Top Cat Dowling on form and ready for impact

WHEN HE arrived, it was somehow out of the blue. Even Munster supporters were jolted by Ian Dowling’s immediate impact.

One Saturday, he’s playing for Shannon in front of a couple of hundred supporters in the AIL; the next week, he’s in a red shirt for a glamour Heineken Cup tie away to Castres in the south of France. There was a sizeable Kilkenny following there, that cold January night in 2006, and he felt right at home.

“There is a group of lads from the rugby club (Kilkenny RFC) that travel to all the games. When I’m involved in these games, I always see them and meet up with them afterwards. They somehow get onto the pitch too. I remember that game against Castres, my first away game. My nickname back home was ‘Skinny’ and I could hear that from the stands. That was fairly comforting for me.”

Supporters took to him. He played with heart, a joie de vivre and pocketed a Heineken Cup medal.

He described that season as a rollercoaster ride, not that it affected his game but during the following season, when Munster were feeling the pinch of transition, he felt his own game reached a plateau. Left out of the Ireland A squad that subsequently stitched together a commendable campaign in the Churchill Cup in England last summer, it was time for a career reassessment.

“Two years ago it was an absolute rollercoaster ride for me. I had just come in from Shannon, I had no previous experience as a professional at any sort of level, even at Academy or any level like that. I was holding onto my spot but I was in awe of some of the lads I was playing with.

“When I didn’t make the A tour, I felt my career could have gone one or two ways: I could have struggled to get a contract this year or else I could use it as motivation to spur me on, to take my game to the next level.”

He took his own path to reinvent himself, but firstly he needed to clear his mind of rugby before even thinking about stepping back into the fire.

“I just needed to take a break from the game in the off-season. I went to Australia for the month off. It was probably one of the best things I ever did. I met up with mates back home in Kilkenny and we travelled down the east coast. Then the day I got back, everything was set to go.

“This year I have stepped up a bit, and I feel I’ve taken my game to a new level, whereas last year I took a step back. I thought I maybe had plateaud. This year I’ve looked at new aspects of my game and I have been quite happy with the results.”

AND YET, you look at Ian Dowling and see a Kilkenny man with Munster in his blood, an underdog on a three-quarter line replete with Ireland internationals, a New Zealand Maori captain (Rua Tipoki) and an All Black legend (Doug Howlett). But even as the back line was in a state of flux, he managed to hold onto his place despite the Kiwi presence, Brian Carney and a young buck in Keith Earls coming up. It appears the bigger the star arriving in Munster back line, the more he’s able to raise his game to a new level.

“Sometimes you can level off, get into a comfort zone, which is fairly dangerous,” explains Dowling. “When Dougie arrived, the bar went to a completely new level. It was brilliant because you have to step up to that mark. If you don’t step up, there is so much strength in depth in this squad now that there are players to take your place.

“They bring a whole new dynamic to the game. It’s absolutely brilliant because you can pick their brains for different things.

“Dougie’s lines of running are outstanding. The unfortunate thing for me is that I only had a few games to play alongside him. I look back on the games I have played with him and there were one or two times I didn’t pick up in his lines of running. I hope that will come in time.”

He may have battled with his mind last summer, but he had to overcome adversity during Christmas after twisting a knee in a fairly innocuous tackle against Connacht at Musgrave Park. Like any player, he feared the worst.

“During the Connacht game, it was tough. On the night, I thought it was my cruciate so I was just a bit panicked because I thought that’s my season over, six months, gone. That freaked me out most. Fortunately it was my medial. A lot of credit has to go to the medics and coaching staff, who I worked very closely with.

“I’m very happy with the results.”

He missed the last two Heineken Cup pool games but worked his way back into the side and, after his heroics in the Gloucester game, he has his eyes fixed on another Heineken Cup title, believing it would mean more to the greater Munster family to win it a second time.

“I look at players like John Kelly and Anthony Foley, they’re legends of Munster rugby, yet John has already finished up and Anthony is due to finish up this season.

“It would be a fitting tribute to them if we could somehow pull this one out of the bag and send them off with a second Heineken Cup medal.”

And a tribute also to the Kilkenny man’s perseverance.