If things go well for Peter Dooley in the next fortnight, he’ll make history by becoming Birr RFC’s first Ireland international. The Offaly town may be more synonymous with hurling, but the way things are going the 26-year-old Leinster prop won’t be the last.

At Leinster, he has club-mate Michael Milne breathing down his neck. Jack Regan has just joined the Ospreys after a successful stint in New Zealand. Hooker Shane Delahunt was a standout for Connacht this season. Ireland U-20s hooker Ronan Loughnane is a rising star.

While the hurling club secured four All Ireland titles during its glorious era between 1995 and 2003, the rugby club has plenty to shout about now.

“I know Willie Burns played for the Barbarians,” says Dooley of the prospect of being Birr’s first capped player. 

“He’d be the closest thing to an international. He played with the Baa-Baas. He unfortunately broke his leg before he got to play with Ireland.

“The hurlers a good few years ago . . . (former Offaly star) Johnny Pilkington was wondering what the story with rugby was. My dad would have coached me, all up along and they were all, ‘how do we get Peter back to playing hurling?’ And my dad was saying, ‘I don’t think that’s ever going to happen.’

“It’s unreal for a small club like Birr in a big hurling town can produce players like that I suppose.”

Dooley has earned his right to be here the hard way. A back-row in his school days, he switched to loosehead prop at 17 with help from his Leinster scrum coach Reggie Corrigan. 

He was good enough to earn a spot in the Leinster Academy at a time when Cian Healy and Jack McGrath were the top-ranked Irish No 1s.

Even when McGrath moved on, Dooley found himself behind Ed Byrne in the pecking order.

Patiently, he went about his business with Lansdowne, the ‘A’ side and always impressed when he was picked for the senior team. 

He has 93 appearances to his name and believes he’s hitting his prime.

“You’re human, you’re not playing the big games and everyone wants to play,” he says of biding his time. 

“As a prop, you come into your prime at 25 to 30. Cian is just a freak being around as long as he has but hopefully just biding my time now and sticking with it. Cian and Jack were great mentors, different players and you learn so much from both of them.

“Now I feel in my prime and hopefully that stands to me.”

Physically, Dooley always had the size but having juggled hurling and rugby growing up he had some catching up to do.

“An ounce of breeding is as good as a tonne of feeding,” he smiles. 

“My dad (Gerry) is 6ft 4ins, 24 stone, my mum (Martina) is tiny. Dad would have played with Roscrea all up along and I would remember being in Roscrea clubhouse after matches.

“His friends would all teach me tricks of the trade. My mum would have played hockey in school in town and stuff. She credits me with my speed, not that I have much of it left. I used to be quick enough.

“Dad does see some bits of him in me but he’d a bit of a streak in him where I don’t think I’d be like that.

“After my Leaving Cert I did a summer with Dave Fagan (Leinster sub-academy fitness coach), he whipped me into shape pretty quick. 

“That was my first exposure to a proper training system, proper nutrition. You have the lads in private schools, they’re into that since first year but I’d never been exposed to that. When we were hurling you’d never be told about nutrition, you’d eat whatever and in the gym you’d do whatever.

“To be taught by someone who knows what they’re doing stood to me. You’ve the lads training (in private schools) five times a week, I’d have been hurling five times a week.”

Now, he’s all caught up and on the cusp of an international cap in the next fortnight and with fans back in the stadiums it’ll be extra special.

“It’ll be great to have friends and family, I remember the lads who won their first caps in the November internationals and it was tough,” he says.

“It’s why you play rugby, to make your family and friends proud. To have them there would be even more special.”