Rugby Spirit (3 page)

E
oin settled in easily to life at Castlerock College. He found the lessons interesting – except Maths, which he had never really understood – and his fellow pupils a pretty nice bunch. Alan was his best mate, and was always able to steer him away from trouble.

That usually meant Richie Duffy, whose gang of four acolytes was gaining quite a reputation for bullying the younger classes. Alan had a fantastic knack of knowing exactly where the Duffyites were at any time, and how best to avoid them.

Sadly, rugby practice was becoming the main place where Eoin could not avoid Duffy. The farmyard noises were still to be heard a couple of weeks after Eoin’s first day mishap, and still got up his nose.

One Wednesday afternoon Eoin was tying up his boots when Duffy strolled into the changing room.

‘Ah, it’s Farmer Madden,’ he sneered. ‘Shouldn’t you
be wearing wellies?’

Eoin remembered Alan’s advice and ignored him.

‘Oh, I forgot you haven’t mastered the English
language
yet. Well just you remember that Richie Duffy has more rugby talent than any of your so-called “
illustrious
family”, no matter what that old fool says,’ said Richie before he turned on his heel and left.

Eoin seethed, but bit his lip before he, too, jogged out to the field.

‘Right, class,’ announced Bandy Carey, ‘I’m going to mix the backs from the As and Bs for this exercise, and I’ll bring in Madden at full-back on the orange team. Who’s the B team full-back … oh yes, Sugrue. You head over to the back pitch with the Cs.’

There was an awkward silence before Sugrue – one of Duffy’s disciples – trotted away. Richie Duffy stared at Eoin as if the new boy had personally insulted his grandmother.

The practice went quickly, with Eoin slotting nicely into the more skilful backline. He was quick enough to dodge most of the tackles that came in, but found it harder to make his own attempts at stopping the
opposition
.

As the players trudged off after the session Eoin heard muttering behind him.

‘Farmer Boy, don’t you
ever
do that again,’ hissed Duffy.

Eoin kept walking, ignoring the bully.

‘I’m talking to you,’ hissed Duffy.

‘And I’m ignoring you, so what’s the problem?’ shot back Eoin.

The rest of the players laughed, which took Duffy by surprise. He opened his mouth to say something but couldn’t think of anything clever. He turned and stormed off, thunder-faced.

Later that evening Eoin and Alan were lounging around the dormitory. Eoin was telling him about his quick reply and how, although he enjoyed it at the time, he was worried that Duffy would now make things awkward for him.

‘Look,’ said Alan, ‘That lad has run this place for too long. You standing up to him today showed the other guys that he can be taken on.’

‘Yeah, so I’m going to be the big martyr so Sixth Form can have an easier life. Thanks a bundle,’ sighed Eoin.

‘Cheer up buddy, let’s get going on the next lesson in Rugby University.

‘It’s probably time you learned about the point
scoring
system and how the game moves,’ said Alan. ‘There’s two basic ways to score – tipping the ball down behind
the other team’s line is called a try, and that’s worth five points. Sometimes the referee will penalise a
defending
team who stop the opposition scoring illegally by awarding a penalty try.

‘The other way of scoring is by kicking the ball over the crossbar between the posts. After you score a try you get a chance to add two extra points by kicking a conversion.

‘You can take this wherever you like on a line drawn straight back from where the ball was touched down. If you score in the corner you’d go right back near to the twenty-two to get a good angle to kick the
conversion
. That’s why you sometimes see a try-scorer running around as near as he can to the posts before he touches down. He does that to help the kicker.’

‘Hah, I wondered about that. I saw Brian O’Driscoll do that on the TV last year. Makes sense.’

‘So there’s two points for a conversion,’ said Alan, ‘And you get three points for a penalty kick.’

‘There seems to be loads of things you get penalties for,’ said Eoin.

