Big time cheered in with gusto

They hauled every player, backs coach, forwards coach, bottle man, bag man, physio and chancer up on to the raised area in front…

They hauled every player, backs coach, forwards coach, bottle man, bag man, physio and chancer up on to the raised area in front of the clubhouse at Oak Park. Carlow captain Padraig Brennan, swaddled in Carlow's black and amber, grabbed the mike and rasped out his team into a pair of humming speakers.

Breathlessly, the crowd rose to every name as they came to grips with the club's seamless sprint from junior rugby to Division One of the All-Ireland League. A year in each division. A Grand Slam of promotions. A Carlow Slam.

In microcosm it could have been a September weekend in Croke Park. Instinctive, spontaneous and with all the hullaballoo of a Puc Fair, Carlow added to and celebrated their own long history. A place at Irish rugby's top table and seven tries in their 39-9 clincher against Sunday's Well was just cause for the coltishness.

"You're with the big boys now," yelled a supporter just before the mike was whisked from Brennan. "I want to tell you a story," said the unidentified speaker. "There was a draw going on all year in this club to buy two sets of away jerseys for the team. Those jerseys were so that when we played Buccaneers and Young Munster we wouldn't clash."

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A roar went up and you could have seen the sheep scatter as far away as Castledermot. And so it continued as Carlow, despite that brief display of cheek, surpassed even their own expectations. Last year they played in Division Three, the year before Division Four and before that it was junior rugby and the occasional climax of a Town's Cup final.

The club appointed a professional coach Jim Lowry, 10 years ago when a coterie of the members had a vision that they could do better and dared to think of playing against the big names.

"It's been a wonderful rollercoaster ride," said president Des Kavanagh. "People had spoken about the club playing in division one, people with a vision and I must say, I didn't really believe them."

One third of the players in Carlow have come through their youth system. The entire hinterland have contributed, Kilkenny College, Newbridge, Clongowes. Kevin Corrigan, a hooker with the Irish under-19 side that recently travelled to South America, presented the club with his Irish shirt before the match. Corrigan went to Wesley College, plays for UCD but drove from Dublin to Carlow to put his shoulder to the club wheel. Such gestures make Carlow tick.

Melvyn Elmes, one of the Carlow ministers-without-portfolio and deferred to in almost every speech, is one of the visionaries. "We'll have a meeting on Tuesday to talk about next season," he says. "You could say it will be a different scenario."

The shark pool holds little fear for current coach Kim Thurbon. But there is no delusion about the realities of Stradbrook, Thomond Park or Lansdowne Road in 2002.

"Now we've gotta make sure the players who got us here are still important," says Thurbon. "But we've also gotta strengthen the club. Division One is a lot more intense. We just can't afford to go there with a shy panel . . . but we'll go for broke next year, we'll set realistic targets and we'll aim high."

They'll meet bigger and faster alright. Kiwi number eight Andy Melville, who galloped around Oak Park randomly punching holes in Sunday's Well, has not only married into the community but embodies the spirit of Carlow rugby. Knocking over Victor Costello or Eric Miller is, however, of considerably different proportions. But each year they have addressed those same issues and each year they have triumphed. Tomorrow the planning begins for next year.