Rugby Rebel (2 page)

T
HE first night back after the summer holidays was always an exciting one for Eoin and his friends. Which dormitory they had been allocated was the most important bit of information to be gleaned and Eoin was delighted that he had once again been pitched in with Rory, Alan and Dylan in smaller, four-bed sleeping quarters.

‘Hey, Madden, there’s a shocking smell of farmyard off you,’ came a voice from under the bed he had claimed.

‘Alan, don’t tell me you’ve lost your mouse again?’ asked Eoin.

Alan stood up. ‘No, and thanks for mentioning it. He ran away during the summer. I think the cat got him. No, I was under the bed checking out a funny-looking trapdoor – see?’

Eoin peered under the bed, where sure enough there was a square hole cut in the planks. Alan was trying to lift it, but it seemed to have been painted shut by many coats of varnish.

‘Oh well, I thought there might be a secret passageway
downstairs we could have used to raid the kitchen during the night,’ he sighed.

‘Still thinking of your belly, Al?’ laughed Dylan. ‘Did you get to the gym much over the summer?’

Alan glowered, but Eoin stepped in. ‘Leave it out, Dyl, you were fairly guzzling the sausage rolls yourself earlier.’

Dylan laughed again. ‘Only messing, lads, sure it’s great we’re all back together here. Wonder who Kevin and Fiachra have been put in with?’

‘They’re next door with Hugh Bowers and Pearse Hickey,’ Alan replied. ‘That sounds like a fun room to be in.’

‘As long as they keep the noise down,’ said Eoin. ‘I’ve spent most of the summer sleeping. I’m getting very fond of my naps. Mr Carey said they’re vital for top-class sportsmen.’

Eoin claimed a bed beside the door and lay down. His peace lasted just a moment, however, as a t-shirt came flying across the room and landed right on his face.

‘Yuk, that’s stinking!’ he cried.

‘Sorry, Eoin! I borrowed that off you last term,’ said Rory. ‘It’s been at the bottom of the bag ever since. I kept meaning to ask Mam to wash it but ….’

Eoin felt like exploding, but he had found that it was
usually better to walk away any time he felt like that. This was one of those occasions.

‘OK, no worries, Rory, but it’s obvious I’m not going to get much sleep here,’ snapped Eoin as he stormed out the door.

Eoin set off down the stairs at a jog, but he stopped short when he saw Mr Carey, the rugby coach, coming up towards him.

‘Be careful there, Madden,’ the teacher said. ‘You could have sent me flying.’

‘Sorry, sir,’ he replied.

‘I was on my way up to see you. How do you feel about training with the JCT squad this year?’

‘Eh … well, OK, I suppose,’ stammered Eoin.

‘Devin Synnott – he’s the J’s captain – told me he wants you on the team. I’m not sure about that. You’re very young and still a bit raw, but I’m prepared to give you a go until Christmas. They can probably spare you on the Under 14s but you might have to play a few extra games. As you’ve no major exams this year, that shouldn’t be a problem. Are you OK with that?’

Although Eoin had known Devin wanted him to train with the Js, he was still a bit taken aback by Mr Carey’s approach. He hadn’t expected to be called up to train with them so soon and wasn’t at all sure about this
development.

‘Of course, yes, OK,’ said Eoin. ‘When do they train?’

‘We start tomorrow for two hours after school, then it’s an hour every day and two on Saturday mornings unless you’ve a match. Sunday is your own. We’ll probably start the pre-school sessions after Christmas.’

Eoin’s mouth opened, but he didn’t know what to say. He just nodded and said thanks before continuing down the stairs and out the front door.

He jogged away to his favourite place in Castlerock, the secluded corner of the woods where a tiny stream bubbled its way down to the sea. There was a large rock he liked to sit on and think; it provided a rare oasis of peace in the bustling boarding school.

The Rock was empty, as it always was. Eoin had never seen anyone down this part of the school, except of course his ghostly friends Brian and Dave, who seemed to be drawn to the place. Eoin wondered about that – was there something about the site that the ghosts liked? It certainly had a very different atmosphere to the rest of the school.

It was a warm evening and Eoin was tired after the exertions and excitement of the day. He sat down on his favourite rock and closed his eyes. It was good to get such time alone. He thought back to the last time he
had been there, and …

‘
Crack
!’