‘Well, it seems like that, but there are a few things that come up all the time, like not staying on your feet in a ruck, not releasing the ball in a ruck, high tackle, offside …

‘I’ll come back to that another day. Anyway, the kicker can get three points if he scores so they can really add up for a team. The last way of scoring is the dropped goal. Sometimes if you’re on the attack and you just can’t break through the defence for a try, it can be better to just take your points. It’s three points for a drop, so it’s not to be sneezed at. The attack will usually prepare for it at a scrum, by having the out-half move back to give himself a better chance of getting the kick away. The scrum half will get the ball back as fast as he can.’

Eoin nodded.

‘The out-half has to take the ball cleanly, steady
himself
, drop the ball so it hits the ground, and as soon as it does so he has to kick it high and straight between the posts. It’s a brilliant skill and can be amazing to watch,’ went on Alan. ‘If a team is on the attack in the last few seconds of a match – and are only a couple of points behind – it will try to work the play into a position as near as it can to the posts before it sets up a drop.’

‘I’m glad I have the easy job at the back then,’ joked Eoin.

‘I wouldn’t speak too soon,’ said Alan, ‘I’d say Bandy was licking his lips that time you did the GAA thing. You should practice drop-kicking. You never know when you’ll need it.’ 

T
he next morning Eoin, Alan and Rory walked across to their classroom together. They noticed a huddle around the notice board just inside the door, and the crowd parted as Eoin arrived. News had obviously spread of his spat with Richie Duffy.

‘Woo hoo,’ said Alan, ‘We’re all back on the 13Cs for the first game on Saturday.’

Eoin smiled, seeing his name written beside the words ‘full-back’ for the first time.

Alan was on the right wing and Rory was scrum-half.

The next two days passed in a blur for Eoin, and he concentrated hard at practice, terrified he would make a big mistake.

Alan continued his training course, explaining the shape of a rugby pitch and what all the lines were for.

‘OK, Eoin,’ he started, ‘the outside lines are just the same as soccer or GAA – they’re called the touchline.’

‘We call it the sideline in GAA,’ came back Eoin.

‘Sorry, I forgot that you do things differently down there. You have this game called “
foot
-ball”, which involves using your hands…’

‘Get on with it!’ snapped Eoin, with a grin.

‘Anyway, the sidelines are along the side here. If the ball goes out over them it’s a line-out. The forwards line up and the hooker throws the ball in straight between them. He’ll use a code to tell his team who he’s going to throw to so they can time their jump. You saw the guys practising them yesterday.’

‘Yeah, but they weren’t doing that lifting up thing they do in the Six Nations,’ quizzed Eoin.

‘No, that’s not allowed in our rugby. I think you’re allowed do it when you get to the Senior Cup Team –
we
call it the SCT – but it’s too dangerous for Under 13s.’

‘The line at the very end is called the end-line. The ball is dead when it goes out over that. The line before that – the one with the posts on it – is the goal-line. To score a try you have to touch the ball in the area between the try-line and the end-line. The line down the middle is the half-way line, and ten metres either
side of that is the ten-metre line. When there’s a kick off from half-way the ball has to go over that. The other line is between that and the try-line – it’s called “the
twenty-two
” because it’s twenty-two metres out from the posts. It’s very important for a full back to know where his own twenty-two is.’

‘Why’s that?’ asked Eoin.

‘Well, the main thing is that when you kick for touch you have to keep inside that line. It means you kick the ball straight out and the lineout is taken where the ball goes out. If you kick for touch from outside your own twenty-two then you have to ensure the ball bounces before it goes into touch, which is tricky.’

‘What happens if it doesn’t,’ asked Eoin.

‘The touch judge runs all the way back to level where you kicked it from and that’s where the line-out
happens
. That can mean you’ve lost thirty or forty metres,’ explained Alan.

‘But if you’re inside the twenty-two it doesn’t matter if it bounces or not,’ said Eoin.

‘Exactly – you’re getting the hang of it,’ laughed Alan.

