blackrock college-9 clongowes-12
I GUESS YOU CAN KNOCK THE ROCK!
Ah, watching these two Leinster Schools Senior Cup clashes on Setanta during the week really took me back to my teenage years in Blackrock College.
Matchdays really were something special, even if you weren’t actually playing for the “SCT” (senior cup team)...
Yes, I remember those days with fondness, and watching Setanta’s coverage, things haven’t changed much in over 20 years.
I caught the last ten minutes of the drawn match last Sunday, and I noticed that my alma mater spurned a golden opportunity to clinch victory in the dying minutes. Winning by 10-7, they had good possession right under the Clongowes posts.
I was screaming at the telly “drop goal! drop goal!” but for some reason Irish and British teams never consider this option even when it seems obvious and eventually they gave away a penalty to the opposition, who marched down the field, won another one, and converted to level the scores at the death.
Yesterday’s replay was very tense throughout and the names that stood out for me on the Rock side anyway were outhalf Lorcan O’Daly, scrum half Alan McGinty (who’s the son of the school’s principal who used to terrorize my Maths class) and the winger (something) Greene.
Since they were ALL schoolboys I suppose you can simply call their numerous gaffes “errors”, and over the course of the game Rock made more which led Clongowes to a victory.
The most telling image was the absolute desolation of the losing players once the final whistle blew.
Some were in tears. They had probably begun their training a month before school even started last summer. Some would have even been courted from other schools because of their abilities with the oval ball.
And when they pulled on that light-blue and white hooped jersey, they were also pulling on the pressure of 65 trophy wins in the last 125 years, more than all the other secondary schools in the province put together.
When you play rugby for the Rock, there is no "nearly" - you either win the cup or you don’t, and this lot didn’t.
The majority of Irish people reading this post will be thinking “Oh my God, this guy’s a private-school educated toff, I'm delighted the rugger-buggers lost”.
Of those who went to different private schools, they’ll be thinking “Oh my God, he went to the Rock, they think they bloody invented the game of rugby – I’m also delighted they lost”.
I won't apologise for where I went to school because I didn't send me there.
Furthermore I for one can appreciate how those young men were feeling out on the pitch yesterday, and I hope they all realise their rugby playing careers are far from over.
They can even take consolation from the fact that if they ever do play for Ireland, it probably won’t be under Eddie O’Sullivan!!!
Matchdays really were something special, even if you weren’t actually playing for the “SCT” (senior cup team)...
- There was getting off school early.
- Piling into the shop near the school for sweets on the way down to the main road.
- Stopping off for a smoke in your various hiding places along Mount Merrion Avenue.
- Pretending to shove one of your mates in front of oncoming traffic as you crossed the main road.
- Shouting abuse to pupils of the other school from the relative sanctuary of the 46A's upper deck as you headed towards Donnybrook.
- Piling into the Spar in Donnybrook for even more sweets.
- Being booed by the fans from the other school as you passed by their stand because EVERYONE hates “The Rock”.
- Wolf whistling at the pretty "rugger-hugger" girls from Sion Hill, Mount Anville or Loreto Foxrock who would invariably make excuses to walk back and forth in front of your stand just so you’d wolf whistle at them.
- Slagging off the cheerleaders. (Yes, we had cheerleaders, but forget your image of fit 17-year-old girls brandishing pom-poms…being an all-boys school, we had 6th years who weren’t good enough to play on the team, but were still considered “cool” so they wore the official team jersey and a fashionably-wrapped scarf walking around the stand holding megaphones leading chants of “We Will Rock You” or "You Can't Knock The Rock!")
- Running out on the pitch at full time whatever the final score.
Yes, I remember those days with fondness, and watching Setanta’s coverage, things haven’t changed much in over 20 years.
I caught the last ten minutes of the drawn match last Sunday, and I noticed that my alma mater spurned a golden opportunity to clinch victory in the dying minutes. Winning by 10-7, they had good possession right under the Clongowes posts.
I was screaming at the telly “drop goal! drop goal!” but for some reason Irish and British teams never consider this option even when it seems obvious and eventually they gave away a penalty to the opposition, who marched down the field, won another one, and converted to level the scores at the death.
Yesterday’s replay was very tense throughout and the names that stood out for me on the Rock side anyway were outhalf Lorcan O’Daly, scrum half Alan McGinty (who’s the son of the school’s principal who used to terrorize my Maths class) and the winger (something) Greene.
Since they were ALL schoolboys I suppose you can simply call their numerous gaffes “errors”, and over the course of the game Rock made more which led Clongowes to a victory.
The most telling image was the absolute desolation of the losing players once the final whistle blew.
Some were in tears. They had probably begun their training a month before school even started last summer. Some would have even been courted from other schools because of their abilities with the oval ball.
And when they pulled on that light-blue and white hooped jersey, they were also pulling on the pressure of 65 trophy wins in the last 125 years, more than all the other secondary schools in the province put together.
When you play rugby for the Rock, there is no "nearly" - you either win the cup or you don’t, and this lot didn’t.
The majority of Irish people reading this post will be thinking “Oh my God, this guy’s a private-school educated toff, I'm delighted the rugger-buggers lost”.
Of those who went to different private schools, they’ll be thinking “Oh my God, he went to the Rock, they think they bloody invented the game of rugby – I’m also delighted they lost”.
I won't apologise for where I went to school because I didn't send me there.
Furthermore I for one can appreciate how those young men were feeling out on the pitch yesterday, and I hope they all realise their rugby playing careers are far from over.
They can even take consolation from the fact that if they ever do play for Ireland, it probably won’t be under Eddie O’Sullivan!!!
1 comment/s so far:
Shame we didnt win it again. I left in '81 and wil always be a Rock boy.
Success is who we are.
John
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