As overnight success stories go, DLSP's has only taken 100 years, but suddenly the landmarks keep coming. A draw in their first division home debut come centenary match against Lansdowne, a first win against the holders Constitution, followed up with defeat of AIL kingpins Shannon. Today comes their live television debut.
Rubbing shoulders in such salubrious company is all very new for the once unfashionable Kilternan club. Their only previous competitive meeting in the last 14 years with St Mary's occurred last season when they beat them in the Leinster Senior Cup en route to their first final. Their match-winner that day, as he so often has been, was their brilliant centre, 24-year-old New Zealander Shane Stephens.
Stephens, along with fellow New Zealanders Rowen Frost, a 24-year-old lock of some promise, and back-rowers Tony Giles and Bruce Wood, will be qualified by residency next year and all four were involved in a quasi Leinster trial last Sunday to open Navan's impressive new clubhouse.
Not that DLSP are just about their influx of Kiwis. Far from it, coach Phil Werahiko taking great pride in fielding a Cup side of 15 De La Salle Churchtown recruits last season.
But if Werahiko did nothing else for DLSP, and he's done much more besides, bringing over his protege Stephens has been worth its weight in gold. The two hail from Rotorua ("known to the rest of the world as Vegas," says Stephens jokingly), in the Bay of Plenty.
Stephens actually grew up in a rugby league environment. "All my uncles were professional league players and when I was growing up rugby was a girl's game," he says. For much of his upbringing Stephens played touch rugby and boxed.
A fall-out with the Central Rugby League prompted a switch at 17 to union, where he met Werahiko coaching at club level. The coach watched Stephens progress through the under-age ranks and occasionally the provincial side as a utility back, but he starred more at Sevens.
Werahiko, having cut his coaching teeth at Enniscorthy and moved on to DLSP, had always badgered Stephens to take up union and then every summer cajoled him to come over to Ireland. "He couldn't see a future for me there (in New Zealand)," Stephens recalls. "I was just mucking around, just wasting my time and being a father to my young fella (Stephens became a dad at 17)."
For years Stephens stayed put. "I was too young. I would have missed my mother. When you're that age you don't want to leave your mother or lose your girlfriend. But I had a falling out with my girlfriend and I had nothing to tie me down except my young fella."
Summer sojourns don't give him enough time with his son, but Irish rugby is holding out more opportunities for him. Such is his loyalty to DLSP he wouldn't think of joining another club.
Skill levels have improved immeasurably he says, there's the "training in the mountains" and there's "no barriers between grades". As he's an easy-going lad who mixes well, and is an icon with the mini-rugby sides, the feeling cuts both ways.
"I'm happy to see the club do well, because there's a lot of us playing well not just the Kiwis. There's the young fellas coming through, like Eddie Devitt, Damien McCabe, Simon O'Donnell, the uncompromising Declan O'Brien and Karl `the machine' Condron."
The catalyst all along has been the low-profile Werahiko. "He's unselfish, that's what's good about him," Stephens says. "He's got a goal for the club. I'd follow him anywhere."
How far can DLSP go? "The likes of Mary's and Lansdowne had to start from somewhere," Stephens points out. "To think that DLSP can get there, I want to still be at the club when they do, whether it's playing or just up having a drink with the lads."
As for how far Stephens would like to scale the Irish representative ladder, with his trademark ear-to-ear grin he says: "as far as they'll let me man."
