‘Carlos Gives The Whole Team Confidence’ – Gabriel On Terenure’s Strong Start Under Spencer

His father, Thomas, was chatting with a friend who happened to own the place. Soon came the idea that maybe his son’s rugby team should go on a tour abroad, somewhere they could go and play against a top side.

Before long, it was arranged that a group of Austrian teenagers would travel to Dublin to face Terenure College, one of the great nurseries of Leinster Schools rugby.

It was supposed to be a novelty, a few days of exposure to a high level of schoolboy rugby. Instead, it became the starting point of something far greater.

Playing against opponents two years older, bigger, faster, and far more drilled, the young out-half from Vienna was the one who stole the show.

Not only was everyone blown away by this young kid, he caught the eye of Terenure’s coach, Sean Skehan. From there the question was would he be interested in coming to Dublin, and playing for Terenure College?

Gabriel did not hesitate. He was fourteen, spoke little English, and had never lived outside Austria. But he said yes.

“My dad’s friend owns a bar in Austria, it was just like a little tour,” he told IrishRugby.ie this week. “I think I was in my second year at the time, we were playing the fourth years.

“Then they came over and asked if I wanted to play with the school. It was an easy enough decision to accept it, (I) just wanted to go for it.”

He arrived in Dublin with his kitbag and a head full of questions. At home, rugby had been a family ritual, even if it existed very much on the sporting margins locally.

His father and uncle had both played for Austria. His dad had helped to start a club in Vienna, a club built out of love more than infrastructure, and later became President of the Austrian Rugby Federation.

But the sport was a small world there. A handful of clubs, barely any pitches, and sometimes not enough players to make up a team.

“When I started, there were only three lads at training. We had one other team we could play against.

“Rugby in Austria, there’s not really a position where you play. Just kind of play wherever, kind of just loosely around the park.”

In that landscape, the Energia All-Ireland League felt like a distant planet. He had watched whatever games he could, sometimes Leinster, sometimes Ireland, whatever was streamed on the screens at an Irish bar in Vienna, as there were no TV channels showing games.

Still, what struck him was not the grand stages of Test rugby, but the intimacy of club games.

“When I was in school, I used to love watching AIL games more than internationals,” he admitted. “I didn’t really know about the various divisions of the AIL.

I kind of slightly knew about the Schools Cup, but nothing else really to be fair when I just came over because it was all so new to me. I really enjoy playing in the AIL, it’s very competitive.

“The standard is way higher than when I was playing at home. I loved going down to watch games because it’s so close. It was always fun when I was younger.

“Obviously you play against loads of players who are also in Academies but also against loads of ex-pros, and just like more physical and faster people.”

When he arrived in Ireland, he found out just how real it could be. The first few months were an education not just in rugby, but in everything else – new customs, new accents, and the support that would become a fabric in his life.

Laughing about it now, the recently-turned 20-year-old recalls: “At the start, I thought they had dinner way too early! The language was another thing. I didn’t really understand much at the start.

“I was just sitting in school not understanding anything, so that was quite difficult at the start, but then after like four months I kind of copped on to it.

“Like, I couldn’t understand a single word at the start, but to be fair the lads also said sometimes they don’t understand me either.”

Moving from home at such a young age is certainly daunting. He was 14 when he set on this journey from Vienna to Dublin, and Gabriel lived with host families during his school years, many miles away from his native land, having learn to grow up quickly.

“I wasn’t really thinking of it but I probably was a bit scared, especially at the start when I knew no one. It was very weird like waking up in a completely different place and everything, like you didn’t really have mom to help you with everything.

“At that age you had to live like a grown man. That was difficult at the start. I lived with different host families over the school years.

“But then once I finished school, I was lucky enough to get into the Academy house with Leinster. I’m happy in the house, good craic living with a few lads, especially when you have a game day and play one of the house-mates.

“Always good craic the night before, or like during the day or during the game, a bit of chirping and stuff.”

Belonging is a word that comes up often when he speaks, sometimes softly, sometimes with quiet conviction. Because for all the layers of his story, the Austrian youngster who became a Leinster Academy player, what defines it most is how deeply he has thrown himself into Irish Rugby life.

