Cool Cat Dowling on right track

IT all began for Ian Dowling on a lovely spring afternoon in 2004.

Shannon were taking on Cork Constitution in the AIB League Final at Lansdowne Road. The Kilkennyman, 23 at the time, was a Shannon substitute and to be so close to the action at his theatre of dreams was a thrill in itself.

And then, with 15 minutes to go, he got the call to enter the fray and by day’s end Dowling had his first AIL medal and kick-started a rugby career that seemed stuck in neutral.