Just outside Dublin is eight-decade-old Rush CC, which honed the skills of Eoin Morgan and William Porterfield
Tim Wigmore23-Jan-2015Surrounded by concrete walls on three sides, the ground has 50-foot-high netting to prevent sixes flying over the short boundary into the houses along the fourth. Straight hits head towards a doctor’s house and grounds on one side and a bare field on the other, and there is a church across the road from the main entrance. There are also vicious northeasterly winds and the threat of “fog stopped play” during the summer months.Situated 30km north of Dublin, there seems little remarkable about Rush Cricket Club, a Division Two team in the Leinster league. It is a world away from the World Cup venues that can house many times this seaside village’s population of 10,000.Yet Rush has a unique role to play in the 2015 World Cup. It is a club that can claim to have developed two captains in the tournament. The new England captain, Eoin Morgan, grew up playing for Rush, his local club. Ireland skipper William Porterfield would later hone his game at the club in 2006 and 2007.In their different ways, Morgan and Porterfield are examples of the resurgence in Irish cricket. It is apt that Rush can claim a part in their success because, during Irish cricket’s dark ages in the 20th century, it was clubs like these that kept the flame alive. Despite the stigma of being seen as an English sport, and the difficulty caused by the Gaelic Athletic Association banning its members from playing or even watching the sport until 1971, cricket stubbornly remained an important part of sporting life in North County Dublin. Cricket clubs were maintained in areas that had once hosted the game on great landed estates. Rush was formed in 1931. It has played on its current ground since 1969, when the Kenure landed estate was broken up.Rush has largely been sustained by the commitment of a few cricketing families, of whom the Morgans are among the most prominent. “Eoin was very wise in cricket – I think he got that from his family,” recalled Niall Mullen, a team-mate in Rush’s youth teams. “He would have learned a lot from his father and his brothers. He had no option but to play cricket.”While Morgan has become renowned as a tricksy 360-degree batsman, growing up he was very different. “He was very orthodox – especially for his age,” said Mullen, who did not remember Morgan playing any reverse sweeps or switch hits. “I would never really have seen him play shots like that. They say it’s from hurling. I think he’s just developed the shots himself.”His unorthodoxy may have come later, but Morgan’s talent and zest for the game were always palpable. “There was something different about him growing up,” Mullen recalled. “The ambition with him – it was obvious he was going to go far. He’d never miss a training session. He’d be offering to play at all levels.”A seven-year-old Morgan even played in an All-Ireland Senior Cup game in the north. “It was never a big ask for him. He fit in everywhere.” In Rush’s third XI, Morgan was often captained by his father, Jody.This slight boy had tenacity to match his talent. Fintan McAllister, a team-mate of Morgan’s and a long-time family friend, recalled: “It didn’t matter what pace anyone was bowling at him – even adults and overseas professionals – nothing ever fazed him.” The young Morgan made up for his lack of height with a destructive pull shot.But just as Ireland would be denied the full fruits of Morgan’s talents, so would Rush. He played his last game for the club at the age of 11. “From a young age he just wanted to play at the highest standard – that’s just who Eoin was,” McAllister said.So while his brother Gavin continued to play for Rush, Eoin moved to Malahide Cricket Club, which plays at the idyllic ground that Ireland packed 10,000 into against England in September 2013. The two brothers faced each other in the 2002 All-Ireland final. While Malahide won, Gavin won the fraternal battle: he scored 26 to Eoin’s 9, and dismissed his younger brother to boot. “I just remember Gavin when he got Eoin out did a little jump over the stumps,” McAllister remembered.Rush was to play a very different role in the development of Eoin’s friend William Porterfield. In 2006, Porterfield was just completing a degree at Leeds Metropolitan University, and after several years playing county 2nd XI cricket and for the MCC Young Cricketers, was on the periphery of the Ireland squad. Ireland coach Adi Birrell suggested that Porterfield move from Derry to play club cricket for Rush, which is said to have one of the finest batting wickets in Leinster. And though two years older than Morgan, Porterfield was regarded as one of the finest batting talents in Ireland. “Growing up we would have heard about William – they were compared to each other,” reflected Mullen. “But Eoin stood out a lot more than William.”Porterfield came to the club on the recommendation of the Ireland coach•Getty ImagesWhile Porterfield’s run-scoring perhaps fell a little short of expectations – “I think that was just getting to know a new team,” Mullen said – he still displayed hints of the leadership qualities he would later exhibit for the national side. McAllister remembers Porterfield as “a natural leader” with “a real good cricketing brain” and “someone that the whole team gets on with and everyone in the team respects”.And then there was his fielding. Inspired by Porterfield, Ireland’s fielding was a hallmark in the last two World Cups. “He just seemed to pull off some unbelievable stops and catches at backward point,” recalled McAllister. “It was always like, ‘You have to see Porterfield fielding.'”As England and Ireland have been drawn in different groups, it is unlikely that Morgan and Porterfield will face each other on the field, but Rush will still be proud of the part it has played in developing two captains at the Word Cup. “That’s what we’re hoping to advertise this year. It’s probably not known too much now and it’ll be nice to get Rush on the map,” said Mullen, now the club treasurer.Reflecting the wider transformation of the game in Ireland, Rush’s youth set-up has boomed since Morgan’s days there. It now has three Under-11 sides compared to one when Morgan played. “We’ve an awful lot of youth coming through,” said Mullen. “We’re a small club but we’re hoping to achieve big things in the future.”