Through school and club, Terenure became home. Skehan’s early mentorship was followed by a place in the senior squad, where Gabriel quickly grew into one of the club’s brightest prospects.

His cool and calm composure, his range of kicking and passing, his natural attacking sense and athleticism, all of it stood out.

But more than that, his story resonated. Here was a player from outside the traditional rugby conveyor belt, now making an impact at one of the best clubs in the country.

When he finished school, Gabriel not only stepped up the ranks in Terenure, he also joined the Leinster Academy. By the time he pulled on the Leinster senior jersey for the first time last month, just a week after playing for the province’s ‘A’ team, the weight of the moment was not lost on him.

From the scarce rugby pitches of Vienna to Terenure’s beloved Lakelands Park and the hallowed turf of the Aviva Stadium, the journey has already been extraordinary for the talented half-back.

Yet for all that has happened so far, it still feels like the early chapters of something much bigger, a story that began with a coincidence and has turned, slowly but surely, into something close to destiny.

A boy who grew up in Vienna, now standing in the Aviva Stadium, representing his adopted province, it was the kind of scene few could have imagined back when he first laced up a pair of boots. And back home, his old club Donau Wien were also cheering him on.

Speaking about his Leinster debut off the bench against Zebre Parma, he said: “Yeah, it was class, unbelievable feeling obviously especially in the Aviva Stadium. Like, such a cool stadium to play in.

“All the lads were really helpful as well, so it made it a bit easy to get prepared because everybody was just so helpful. It was really enjoyable, I must say.

“My dad flew over for it. He had just come over for the Leinster-Munster ‘A’ game the week before, and my mom also because it was my birthday at that time.

“All the lads and friends back home had a watch party in the rugby club. It’s very cool I think, getting all the nice texts before the game from all the friends and family members. Everything was very, very cool, I thought.

“It was kind of more nerve-racking because I haven’t played before for the first team, but the weeks are pretty similar and like everything else, you just have to know your stuff – the same for the Munster ‘A’ game.

“It was quite similar enough, kind of like the same just like a bit more nerve-racking, because obviously I haven’t played in that competition (the BKT United Rugby Championship) before.”

Those who have tracked his rise note not just his talent, but his balance. Gabriel speaks about rugby with curiosity rather than ego, and about learning as much as leading. His approach is simple, study the best, ask questions, and stay patient.

Being an out-half obviously comes with a high degree of pressure. Gabriel is calm in his demeanour. From sitting in school not knowing what was being said at the start, he now asks questions of those who began their rugby careers long before he was trying to squeeze his way through Irish bars to watch games.

Agreeing that he has had some great role models and great people to learn from, he explained: “When I watch training back, I especially watch Sam Prendergast and Harry Byrne, the way they play because they just play such good rugby.

“I’m trying to learn from watching them or even when I watch the Leinster games, watch what they do to kind of get maybe a few things into my game from them.

“They are like role models at the moment, but I think when Jordie Barrett was over I asked him a lot of questions. If I didn’t have an answer, he would help me a lot as well.

“I was kind of always a 10 fan. Dan Carter and Johnny Sexton. I think my favourite player in 2015, I was 10 at the time, was Bernard Foley, he was the Australia starting 10. Those three were kind of the three I looked up to.”

That studiousness has helped him navigate the intensity of life in the Leinster system, where competition is relentless and standards uncompromising.

“It’s really cool, especially with both groups. Watching Terenure when I was still in school and knowing of them, and obviously Leinster as well.

“It was kind of always one step, always a bit bigger, always a bit faster, and then with Leinster even bigger and even faster and even quicker the whole game, so steps were quite the same but just like different levels to it, I would say.

“With Leinster, it is a bit more difficult because in the club game you get like players that are kind of not aligned, because they don’t train as much because they have part-time jobs.

“But in Leinster playing professional rugby is the main job so everyone is aligned and everybody knows their roles, so it’s kind of difficult sometimes, because they’re just like so on top of their stuff.”

