Croke Park's special status for Munster star who urges the Reds to show they aren't one-hit wonders
Facing Leinster at GAA HQ excites Munster's Jeremy Loughman, who played Gaelic Football for Athy and says the URC win over Ospreys is the perfect stepping-stone
Croke Park is a special place for Jeremy Loughman - and he hopes it's where Munster show they are no one hit wonders.
Loughman spent his early years in the US and then in England, but when his family moved home to Athy he played Gaelic Football and Rugby for the local clubs in the Kildare town through his early teenage years.
Current Kildare star Kevin Feely is a bit older but Loughman remembers him at the club when he was younger, and plenty more. "Niall Kelly, Dave Hyland, all those lads," he smiled.
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READ MORE:Munster Rugby must lean into Croke Park novelty factor v Leinster - Graham Rowntree
"Yeah, I enjoyed it, I never really got past playing for Athy though in county finals or whatever."
His favourite position? "Ah, I was a bit everywhere," grinned Loughman, who is now a Test prop. "Full forward was my preferred position, sometimes a bit midfield, but there's a lot more running in Gah than there is in rugby, so full forward suited me a bit better!".
He also recalls his former Munster team-mate Joey Carbery playing for Athy. "Joey played a bit," said the 29-year-old. "Centre forward or wing forward, he was serious, he was everywhere. He had all the skills."
Loughman was 11 when he was brought to the historic 2007 meeting of Ireland and England in the Six Nations at the GAA's HQ. "It was a special day," he recounts.
Between that experience and his Athy GAA grounding, Croke Park quickly came to be a "special place" in his mind and Loughman understands that playing there against Leinster on Saturday could be a unique, one-off moment in the careers of the Munster players.
It is 15 years since the province last played on Jones's Road, after all. "Exactly, yeah, that's the really special thing. It's one of those stadiums," said Loughman.
"Because I played Gah when I was younger, you see that. You go to the games there, you see how special it is and then you get a taste of it for those few massive games - you remember all those big games that were played there like the Leinster-Munster game, Ireland-England is obviously a very special one for me, the Leinster game there last year.
"And it's a huge occasion. Like, I saw the tickets are up around 70-something thousand there, that's incredible. So it's something special to look forward to but it's just another game, too, you have to think like that. You can't get carried away now. Ah, we'll be buzzing going into that now so that the game kind of takes care of itself in that way, really."
So no motivation is required and while Munster are already laden down with injury absentees, the Reds are feeling buoyant again after putting their Zebre horror show to bed.
Saturday night's emphatic 23-0 bonus point victory over Ospreys in the wind and rain in Cork has set the bar for Graham Rowntree's men - and especially for the pack, after a dominant scrum performance. "Exactly, yeah, it shows that's what we are, that's what we do," Loughman stated.
"The two weeks before, there were some good elements and some disappointing elements, but I think we're back on track and now and we've just got to back that up, that's the main thing. We can't let it be a one-hit wonder.
"The most exciting thing from the game, to get the four tries was nice and to be clinical, but to keep them to zero was really nice, especially after the last two weeks but especially after last week. Personally for us front five, that was a nice outcome there."
The loosehead revealed that the effort to atone for the loss to Zebre was largely player-driven, that Tuesday was a good day in terms of reviews and a session that washed away the shock and hurt and forced a reset.
"That's an excellent stepping stone there," he said of their second victory after three rounds. We got our defence (right), we got that pressure kind of game that you have to practice in those conditions which will transfer to this week.
"Hopefully the weather is a bit better and we get to play a bit more ball - and hopefully we'll see a few more of those tries like the one at the end."
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