Underdog days were seldom like this

CASTLETROY COLLEGE, LIMERICK:With their eye-catching turquoise strip and equally eye-catching bravura in play, they swept all before them. Seán Kennyon the Munster cup champions.

FEW SCHOOLS have hit the ground running so hard and so fast. Less than a decade ago, Castletroy College was a building site. It competed in the Munster Senior Cup for the first time three years ago, having soared through the ranks of schools rugby in the province. In March of this year, the school carried off both junior and senior cups for the first time.

It has been a dizzying ascent, outpacing even the school's own ambition, as the principal, Martin Wallace, explains.

"The nice thing about this year is that targets we'd hoped to meet, we've actually met quicker than we intended. So we set new targets now. I'd have said that if we had one trophy by 2010, that'd have been great. You're working on the basis of other Limerick schools and what they've won . . . that was the thinking."

They sit around a table in the school boardroom, the rugby men of Castletroy College: Martin Wallace, senior coaches Máirtín Burke and John Keehan, junior co-coach James Collins. Another teacher, Eamonn Mulcahy, also co-trained the juniors. Between them, they toppled the big houses of Munster, beating CBC and PBC of Cork in both competitions.

Unlike those schools, Castletroy has no venerable tradition to draw on. They feel this has perhaps been a blessing, since history can weigh heavily. Burke explains.

"When we played PBC in the junior final we were saying it was great we don't have this burden of going down to Cork schools and maybe losing to Cork schools year in, year out. So I suppose in some way it was good not to have some baggage."

Underdog status sat nicely with them this year, allowing them steal into the big arena relatively unnoticed. Ambition, though, did not flag. A steely focus staved off the moral-victory mentality, the downfall of so many underdogs.

"In the Senior Cup semi-final we had a very tough game against Pres (Cork) that could have gone either way," says Wallace. "Having won it, it was fantastic for me to see the attitude of the players, which was, 'Here's our opportunity now. We've a cup final against CBC. Let's not think of the semi-final as being our final.' That could easily have been the case; it was our first time ever getting to a semi-final. They could have got carried away . . . But no, their attitude was very focused."

The Senior Cup final was a happy chaos of novelty for Castletroy: the throng of past-pupils touchingly decked out in school colours, the 8,000 crowd at Dooradoyle, the sense of occasion, frightening and exhilarating. John Keehan watched his charges run out into it all, primed and brimming with emotion. There could be no doubt how huge the moment was.

"I was a bit worried when half of them were crying going out onto the pitch, with nerves, the whole occasion. It was everything about it; where they'd got to from where they started, probably just realising there and then."

Wallace noticed the school became flag-bearers for the county, the game serving as a proxy for Limerick-Cork rivalry.

"There were a lot of Limerick rugby supporters at the final. It became a Limerick thing. That's the underdog situation obviously. And there's the Limerick-Cork rivalry. People who'd have played in cups down through the years and maybe didn't win would have been very keen to see the first occasion that the school might be winning the cup."

The trophies were shown at school assembly. The first chapter of Castletroy's rugby history was written and its authors could take the deserved bow. For James Collins, the scene felt like the first sowing of seeds of tradition.

"When the cup was shown in assembly, you had small guys - I don't think they even play rugby - but they were calling out some of the players' names. These guys are about six-four or six-five and the other fellas are tiny, but they're looking up to them, calling them. That's how tradition starts. These two finals are something they'll always remember and can strive towards."

The teachers find themselves in a position from which they can build a rugby culture from scratch. They carry no burden of history and the heavy expectation it places on young shoulders in many rugby schools.

Months of unflinching graft were invested by teachers and players. They would not have been lifting silver in March were it otherwise. Still, as Wallace insists, a balance must be struck.

"I think one of the advantages of a new school is that you can plan the culture you're going to create. You can actually pick a particular direction you'd like to go in and hopefully it'll work out that way. And maybe you have to step back from time to time and say, 'Is this what we want?' Whereas you don't feel it's something you've inherited and are stuck with."

And the future? Two trophies are in the cabinet and the horizon is silver-hued. Castletroy is a fast-growing suburb of Limerick city. Local children are embracing rugby in unprecedented numbers.

Collins recognises the work of clubs with local youngsters.

"You've got a huge population here and if you go down to UL Bohs or Garryowen on a Sunday morning you'll see 70, 80, 100 kids training in rugby.

"Of course, Muster have generated all that enthusiasm around the province, especially in Limerick. We're actually benefiting from all those kids getting extra help when they're in primary school."

The plotting for next year has begun already. Will they be marked out as champions? Keehan hopes they can keep crashing the gate as outsiders for a while longer.

"I still think that just for a couple more years or maybe till we win another one, we'd still be considered underdogs."

Given their recent trajectory, though, those days as underdog are surely numbered.

Castletroy Facts

School:Castletroy College, Limerick

Founded:2000

Number of pupils:1,050 (mixed)

Sports played:Rugby, Gaelic football, hurling, soccer, basketball, hockey

School sports colour:Turquoise

Major recent honours:The school won both Munster Senior and Junior Cups for the first time this year

Notable past-pupils:Give them a chance; their first Leaving Cert class graduated in 2005

Inside Track Paul Doorley

Name:Paul Dooley, captain of Castletroy Senior Cup team

Age:17

Position:Secondrow

Rugby hero:I'd always have looked up to David Wallace because he's from my own club, Garryowen. Being a secondrow, I'd look up to Paul O'Connell

Non-rugby hero:Roy Keane

Highlight of school career:Lifting the Munster Senior Cup this year was unbelievable

Sporting dream:I think I've achieved it by winning the Senior Cup this year

Any perks from playing?We get off classes for matches but that's about it

Balancing study and sport?It is hard to concentrate. You're constantly thinking about it

Any other sports?I play Gaelic football and hurling with Monaleen

Visited anywhere interesting through rugby?I've been to France, England and Wales with Garryowen. I've been to England with the school as well