He was brought back to reality by a loud noise that sounded almost like a gunshot.

‘
Crack
!’

There it was again, even nearer this time. He was sure it was a gunshot this time.

Eoin ran out of the tiny wooded area, terrified. He looked around, but couldn’t work out what had caused the noise. It seemed to come from the side of the school. He turned towards the front of the old, grey school building and ran towards it as fast as his legs would let him.

Once he got to the doorway he paused and looked back, but there was no sign of the gunman. Eoin gulped down breaths, trying to calm himself down after the scary experience.
Did I imagine that?
he thought.
Would Mr McCaffrey think I’m telling lies?

Eoin decided to keep it to himself, and trudged nervously upstairs.

I
F the first night in the dorm was exciting, the same couldn’t really be said for the first day of classes. It might have been a little bit interesting to find out who each of their new teachers would be, but it wasn’t long before the novelty was lost on the boys, especially when so many of the teachers were keen on getting down to work immediately.

‘Remember, this is second year, the start of your Junior Cert cycle,’ said Mr McAllister, the Irish teacher. ‘I’ll have to check out how you’ve all been doing over the last year. We’ll have a little test on Friday.’

The class groaned. They might be back at school, but for many their minds were still at home or away on holiday. It would be hard to focus on an exam in week one – but maybe that was Mr McAllister’s idea.

The first day dragged like a wet Sunday afternoon in February. But Eoin was happy that it did, because he was more than a little nervous about the Js’ training session – and about telling the rest of his team-mates that he wouldn’t be seeing much of them this year.

After the last class was over, Eoin gathered his rugby gear and sauntered out the classroom door.

‘Wait up, Eoin, where you off to?’ asked Rory.

‘I’ve got rugby,’ he replied.

Rory looked puzzled. ‘But they said we wouldn’t be starting up till next week?’

‘Mr Carey wants me to train with the Js,’ he muttered.

The rest of his pals stopped and stared.

‘You can’t be! You’re only in second year – second years never train with the Js,’ said Alan.

‘No, it’s not that rare,’ lied Eoin. ‘And anyway, nothing might come of it. They’ve a half-decent side this year, I think.’

‘But what about the 14s?’ asked Dylan, ‘We’ll be useless without you!’

‘Ah come off it, Richie Duffy can slot in for me, and I can probably play a lot of the games anyway. I better run, you know what Carey can be like if you’re late.’

Eoin trotted over to the changing room, and followed the rest of the players inside. He recognised many of them, but no one said anything to him. He looked around desperately for Devin Synnott, the captain, who didn’t seem to be about.

They’re not a very friendly bunch, are they?
he thought to himself.

He put on his kit and wandered outside, where Devin was talking to Mr Carey. Devin was the star of the Js panel, and a year ahead of Eoin.

‘Ah, Eoin, thanks for coming. I was just working out with Mr Carey what we’d do with you. We’ve a big squad this year, but we don’t have much cover at
out-half
if Ronan goes down. We’re going to play a trial today so we’ll slot you in at inside centre for the first half and switch you with Paudie for the second. Is that OK?’

Eoin nodded and suddenly felt extra nervous. He was big enough for his age, but these guys just looked much bigger than his old team-mates and the other schools they’d played against. He’d have to work on building himself up.

He joined the B selection and slipped on one of the yellow bibs that Mr Carey had dumped on the ground. He introduced himself to the out-half, Paudie, and the scrum-half, Gav, but they just looked at him and shrugged. He wandered into position for the kick-off.

As the trial progressed, Eoin got more into the game, although Paudie didn’t seem too interested in passing the ball to him so he had to seek it out for himself. The standard was a bit higher than Eoin was used to, but not so much that he felt out of place. He got a couple of
chances to run, and got his passes away well too.

‘Good display, Madden,’ said Mr Carey at half-time. ‘Switch with Woods and let’s see what you can do at 10.’

Paudie Woods had a face like thunder when he passed Eoin. He leaned in to whisper in his ear, ‘OK, kid, I want plenty of ball this half, and don’t try anything smart.’

The A selection had led by 10 points at half-time, and extended that by another converted try early in the second. They were a comfortably better team than the Bs, as you would expect, but there were a few players on the second string who were trying hard to impress.

