‘Hello young man, and you are called Eoin Madden I believe,’ the old man said.
Eoin nodded. ‘How do you know my name?’
‘Ah, I’ve seen a lot of you recently. My friend Brian Hanrahan has told me a great deal about you too.’
Eoin stared at the man, who he recognised from somewhere.
‘Look, I’ve a big match to play and the second half is about to start, can we talk later?’ he asked.
‘Of course, run along,’ replied the man.
‘And who will I ask for? And where?’ asked Eoin.
‘Of course, well… everybody around here should know me – I built this place of course, although it was nearly one hundred and fifty years ago. Just ask for Henry Dunlop.’
Chapter 31
Eoin raced out to the playing field where his team were already getting into position for his kick-off. He looked around the stadium and was surprised to see people were coming in all the time and the lower levels were almost full.
His mind was racing as he considered the new ghost who had just entered his life. Why was his life so complicated? He shook his head, attempting to bring his thoughts into focus.
‘Preeeeep’ went the referee’s whistle and Eoin carted the ball in the air for the forwards to scrap over. He had held the ball back a bit, knowing that an aerial contest would play into England’s hands. After a series of rucks, Rory fired the ball back to Eoin, who had an extra half a second to play with and used it to measure his cross-field kick to perfection.
England’s right-winger turned to chase but his momentum had been interrupted and he was slow to get going again. The English player just caught a blur of green as Kuba nipped in behind him and gathered the ball at speed. He was fifteen metres from the line and made no mistake in claiming the five points.
He had cut inside enough to give Eoin an easier chance to convert and he duly collected the extra two.
‘This is fantastic,’ grinned Rory as Eoin trotted back after the kick.
‘Take it easy, Rors,’ he replied. ‘Seven points can go in the blink of an eye and they have some very dangerous players.’
‘He’s right,’ said Charlie. ‘We’re getting battered in the line-outs and their scrum is very solid too. We’re going to have to tackle everything that moves for the next twenty-five minutes.’
Charlie was proved correct, as England’s superior physical strength ensured they dominated possession and territory for the rest of the game.
Ireland held out until there was just over six minutes left. England had used their line-out superiority to drive the ball down the field, and Ed Wood was their trump card every time. A line-out five metres from the Irish line was impossible to defend, and the white-shirted giant leapt high to collect the ball before falling sideways over the line where he touched down.
That meant the conversion was tricky however, and the strong breeze that skirled and whistled around the Aviva was hard to master. Eoin watched as the kicker tried to assess where the wind was coming from, and smiled inwardly as he hooked it well wide.
But the two-point margin was wafer thin and the crowd knew that it would take a superhuman effort by Ireland to defend it against such powerful opponents.
Play resumed and the green shirts battled hard to hold on to their lead, but England were finding gaps and making runs all the time and Ireland’s defence grew weary at the unceasing attempts to break them down.
Eoin glanced up at the clock and saw just fifty seconds remained to play. He steeled himself for one last effort.
England controlled the ball at the base of the scrum, and inched forward. The scrum-half toyed with the ball, like a cobra choosing his moment to strike. He looked up, checked the position of his out-half, and fired it out to him. The No. 10 caught the ball, and swung back his boot, aiming for the corner where there would be time for one last line-out close to the Irish line.
But he never did get that kick away. As he swung, Noah came charging through and flung himself bravely at the No.10, who collapsed in a heap, the ball bobbling sideways off his foot along the ground.
Eoin, who had spotted what was going to happen and had been following up, booted it forwards as hard as he could and set off in pursuit. With the England backs chasing him hard, he picked the ball up just outside their 22-metre line and heard an enormous roar from the crowd urging him onwards. On he ran, finally running out of steam just as he got to the line and fell over it, under the posts.
He barely had a chance to stand before he was floored once more, this time by fourteen boys in green who were overcome with delight. When they finally released him from the group hug, he looked up at the clock to see the game was over.
With a huge grin, he picked up the ball and ran back a few metres. He was about to take a drop-kick conversion like he had seen in a Sevens game on TV, but wasn’t sure if that was legal and, anyway, he decided that he really wanted to enjoy the moment.
He placed the ball and looked up at the posts, remembering the first time he had taken a last-minute kick here. Sure enough, Brian appeared beside them this time too, and Eoin lifted his hand in salute.
But Brian wasn’t smiling, and didn’t call out any suggestion about where to aim for either.
‘Come meet me as soon as you can after the game,’ he shouted. ‘I’ll be down in this corner of the stand,’ he said, pointing urgently to the north-east corner of the ground.
Eoin was a bit rattled by this, but kept his calm enough to slot the ball over the crossbar before once again he found himself at the bottom of a mound formed by his overjoyed team-mates.
Chapter 32
Eoin was walking off the field, waving to his family, when he was grabbed by a TV interviewer. She put a microphone in front of his face and demanded he tell the outside world just how it felt to win the Four Nations for Ireland.
Eoin shrugged, grinned and muttered a few words about how great a team he was part of and how the coach had done a great job, but ignored her request to explain what he was feeling.
