Rugby Heroes by Gerard Siggins

Author:Gerard Siggins [Gerard Siggins]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788490368
Publisher: The O'Brien Press
Published: 2018-02-15T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 26

Wednesday was a half-day in Castlerock, and Eoin arrived just as the classes were breaking up. The first-years were excited to see their international star player and he had to politely turn down a couple of requests for selfies.

‘I’m in a hurry, sorry,’ he said as he took the steps of the school two at a time.

Inside, he bumped into Mr McCaffrey. ‘Eoin. Is everything all right? I thought you’d be in town with the Ireland team? Congratulations on how you’ve been doing, by the way.’

‘Thank you, sir,’ replied Eoin. ‘We just had the afternoon off and I wanted to collect a book so I can keep up with my reading,’ he said. That was the first time Eoin had even thought of study, but he reckoned Mr McCafferty would be impressed.

‘Very good, very good,’ replied the headmaster. ‘Now run along, I’ve got to see how the Junior Cup team are doing in your absence. I trust you’ll be back for the replay?’

‘I think so sir,’ replied Eoin. ‘When is it?’

‘Next Saturday morning,’ he answered.

Eoin gasped. ‘But our last game is Friday night…’

‘Really? Oh dear, that’s not ideal,’ frowned the headmaster. ‘Oh well, perhaps you could take it easy against England, and maybe ask the coach to take you off at half-time. Actually, I’ll get Mr Carey to ask him.’

Eoin looked closely at Mr McCafferty’s face, trying to work out if he was joking, but couldn’t see even a single wrinkle or quiver around his mouth. But surely he wouldn’t want Eoin – and Ireland – to miss out on a chance of winning the Triple Crown?

Eoin said goodbye and started up the stairs to his dormitory room. Mentioning the book had unleashed a twinge of guilt that he was missing a whole week of study with his Junior Cert exams just over the horizon.

He tried the doorknob, and was surprised to see it open, and delighted to see that Alan was there at the desk, scribbling away.

‘Hey, Eoin, what has you back here? Are they going for Joe Kelly for the last game?’ grinned Alan.

‘No chance,’ smiled Eoin, sitting down on his bed. ‘I just took a last-minute decision to come out to say hello. I twisted my ankle and wanted to walk it off in case Neil got grumpy.’

‘Speaking of grumpy, Dylan has just been here. He’s heard the replay is the day after the final and now he’s not sure if he wants you, Charlie and Rory in the team. I told him not to be stupid and he stormed off.’

Eoin laughed. ‘Thanks for the support Al, but I’m not sure I would have put it quite that way.’

‘How are you getting on?’ he asked, nodding at the pile of text books and copy books on the desk.

‘Not bad,’ Alan replied. ‘I missed a couple of days with the matches so I’m trying to catch up.

‘Me too,’ said Eoin. ‘I’m happy enough with the study, but I need to reread one of the novels.’

He reached up

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