A free pass into the quarter-finals without having to so much as travel to the ground should, you might imagine, be a relief. For some maybe, but for Rory O’Loughlin the sense of anti-climax was all the more pronounced as he hadn’t started a Heineken Champions Cup game since the opening pool win over Benetton in November 2019.
Since then, his only European game time had been the final quarter of the quarter-final defeat by Saracens last September. While some of his team-mates had heard the rumours that a Toulon player had tested positive and the game was in doubt, O’Loughlin admits wryly: “I was actually completely clueless. I’d just finished my pre-match meal and we got a notification on the app to say to get on a Zoom call in five minutes which doesn’t usually happen. So I just typed ‘Toulon Leinster’ into Twitter and saw what had been going around so after that I knew what the story would be.
“I think it was an hour and a half away from travelling up to Leinster to get the bus down to the stadium, it was a big come down I suppose.”
A gym session to burn off energy was a poor substitute before sitting down to watch the rest of the weekend’s last 16 ties.
“There’s a flatness to watching the games. Even though we were in the next round it was disappointing not to have got our chance to play, especially against a team of Toulon’s quality and it’s always great playing in Europe. Obviously we’re delighted to be in the quarter-final but it was disappointing not to be able to play and for it to be called so late.”
O'Loughlin has palpable sympathy for Garry Ringrose after his latest mishap – the ankle injury he suffered in Ireland's win over Scotland – afforded him a run of matches, for he's had own share of woes.
It was in that Benetton game that O’Loughlin suffered the shoulder injury which, ultimately, would sideline him for over nine months due to Covid and a setback in training which required another operation.
“That was my fourth in my career, so a lot of doubt came into my mind about the fitness of my body and whether I could string games together, and how long it would take for me to get back to being robust.”
The Toulon game would have been his seventh start in a row after completing 80 minutes in six games, thus removing those doubts in his mind.
“The body now finally feels good and I’m back to where I was two years ago in terms of being able to back up performances week after week and not having any doubt in my body.
“You’re more confident going into collisions and tackles. And at the end of the day, you perform better when you’re not tentative at all, and that’s why I’m delighted to be in that position physically coming into games that are so big, and getting the opportunity now.”
Indeed the Guinness Pro 14 final last Saturday week was his first start in a knock-out game of any kind since the titanic quarter-final against Ulster in March 2019, when a hamstring injury forced him off at half-time, as well as his first start in a final.
“I was quite nervous going into it because I’d played a number of Pro 14 games before but not knockout games against Munster with so much on the line.
“I was happy with how I played, in defence in particular. I thought myself and Robbie [Henshaw] worked quite well together. There were a few opportunities in attack that looking back in the reviews I’m kicking myself over but, again, that’s why last week I was looking forward to getting back out there and trying to improve in that area.
“So hopefully this weekend, both sides of the ball, I can put in a decent performance.”
In the reigning European and English champions, Leinster could hardly be facing a tougher task, and Exeter should be all the sharper for having had their 47-25 work out against Lyon.
“I was shocked watching the first few minutes,” admitted O’Loughlin in reference to Exeter falling 14-0 down inside the first 10 minutes last Saturday.
“The way they took control back of the game and built pressure and built scores, and then kicked on to win quite comfortably shows how they have grown as a group since we played them last in 2018,” said the 27-year-old of those back-to-back Leinster pool wins when, despite being 24th man left an indelible impression for the unrelenting intensity over 80 minutes.
“They showed why they are European champions and English champions with how controlled they are in attack, especially when they got into the opposition 22. You really can’t give them those opportunities,” added O’Loughlin in reference to Exeter’s famed mauling and pick-and-jam game close to the opposition line.
“It’s going to be very important to be disciplined this week and play in the right areas and put pressure on them and make them uncomfortable and not give them what they want.”
