RUGBY
Athy’s Loughman stars in Munster win
By Daire Walsh
ATHY’S Jeremy Loughman produced a man of the match display at the Liberty Stadium in Swansea on Saturday as Munster enjoyed a winning start to their Heineken Champions Cup Pool Four campaign.
The former Ardscoil na Trionoide student grabbed a first half try against Ospreys and proved to be a worth choice for the individual award in the aftermath of the contest. Keith Earls, Andrew Conway and James Cronin also crossed over to ensure it was a bonus point triumph for Johann van Graan’s men.
Following a difficult spell at Leinster – where he found himself in direct competition with the likes of Cian Healy, Jack McGrath, Peter Dooley and Ed Byrne at loosehead prop – Loughman initially joined the southern province on a three-month development contract in December 2017.
This ultimately turned into a permanent deal and the past 12 months has seen the underage prodigy becoming a familiar part of the furniture in Limerick. Despite being behind Dave Kilcoyne in the pecking order, the Cork man is now a permanent resident in the Ireland camp and is therefore marked absent for Munster during the international window.
Kilcoyne is enjoying an extended period of recuperation after the World Cup and didn’t make the trip to Wales at the weekend. This presented Loughman with an ideal opportunity to stake his claim and in addition to grabbing a five-pointer of his own, he played a superb pass out wide to Chris Farrell in the lead-up to Conway’s try.
With 27 senior caps now under his belt, the 24-year-old will hope to figure in Munster’s home assignment against Racing 92 on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Kill native James Tracy appeared off the bench in Leinster’s 33-19 win over Benetton at the RDS on Saturday afternoon. It was an accomplished display overall from Leo Cullen’s men, who remain unbeaten in all competitions so far this term.
This game represented a return to club action for a host of the province’s World Cup contingent – most notably skipper Jonathan Sexton and Garry Ringrose. While Sexton contributed 11 points – including a second period touchdown – in a typically assertive display, it was the latter who stole the show in Ballsbridge.
Regarded as one of the better performers during Ireland’s ill-fated odyssey in Japan, Ringrose bagged a hat-trick to help the blues claim maximum points on their first day out in Europe. This was Tracy’s seventh appearance of the season, but he is facing fresh competition for the number two shirt in 2019/20.
Ronan Kelleher had six tries in five starts prior to the weekend’s fare and he capped another industrious performance with his seventh on home soil. There are calls for an injection of fresh blood into the Irish side for next year’s Six Nations Championship and the Dubliner appears to be a prime candidate for a call-up under new head coach Andy Farrell.
Though this is a somewhat frustrating spell for Tracy, he is in line to make his 100th Leinster appearance when they square off with Top 14 pace-setters Lyon this weekend.