GARRYOWEN Football Club might be a name that is know for invoking dread, but when Harper Kemp mentions it he has a tone of excitement in his voice.
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That is because the 18-year-old Bathurst rugby union talent has signed up to wear the sky blue and white of the Irish rugby powerhouse for the upcoming season.
It is a club which, in its 125-year history has been crowned an All Ireland League champion three times and won the Munster Senior Cup 37 times - a record no rival can match.
Kemp knows joining such a club will help him further develop his skills and could provide him with future opportunities in his chosen sport.
"Their seniors are a div one team, they are a fairly well established club, they have been there since 1884," Kemp said.
"I am very excited. They've signed me up for the whole season. Rugby is huge over there, so when I first started looking into it, I thought it would be a great opportunity to develop my game and become a better player."
Linking with Garryowen, which is based in country Limerick, is a big step for Kemp but he is by no means a stranger to rugby challenges.
In 2018 he was a member of the Saint Stanislaus' College first XV which placed second in the ISA competition, while he spent this Australian season in the red and white of the Canberra Vikings' under 20s outfit.
"We ended up playing against the winning team - Queanbeyan - in the minor semi and got knocked out. So that meant we ended up in fourth place, but you know, we were all pretty happy with," Kemp said.
"The standard was pretty solid, there were definitely four or five teams in there who were pretty good. It was not a huge step up from the school comp, but there definitely was a step."
During his time at the Vikings, Kemp also switched from the front row role he filled at Stannies to being a back before settling in as a flanker.
"I've changed around a lot the last couple of years. My last season with Stannies I was tight-head prop, I've had some time in the backs with Vikings, on the wing and in the centres and that was back to under 14s under 15s days - it was a bit of a change," he said.
"There were some very solid boys in the Canberra comp."
But the lure of playing in the United Kingdom - something a number of his rugby mates had done - has now led Kemp to another club and a new challenge.
He had interest from Highfield in which is based in County Cork, but decided to go the club that boasts "where e'er we go they dread the name of Garryowen".