As Gabriel has risen through the ranks from school to playing in the URC, a lot of talk has followed. As he speaks, there is a sense of perspective that feels older than his years.

He does not talk about grand ambitions or international dreams. If there is one constant in the story of Caspar Gabriel, it is patience.

That perspective maybe comes from the unusual path he ha taken, one that began far from the Academies and rugby nurseries most of his peers emerged from.

He knows what it means to adapt. He knows the feeling from sitting in a classroom not understanding a word, moving to a new country where you know no one and the culture is different.

He knows that every time he walks onto a pitch now, whether for Terenure or Leinster, he carries a little piece of Vienna with him.

He is acutely aware of how others see him and talk about him – the prodigious Austrian-born out-half in Irish Rugby, the Austrian sensation, the next big thing to come out of the schools system, the novelty that quickly became a narrative – but he tries to keep it at arm’s length.

“I don’t really like when people write stuff like that,” he admits. “It adds pressure and when you have Sam Prendergast, Harry Byrne, and Ciarán Frawley ahead of me, when people compare me to them, I find it a bit weird to be honest.

“I don’t really like thinking into the future because it’s a big pathway to go through, especially with Sam Prendergast playing unbelievable rugby at the moment, same as Harry Byrne having an unbelievable season.

“I kind of just focus on getting better each day and just working on my own skills to get better for Terenure as well, and even when I have a chance to play for Leinster just kind of attack that and don’t really think too much ahead.

“I like to focus on my own game and not read too much into what is said. Just putting the head down and trying to get better everyday for Terenure and Leinster, and then just see what the future brings.”

Away from Leinster, he scored 26 points in Terenure’s recent Division 1A wins over Lansdowne and Ballynahinch. Terenure, his home away from home, is a club that shares a special place in his heart alongside his native Donau Wien.

Gabriel has had some top notch coaching since he landed in Ireland and this season, the arrival of Carlos Spencer, the former All Black, has added a new layer of creativity to ‘Nure’s already fluid attacking style.

The 2023 champions have started the league campaign strongly, and Gabriel has played his part, helping them to currently sit second in the tabe. For a young playmaker, it is a dream scenario having Spencer as his head coach at the club.

It is perhaps no coincidence that his own confidence has risen even more in recent months. His game has become bolder, his presence more assured, the moments where he takes control more frequent, as Spencer has told him just go for it.

“Kind of since I started in school with Terenure, I had a class coach in Sean Skehan, then had him first year out of school with Terenure as well. Obviously the Leinster coaching staff are just class as well, and then now this year with Carlos Spencer in Terenure.

“He is class to have at the club, coming from world-class coaches in Leinster to another world-class coach in Terenure. It’s always exciting coming to Terenure for training when you see him on the sideline.

“He helps me play with confidence cause he tells us to go for it if it’s on and allows us to try stuff on the pitch. I think it’s just he gives the whole team confidence, being able to throw a ball around.

“You don’t have to overthink, stick with your decision. He kind of told us if there’s space on, just go for it and stuff like that. That’s what I really like about him.”

Saturday afternoon brings one of those fixtures that defines the Dublin rugby calendar, the D6W derby, as Terenure play host to unbeaten Division 1A leaders St. Mary’s College at Lakelands Park (kick-off 3pm – live on irishrugby+).

For Gabriel, unfortunately he is unavailable for the top of the table clash, but will be amongst the supporters like he was as a kid. There are vital league points on the line, and those all important local bragging rights.

“We started very well this season, I think we learned well from the game down in Cork against Cork Con (losing 42-14), obviously it wasn’t one of our better games.

“But I think Carlos kind of gave us confidence to forget that as quickly as possible and focus on the next game, so I think we’ve gone well since then.

“Over the years Mary’s was always a big game and (it was) extra special playing against them. Probably one of the toughest games I have played was always against Mary’s.

“I think Mary’s is always a big one to make sure of trying to win because the rivalry starts at first year already from what I heard anyways.

“It was third year when I came into the school. Once I started going to school, the Mary’s game was my first game ever for Terenure. It kind of made me understand how important it is to win that game,” he added.

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