And that was for a very good reason, because instead of ‘delighted’, ‘thrilled’ and ‘overjoyed’, Eoin’s main emotions were ‘distracted’, ‘confused’ and ‘terrified’ as he struggled to work out why Brian wanted to see him so urgently.
He rejoined his team-mates and watched as Charlie went up to collect the trophy. He joined the queue for medals and waved again to Dixie and his parents while he collected his.
As the players made their way off the field, and the women’s teams raced on, Eoin slipped away down the front of the stand and around to where Brian had pointed to minutes before.
He spotted his friend at the back of the empty lower level of the East stand, beckoning him to join him. Eoin raced up the steps, his boots making a racket, and was out of breath when he reached Brian.
‘So… what’s the urgency…?’ he gasped.
‘Come quickly,’ Brian snapped, ‘I need you to let people know what’s been happening here, no one else can see or hear me.’
Eoin followed his friend out the doorway at the back of the stand, and stayed close behind as he descended a flight of steps.
‘Look,’ said Brian, pointing to a huge concrete pillar, his finger moving down to where it met the floor. Running up from the ground for about fifty centimetres was a crack wide enough for Eoin to insert his finger.
‘That’s a bit big for such a new stadium,’ frowned Eoin.
‘It’s not the only one, I’m afraid,’ answered Brian.
He brought him to see two other pillars that had similar cracks, and two panes of glass in the outer wall that were also fracturing so they looked like a giant spider’s web. He then ushered him down under the north stand to a quiet area where the spare goalposts and corner flags were stored.
‘Mind your footing here,’ advised Brian, ‘it gets very slippy.’
He led him in behind a large grass mower and pointed at the ground.
All Eoin could see in the gloom was a dark hole, but as
he got nearer he heard gurgling and the sound of water rushing.
‘It’s a sinkhole – and down there is a river!’ he cried. ‘I saw an old map of this area and there are two rivers and two streams around here.’
‘Yes,’ replied Brian. ‘And one of the old streams seems to have become full of water. With the building on the site it must have been buried, but now it’s coming back and it looks like it’s being causing this – and could cause a lot more trouble.’
‘When did you discover this?’ Eoin asked.
‘Well, like I told you before, I saw some strange things happening around the stadium, with lots of water appearing where it shouldn’t, and then this morning I noticed those cracks in the pillar and the…’
Brian stopped, noticing they had been joined by another person.
‘This is Henry,’ he told Eoin.
‘I know, we met earlier,’ Eoin replied as he nodded to the gentleman whose idea it had been to build a sports ground on this site many years before.
‘Henry has been around just in the last few days,’ Brian explained.
‘Indeed,’ said Mr Dunlop. ‘I found myself aroused from my slumber by an unshakeable dread that my life’s work was under threat. I arrived here to find Brian and his friends hard at work searching for the root of the problem. It appears now he has found it,’ he added, gazing at the hole in which the sound of the water rushing appeared to be growing louder.
‘It was just before the game started today that I noticed it,’ said Brian. ‘I had been around here with Kevin Barry just two days ago and there was no sign of anything like this. You really cannot delay letting people know. Hurry, Eoin…’
Eoin swept his hair back from his brow and tried to gather his thoughts. He would probably have to answer some awkward questions on what he was doing down in this part of the ground, but he really needed to let the stadium authorities know about the sinkhole.
‘Right, stay here and I’ll be back as soon as I can convince someone I’m not raving mad.’
Chapter 33
Eoin raced as fast as he could around to the dressing rooms, where he met one of the IRFU officials who had presented the medals.
‘Excuse me, sir, can I have a word?’ he asked.
The man stared down at Eoin, looking puzzled.
‘Sir, I was just over at the far corner of the ground,’ he told him, pointing in the general direction of where he had met Brian and Henry. ‘I wanted to warm down with a jog but the women were on the pitch…’
‘Yes, yes, yes,’ he said impatiently. ‘Now, what’s the problem?’
‘So… Well… I noticed the glass panels in the wall were cracked, and when I looked at the pillars near them, they were cracked too. So, I went into the tunnel and, well, I found this huge sinkhole. The water….
The official’s eyes bulged, and he stammered a reply.
‘A sinkhole?… In the stadium?… Where…’
The man looked around from left to right, trying to find someone who could help. He spotted a policeman and called him over.
‘Tell this garda what you told me while I go and find the manager. It’s over in the north-east corner isn’t it. We’ll see you there.’
The garda grinned at Eoin – ‘You were the lad who found the trophy before Christmas, weren’t you?’ he asked.
Eoin blushed, and remembered that the garda had given him some snacks when he was confined to the garda station before the raid on the thieves’ hideout.
The garda chatted about that night as he led him around the service tunnel, but Eoin wasn’t really listening because his mind was still focused on the pit.
‘Here it is sir,’ he gestured, and the garda switched his torch on to get a better view.
‘Holy moley!’ gasped the policeman. ‘That’s terrifying. Step back, son.’
The garda switched on his radio and asked to speak to his superior officer. He explained what he had seen just as a large group of IRFU and stadium officials arrived.
