The Southland Boys’ High School (SBHS) coach is not known for exuberance. Those feet are almost always firmly planted on the ground.
But he was flying last weekend — and who could blame him?
SBHS gutsed their way to a maiden National First XV Championship title with a 32-29 win over Westlake Boys’ in Palmerston North.
They also snaffled the Moascar Cup, the Ranfurly Shield of schoolboy rugby, off Westlake.
Fifteen-year-old fullback Jimmy Taylor will be a hero at school. He knocked over a 40m drop goal in a game that delivered plenty of drama.
Second five Amaziah Mitchell bulldozed his way to the line for a try and was a rock in the midfield. No 8 Justin Shaw’s carving 50m run will go down in school history as one of its great moments.
But put the win down to the collective will of a bunch of players who were much better than most dared to believe.
"You dream these things can happen, and when it becomes real it is hard to believe," Dermody said.
"It’s just unreal."
It is real. And despite the prevailing school of thought the North Island schools would be too big, too fast and too strong for SBHS, they simply were not. SBHS put their powers of tenacity to good use in fighting back from a 19-10 deficit at halftime.
"The last three or four weeks, the boys have just been getting in front of big kids and making tackles," Dermody said.
"Our forward pack went to work on them and that is where we laid the platform ... and as the game went on, we started dominating them.
"They had some really dangerous outside backs, though."
SBHS piled on all the early pressure.
They attacked the line for an impressive number of phases. Nothing worked. Going wide did not work. Going up the guts did not work.
Westlake always had a body in the way.
The Southlanders were forced into taking a few more risks. They let fly with passes a little more marginal in an attempt to find a way around the Westlake wall.
But it was Westlake who found a way through Southland. Powerful centre James Cameron stepped off his left, fended off an opponent and ran in from 25m.
Moments later, fullback Isaac Murray-Macgregor hauled in a grubber just in time to score in the corner.
SBHS responded through Mitchell. He got a cracking ball from first five Rico Muliaina and bounced off several defenders on a nice angled run to the line.
But Murray-Macgregor produced some magic of his own. He stepped a defender and palmed off another. Then a behind-the-back inside pass to winger Reimana Saunderson-Rurawhe moved it from mere brilliant to outrageous.
SBHS rallied. They drove over from a 5m lineout in the final act of the half to cut the gap.
Shaw went on that long run early in the second half and crashed over several phases later.
The tries kept coming. Saunderson-Rurawhe got a second for Westlake, and Kiseki Fifita barged over for SBHS. Taylor’s conversion levelled the scores, 24-24.
SBHS had the momentum and blindside Fraser Wilson dived over from a ruck close to the line. Lock Thomas Spain made a strong carry in the build-up.
With 20 minutes remaining, there was still time to pack in more drama.
Taylor nailed that drop goal, which was just stunning. That pushed SBHS’s lead to 8 points.
Cameron got his team back in the contest with a devastating burst from 30m out. He shook off several tacklers on a beautiful angled run to the corner to set up a tense final 5 minutes.
SBHS captain Gregor Rutledge was ruled out with a shoulder injury, which was desperately disappointing for him.
Lachie Riley stepped up in Rutledge’s absence and "played a blinder".
