s your problem?’ called out McCord as he turned off the music and leapt out of bed.

‘No problem, I just don’t like the music,’ Eoin replied.

‘There’s nothing wrong with the music,’ barked McCord as he pulled himself up to his full height just so he could look down on Eoin.

Eoin shrugged again, not wanting to take the disagreement any further. ‘Fair enough,’ he said, and started to dig into his kitbag for his toothbrush.

‘Just watch yourself, Madden,’ growled McCord. ‘You might be a big star in this kip of a school, but you’re with the big boys now. You’ll be mincemeat this time tomorrow if you don’t keep out of my way.’

Eoin sighed and got ready for bed. He didn’t need
any extra stress this weekend and McCord was already a headache.

He chatted to the third boy in the room, Conor O’Sullivan; he was a nice lad, but he kept glancing nervously at McCord.

‘Don’t mind him,’ whispered Eoin. ‘He’s all mouth. I know his type.’

Later, as he lay in bed, McCord started up the music again. Eoin looked over at Killian, who had put a pillow over his ears to try to block out the din. The lights-out call came, but still the relentless beat went on. There was no point asking him to turn it down.

Eoin slept badly, and when he woke in the middle of the night the music was still blaring. He got up and walked over to McCord’s bed and he was even more annoyed to see the big Dodder Woods player was fast asleep, wearing thick yellow earplugs. He pulled the cable from the music player out of the wall and jumped back into bed, desperate for sleep ahead of what would be a huge day for him.

Next morning Eoin had to force himself to get out of bed in time for breakfast. He knew he hadn’t got anywhere near the full nine hours he had got used to having since school ended, but he would get a good breakfast and try to tackle the day with gusto. He prodded
Killian in the ribs – his new friend was just as reluctant to get up.

‘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.

T
he 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.