Doughal O'Reilly is still smiling – and pinching himself – about his NSW call-up, which has the McCarthy student on the cusp of the most prestigious honour in schoolboys rugby – an Australian Schoolboys jersey.
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The 17-year old has been in camp in Sydney this week as he prepares to pack down for the NSW Schools 2 side at the Australian Schools Rugby Championships.
Featuring the best schoolboys rugby talent in the country, the championships kick-off at St Ignatius College Riverview on Saturday, and will see O’Reilly lining up alongside Farrer’s Hagan Size.
Former Gunnedah junior Nicholas Murray will meanwhile play for the Combined States team.
For O’Reilly the opportunity to represent his state is a team come true.
“This has been my dream since I can remember,” he said.
“I never thought I’d get this far but here I am just doing what I love.”
The two NSW sides were confirmed following last Friday’s inter-school games, where O’Reilly started – and impressed – at six for Combined Catholic Colleges in their clash against Combined Associated Schools.
O’Reilly didn’t learn of his selection though until he was half-way home after inadvertently providing the wrong phone number.
“I was that happy I couldn’t believe it, I couldn’t stop smiling. I’m still smiling,” he said.
He was happy with his performance against CAS, which followed games against Combined High Schools (CHS) and Independent Schools Association (ISA).
“I thought I performed pretty well in Sydney but as a young player there’s still areas of the game I need to work on to improve my overall performance in games,” O’Reilly said.
“I was very sore after which is usually a good sign that I threw myself around the paddock getting the job done.”
It was his first year playing for Combined Catholic Colleges. He signed up to trial in 2016 but was then – the week before the trials – selected in the NSW Country under-16s side.
Excited by the chance to represent Country for the first time he elected to follow that pathway instead.
Also making the NSW Junior 2’s side that played last Thursday, O’Reilly faced the same decision this year but opted to try out for the schoolboys side.
He said being selected in the NSW side means a lot to him and is grateful to all the people that have helped him get this far, especially his dad, who has coached him since he was five.
O’Reilly has this season been training with Pirates’ first grade squad and believes that has helped develop his game.
“It’s given me that exposure to that level of footy I needed to help me better handle myself in the big, physical games that I have coming up,” he said.
“I have taken all the knowledge the men and coach Mat Kelly have given me and work hard to incorporate it into my game.”
“As a 17-year old coming out of juniors I was pretty green, I needed the discipline and structure that comes with first grade.”
A Country junior since 2016, and has been described by his forwards coach the last two years – Scott Hatch – as ‘a damaging ball runner, who always takes the team over the advantage line and in defence is often brutal with his front on defence’.
It is his personality though that Hatch rates as O’Reilly’s biggest strength.
NSW play Combined States in their first game.