‘Fair play Alan, you’re fantastic at making it sound so easy. You must have learned the game as a baby?’

‘Not exactly, but my dad and big brothers all played it. They were all really good too’, he grimaced. ‘I’m a bit
of a black sheep that way …’

The pair spent another fifteen minutes going back over the pitch markings and what part they played in the game.

‘Do you reckon you’ll be OK tomorrow?’ asked Alan.

‘I dunno,’ shrugged Eoin, ‘I’ve worked out the
positions
and roughly know where I need to be for every move or set-piece. I know I need to pass the ball
backwards
and not kick the ball upfield like I’m brain-dead.’

‘Yeah, well, remember there’s a limited number of things that can happen at full-back,’ explained Alan, ‘so concentrate on watching the ball, going for the
high-kicks
in your area, and passing the ball back as soon as you’re tackled. And get yourself in position to tackle
them
when they’re on the attack.’

‘Yes, coach,’ said Eoin, ‘and make sure I cover that
useless
right winger!’ before a pillow flew across the dorm in his direction.

He ducked successfully and laughed as Alan
scrambled
around looking for more ammunition.

With that the room went dark and the cry of ‘lights out!’ came along the corridor. The young rugby coach and his pupil chuckled as they hit their beds. Tomorrow would tell just how good a coach and student they were.

S
aturday morning was cold, as autumn started to turn into winter. The crisp brown and red leaves that were scattered everywhere around the grounds had started to become a slippery mulch. The Castlerock boarders changed into their kit as soon as breakfast was over, and strolled across to join their teammates at the changing rooms.

Mr Carey was studying his clipboard when Eoin and his pals entered.

‘Good morning, boys,’ he said, ‘take a seat there and we’ll go through our plans.’

‘Who are we playing, sir?’ asked Rory.

‘St Ignatius College. They’re not a bad team,’ said Mr Carey. ‘Their Junior Cup Team beat ours last year and they have this Australian guy coaching them. They look a little bit bigger than you guys, so let’s make sure we keep it simple. Rory, you captain the team today, and the
rest of you just remember what we’ve been doing these past few weeks. You’re a good team and I want to see you putting points on the board.’

The fifteen players – and the five miserable-looking replacements who would have to spend the game
shivering
on the touchline, waiting for the call – headed out to the rugby field where their opponents were waiting.

Carey hadn’t been wrong about their relative size – St Ignatius’s had at least four players taller than Lofty O’Flynn, Castlerock’s so-called ‘giant’ second row.

‘The bigger they are the harder they fall,’ said Rory to the pack as they waited for Harry Deacon to kick-off for Castlerock.

Once the ball was lifted into the air, St Ignatius’s giants came charging forward and, with a well-drilled move, the first to the ball leapt high and snatched it from the air. The rest of the pack formed a protective group around the catcher and they started to move forwards.

‘That’s a maul,’ said Alan to Eoin, who was a few yards away. ‘The guy with the ball is still on his feet – our forwards have to stop him or they’ll come straight to our line.’

After about fifteen metres the maul was toppled and the ball fed back to the visiting scrum-half.

He fed it out to his backs and the left winger was
suddenly facing Alan. The Castlerock winger was slow reading the situation and when his opponent turned back inside he was left grasping fresh air.

With the field wide open the St Ignatius winger sprinted for the line, but just as he moved to dive over for a try he was hit with an almighty thump on his right thigh. He toppled sideways, but his attempt to throw the ball back was haywire and it flew into touch.

‘Thanks Eoin,’ puffed Alan, as he raced past the
full-back
into his position. ‘That was some tackle.’

From the line-out Castlerock scrambled back the ball and out-half Harry Deacon cleared it up-field.

Eoin was getting warmed up now and had enjoyed making the tackle, although his shoulder blades were starting to smart a bit.

Once play settled down it seemed that the visitors’ pack wasn’t as formidable as it looked, although they continued to win plenty of the line-outs.

Mr Carey was refereeing, and he was hard on his own team’s mistakes, awarding several penalties against
Castlerock
within kicking range. Luckily the visitors’ kicker was hopeless with anything that wasn’t straight in front of the posts and he scored just two out of six, giving his team a narrow 6-3 lead at half time.

St Ignatius changed their kicker after the break,
bringing
on a small, wiry fellow who was stuck out on the wing. He was a poor handler and missed several tackles, but he was a gifted goal-kicker. With ten minutes left he had single handedly extended his team’s lead to 15-3 with three penalty goals from three attempts.

Castlerock were starting to flag, but at a break in play Rory gathered the team around him.

‘Come on ’Rock, we can do this,’ said the little
scrum-half
. Those big guys are knackered now. We can push them around the park and get back in this game. No kicking for touch – they’re hammering us in the
line-outs
– so let’s try to get the ball out to the backs and get some moves going.’

From the next scrum, just inside St Ignatius’s half, the ball was duly worked back to Rory, who fed Harry. The out-half shrugged off two tackles as he made his way into the 22. He was floored by the full-back, but got the ball off to Alan who sprinted as hard as he could for the corner.

Just before he reached the flag he saw one of the St Ignatius ogres coming towards him at speed. He
immediately
turned back inside and slipped the ball to Eoin who was right on his shoulder.

With a powerful dive Castlerock’s newest star flew over the goal-line for the first try of his short rugby career.

Eoin picked himself up to see Mr Carey’s beaming grin and Rory slapping him on the back. ‘Great try, Madden,’ said the scrum-half as the conversion sailed over the bar to make it 15-10, ‘now let’s get back quickly and try to win this.’

Rory was proved right about the St Ignatius pack, which seemed to have run out of steam. Scrum after scrum was won before Castlerock worked themselves into a strong position with two minutes left.

Disastrously, Rory’s pass out to Harry fell short and went to ground, where the visitors’ flanker pounced on the ball. The ruck led to the ball coming back to St Ignatius and an attack was on. Their out-half danced through three tackles before he turned to spin a long pass out to the outside centre.

Eoin spotted what the out-half was trying to do and sprinted like a greyhound between the St Ignatius’s backs, snapping the ball out of the air.

Stunned, the visitors’ backs turned and chased hard as Eoin headed for their line. With only the full back to beat, Eoin veered out to the right.

As he raced towards the line he realised he was
heading
for the corner. Remembering what Alan had taught him about making the kicker’s job easier, he took one step back to his left and completely wrong-footed the
full back, who slipped and fell over.

It was then a simple job of touching the ball down under the posts which Eoin did without fuss. He turned to see fourteen boys racing towards him with faces full of delight.

‘Fantastic try, Eoin …’

‘Unbelievable …’

‘What a side-step …’

It was all a blur as he walked back to half-way and watched Harry smack over the winning conversion.

Mr Carey’s blast on the whistle was followed by another long one to signal the game was over.

After Rory called for three cheers for St Ignatius, and both teams shook hands, the entire Castlerock team descended once again on Eoin for more congratulations.

Mr Carey came over to talk to them and was full of praise for everyone on the team who had played their part in the amazing fight-back. He grinned at Eoin, but didn’t add to the flood of praise that was already making the full-back feel uncomfortable.

As the team walked off, Mr Finn waved to Eoin as he passed.

‘The green book must be doing you some good,’ he called.

Eoin blushed.

‘It is,’ he lied, ‘I really enjoyed it.’

‘What book?’ asked Alan, as they walked on.

‘Mr Finn’s old rugby coaching book. Bandy gave it to me,’ explained Eoin. ‘I haven’t even opened it.’

‘Well there’s your weekend gone,’ laughed Alan. ‘We have him first thing Monday morning. He’ll probably want to go over it page by page with you now!’