One of them was Gav, the scrum-half who seemed to be a mate of Paudie’s, and who appeared to be having a dilemma. He didn’t want Eoin to do well, but if he started throwing wild passes out to Eoin at out-half he himself would look bad, so he decided he’d let Paudie sort out his own problem.

Eoin hadn’t seen much of the ball, and the game was rambling to an inevitable conclusion when Gav came up with one moment of brilliance, chipping the ball behind the As’ defence and taking it beautifully on the bounce before hareing into the 22. He was taken down by the full-back but as he turned to release the ball, Eoin came charging up behind him and caught it cleanly, before he sidestepped the A team centre and dived in
under the posts.

It was the only moment of magic in the whole game. Mr Carey seemed more enthused by it after the final whistle than by the comfortable win for the A team.

‘Nice move, Gav! Well backed-up, Eoin,’ grinned Devin, as they shook hands at the end. ‘That’ll give Mr Carey a few headaches!’

E
OIN was happy with how he played – he was sure he had been better than Paudie Woods – but he found it less enjoyable than playing with his friends and knew he wouldn’t be able to take charge of games in the way he used to. The Under 14s were struggling without him, and all their games seemed to clash with JCT training or matches.

The class bully, Richie Duffy, was furious that Eoin has been singled out for promotion as the star of the team – even though with Eoin gone it meant he could play out-half once again. But Eoin was more concerned that Rory and Dylan, particularly, were starting to resent his absence.

‘Look, I’m sorry, guys!’ he tried to explain as they lounged about in the doorway. ‘I’m not too pushed about playing Js this year, but I can’t say that to Carey. And it’s just not in me to play badly.’

‘But can’t you just fake an injury and ask to play a few games on the 14s while you recover?’ asked Rory.

‘Will you listen to yourself?’ laughed Eoin. ‘How
could I be injured for one team and play on another?’

‘Well …’

‘Look, I’m probably not even going to get much chance to play so they might work out that it’s better for me to get some game time on the 14s. But I’m not going to wimp out just because you guys think you need me.’

‘Eoin’s right,’ said Alan. ‘You’re going to have stop complaining about it – it’s like you’re already writing the team off because Eoin’s not playing. Sure you might as well give up rugby completely.’

‘Well, I might,’ grumbled Rory.

‘Listen, I haven’t played alongside Eoin since his very first game in sixth class,’ Alan replied. ‘But every week I go out and try to get better and maybe someday I’ll get off the 3rds, and then maybe I’ll burst through the 2nds onto the Js next year. That’s the thing about rugby, about any sport – you’ve got to dream.’

The rest of the guys laughed at Alan, who was easily the worst player in the whole year.

‘Ah, you’re right, Al,’ said Rory. ‘It’s just that it’s not nearly as much crack when you’re losing all the time.’

Dylan shrugged and looked at Eoin. ‘What’s the chances of me or Rory getting called up for that JCT squad?’ he asked.

‘I dunno.’ Eoin replied, ‘They have a couple of decent left-wingers, but I’d say Carey will keep his eye on you. The two guys who play scrum-half are excellent though. It will be hard to break in there … sorry,’ he told Rory.

‘No need to apologise, I know who they are – and you’re right,’ Rory replied. ‘My day will come.’

‘Anyway, what else is happening? I’m getting bored with sleep-school-rugby-sleep,’ said Eoin.

‘Not much,’ said Alan. ‘Though I met Mr Finn and he was still talking about the trip to Belgium. He was wondering where you were going to bring us this year.’

Eoin groaned. ‘Oh no, I hope he doesn’t want us to enter the Young Historian again. It was great to win it, but there was too much stress involved. I’ve enough on my plate with the rugby too.’

‘Fair enough, it’s a huge amount of work. But he told me to tell you he would see you on Friday – he’s bringing us out for the morning on a tour to Kilmainham Jail.’

‘You’d better be careful they don’t keep you, Dyl,’ laughed Rory, who got a rugby boot in the shoulder for his trouble.

‘Owww, that hurt,’ whined Rory.

‘Well keep your nasty digs to yourself then,’ snarled Dylan as he stormed out. ‘That wasn’t funny.’

Eoin glared at Rory. ‘What did you bring that up for? Dylan is NOT his father. He’s a good lad and it’s not his fault his father’s in prison. Don’t keep going on about it or you’ll have to deal with dodging flying boots from me too.’