Eoin again showed them the evidence of the damage and it took just one brief look at the sinkhole for them to spring into action.
Two of the men raced off, bringing back crash barriers which they stretched across the tunnel so no one else could get past. Several other officials shouted into their mobile phones while the stadium manager stood and stared into the hole. He moved away and collared the garda – ‘We’ll have to evacuate the stadium immediately,’ he said. ‘We can’t take any chances with this. The whole stand could collapse – and on live television.’
Eoin nodded and said he’d better go back to change out of his rugby kit in the dressing room.
‘Yes, but hurry,’ said the garda. ‘And don’t bother changing there. Just grab your bag and get out.’
As Eoin jogged back in front of the west stand he saw the fourth official wave the referee towards her and explain that the match would have to be abandoned.
There was much confusion among the players, who stood with their hands on their hips out in the field waiting to see what was happening. But when they heard the stadium announcer say, ‘Please leave the ground via the nearest exit, the game has been abandoned and we must evacuate the stadium’ they realised the seriousness of the matter.
Eoin slipped into the dressing room, where everything had been cleared out except his kit bag. He grabbed it, and took the hanger on which he had left his jacket and trousers and slung them over his shoulders.
As he made for the exit door he saw that someone had come into the room and was now sitting down on one of the benches, his hands on his knees.
‘Henry,’ he gasped. ‘Did you hear they’re evacuating the stadium?’
‘I did, I did,’ he sighed. ‘And I’m mightily saddened that they had to do such a thing. My poor old ground…
‘Did you know when we built the first east stand over there, we got half the Irish Army to fill the upper deck to test its safety before they would let us admit paying customers. The men, in full uniform, had to jump up and down! But it all worked out for the best.’
Eoin suggested they leave, because the officials were concerned the new east stand might collapse – ‘that could even have a domino effect around the ground’ he told Henry.
‘Yes, you must hurry away, but I will stay here. I spent much of my life around here, steadily improving the stadium and making it better and safer. If it’s going to go, then I should go with it. Now leave!’
Eoin nodded, and gathered up his things again and ran. He was probably the last man out of the tunnels, and raced to catch up with the rest of his team who were standing a safe distance away.
‘What kept you, Eoin?’ snapped Neil.
‘Sorry, Coach, I was the one that found the problem. I was showing it to the gardaí.’
‘Oh, I didn’t realise,’ he replied. ‘What exactly did you discover?’
Eoin recounted the story to an ever-growing audience. When he finished he got a clap on the back from Paddy.
‘Fair play Eoin,’ he grinned. ‘And a little help from those ghosts too, no doubt?’
Eoin grimaced and shook his head, trying to make Paddy shut up.
‘Ghosts?’ asked Noah. ‘What ghosts?’
‘Sssshhh,’ said Eoin. ‘Paddy’s only messing.’
Neil took Eoin aside.
‘Eoin, did Paddy mention ghosts? Did you see one?’
Eoin didn’t move, and kept his mouth closed.
‘It’s just that… well there have been rumours about ghosts around the stadium for a long time, but I’ve never heard of anyone meeting one,’ said Neil. ‘Will you tell me more, back in the hotel?’
Eoin nodded gently, and picked up his bag. He had just remembered his parents had been in the stadium and he wanted to make sure they – and Dixie – were safe.
Chapter 34
Eoin found Dixie, Mr Finn and his parents back in the hotel lobby, which was packed with people buzzing around and watching the dramatic happenings at the stadium on television.
‘I was worried about you,’ said his mother, ‘I told Dixie you would surely be nosing around trying to find out what was going on. I’m glad you got out of that place – do you know what’s happening?’
Eoin shrugged. If his mother knew that he had been right at the heart of the action she would be upset. He told them he thought it had been a problem with one of the grandstands and that the engineers were arriving just as he was leaving.
They chatted about the match for a few minutes but everyone was pre-occupied with the drama back at the stadium.
‘I’m going up to lie down,’ said his mum. ‘This excitement is too much for me.’ His parents left the table and Eoin stretched out his legs.
‘So, what really happened, Eoin?’ asked Dixie.
Eoin went red. ‘What do you mean? I told you.’
‘No, you told us some cock and bull story about a problem with the stands,’ the old man smiled. ‘And why did you get out of the stadium ten minutes after everyone else? Mr Finn here saw you come out.’
Eoin looked at the ground. ‘Well… I didn’t want to worry Mam…’
‘That’s fine,’ said Dixie. ‘She does get into a panic about you whenever you’re tackled, so you’re right to keep anything worrying from her. But what actually did happen?’
Eoin shrugged again. ‘Well… I went for a run around the back of the stands and I saw some cracks, and then I found a huge hole in the ground with a river running through it. I got one of the IRFU guys and a garda to take a look, and then I scarpered.’
Dixie looked closely at Eoin.
‘Well,’ he said. ‘That might have frightened your mother right enough. Are they trying to fix it?’
‘I don’t know. There were a couple of frogmen getting ready to go in as I was leaving. I’d say it’s a big job.’
Rugby Heroes Page 8
