Sensational World Cup call up for scrum half Power

Keith Kelly

THE sporting world has many tales of meteoric rises dotted amongst its history, but few can surely match that of a Galway City native who has gone from a training run-around to being selected for his country in the space of just two months.

Paul Power from Ravens Terrace has been named in the Irish Rugby League squad for the Student World Cup, which takes place in England next month, and as the NUI Galway student readily admits, no-one has been more surprised by the international call-up than himself.

A member of Galwegians RFC since U-8 level, the 19-years-old comes from a well-known sporting family: his uncle, Eamon Maguire, played for Connacht, and his family – including parents Regina and Tom – are well known in the city.

The former Coláiste Iognáid student, who has just completed First Year Commerce in NUIG, decided to join the Galway Titans rugby league squad – which trains in South Park every Tuesday and Thursday evening – for the Summer months to maintain fitness.

His first competitive game was against Limerick, in which he scored two tries and set up three others. What he didn’t know at the time was the manager of the Limerick squad was also the Irish manager. Brief as it is, the rest, as they say, is history.

“He came over to me after the game and asked would I be interested in having a trial for the Irish student squad, I went up to Dublin to join the extended squad in DCU, and after that was named in the squad for the Student World Cup,” explains Power, who has been completely bowled over by the events of the past two months.

He readily admits to having a little bit of luck along the way – the 24-strong Irish squad for next month’s World Cup campaign was selected back in January, but when one of the players picked up an injury, it left a vacancy which Power has been selected to fill.

“Oh, it’s totally crazy, it really is – I’ve played three competitive games, and now I am going to the World Cup with my country,” says the young scrum-half.

It will be a baptism of fire for the Irish side, who have been drawn in a pool with Wales, South Africa and hosts, England, but the Irish side have no intention of travelling just to make up the numbers.

“The game is really growing here – the lads with Titans said that, even compared to last year, the increase in interest has been massive. A lot of ‘union’ lads play ‘league’ during the Summer to stay fit and to continue to have a sporting outlet, and more and more of them are deciding to switch code completely,” he says.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune