The longer you have to wait for something, the more you will appreciate it when it finally arrives. The saying could have been written with Connacht or Ronan Loughney in mind.
For much of his 11 seasons with his native province, Loughney has tended to keep a relatively low profile. Not any more. Having started just two Pro12 games prior to the first of the consecutive wins over Glasgow, today he starts his third game in a row. Suddenly, these are the best of times.
Loughney is, one ventures, already being noticed around town a little more, for there it sits, pride of place, in the car park in the Sportsground, Loughney’s recently purchased, retro Volkswagen Bay Window Camper, in petrol green and white. The previous week, Tiernan O’Halloran and other team-mates had inspected Loughney’s camper, noting the Porsche wheels in admiration.
It fulfils a near 15-year dream, even since his cousin Cormac Deffley, before he emigrated to Australia, offered the then 16-year-old Loughney his Volkswagen camper after travelling around Europe in it with his wife.
“I couldn’t take it then because I couldn’t get insured on it. So I’ve been looking at them since. That’s a new version. They only stopped making them in Brazil two years ago. So it looks like an old one, but it’s got a modern, reliable engine.”
Loughney had looked at importing one directly from Brazil, before locating a company in the UK which imported them. “It’s not fully converted at the back into a camper so I’m going to convert it myself. I’m going to drive it every day and sell my jeep. It’s nice to drive.”
Next Saturday, Loughney is getting married, and the plan is for his fiancé, Finn Dillon, to take the drive to the church in the Volkswagen. They met 10 years ago while Finn, who is from Tralee, was studying law in Galway. Just the two biggest days of his life so far then.
“That’s what everybody keeps saying. I’m trying not to think about that too much because it could be a bit overwhelming,” he says, laughing. Loughney is an amiable lad who doesn’t seem too fazed by it all.
Of course, he can’t help but notice that Galway has “gone a little mad” and has an idea the rest of the province isn’t much different. “Galway is such a small city that everyone seems to know most of the lads. There’s support everywhere and it’s a great feeling to have that.”
It’s all changed, changed utterly in his 11 seasons with the province. “When Eric took over things started changing and for the better. Eric did an awful lot of good work. Eric is the most passionate person you’d ever meet about Connacht rugby. Then Pat brought his experience from New Zealand and the players he has brought in have bought into that passion and had a massive influence. The system Pat has brought in has been married to the passion that was already there.”
Loughney speaks about the players having to acclimatise to Lam’s methods, and how well the younger players have adapted with their “silky skills”. But as with others, Loughney’s own performances also suggest you can treat some older dogs new tricks. “And it’s hugely enjoyable rugby to play,” he says.
Twice in a row in the build-up to Niyi Adeolokun's match-winning try last Saturday, with Kieran Marmion still on the deck after making a carry into contact, it was Loughney who stepped in at scrumhalf.
“The main approach is that when the ball is there, move it if the option is on. That’s the approach Pat has instilled in everyone. But yeah, I was getting a bit of a slagging about that from a few of my mates, but thankfully the passes were semi-accurate anyway. But it’s enjoyable to be able to do stuff like that and Pat encourages it.
“It’s the same with some of the handling in the middle of the pitch. He encourages people to move the ball. In days gone by you’d have a certain role and if you did something like that it was just a plus, whereas here it’s encouraged and nearly expected. It puts healthy pressure on you and you do it during the week in training.”
Born in Galway and reared in Renmore and Salthill, both his parents hail form Mayo. His mum Ann has worked for many years with the Brothers of Charity, looking after people with disabilities, while his father John is a technician in HID Global in Inverin.
As John played Gaelic football, Loughney grew up supporting Mayo. “I’d still support Mayo but I’m not as avid a fan as I used to be. I remember one year at Cork Park when I was about 14 or 15, I had my face painted red and my hair painted green, but unfortunately it always seemed to end in disappointment.”
For both Loughney and even his dad, interest started to switch toward rugby from the time he began playing mini rugby in Galwegians at the age of seven. “He is nearly more of a rugby fanatic now than I am. He comes to the games here and goes home and watches them again.”
Unlike his older brother, whose favourite sport was football, Loughney soon caught the rugby bug, albeit he played football with Salthill Devon, as a goalkeeper, and Gaelic football at his school, St Mary’s, until he was around 16.
Going to both Galwegians and Connacht games, Elwood became a boyhood hero. When he was 14, he and his brother Eoin had their father approach Elwood (they were too shy to do so themselves) to autograph a rugby ball. “We never played with it as we didn’t want to smudge the ink.”
As Galwegians had no under-14 teams, he and a few others switched to Corinthians. A trial with the Connacht Youths led to him playing for the province’s under-19s and under-21s, while playing with UL Bohemians when studying in UL for two-and-a-half years, then rejoining Galwegians in Division One of the AIL.
Fellow members of the province's inaugural academy year were Danny Riordan (still going strong with Old Belvedere), Colin Finnerty, Mike Diffley, Eamon Bracken and Trevor Richardson. On foot of playing for the Irish Under-20s in the 2005 World Cup, he was offered a development contract with Connacht. Cruelly, however, he suffered successive cruciate ligament tears at the start of the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons.
“I nearly stopped before I got going at all. It was tough mentally but a lot of people who aren’t here now helped me. It was last-chance saloon when I came back the second time. I’ve had plenty of other injuries over the years, and torn my hamstrings regularly enough, but thankfully the knee has stayed sound.”
After switching from tighthead to loosehead at the behest of Dan McFarland, the 2011-12 season was a high point. Loughney started 18 of 25 games for Connacht and won his sole cap against the All Blacks in Eden Park.
“I’ll never forget it. My sister was living in Australia and her and my cousin, Daire, were there, and to be able to share it with her was special. Lining up against the Haka and singing the national anthem, those are things you’ll never forget. I’ve never stopped wanting to get more since and trying to do everything I can to get more.”
Loughney has since had surgery on both his groins and both his hips, which delayed his start to this season. He freely admits that being confined to an impact-role this season “is a testament to how Denis [Buckley] has been playing. His misfortune is my opportunity and I feel for him, but I’m just trying to do the best job I can.”
After Connacht backed up their first win in Thomond Park since 1960 last November by winning the return match in front of a 7,500-plus packed house last month, Loughney and his father recalled a 3-3 draw at the Sportsground in near biblical weather.
“And there was no Clan terrace with a roof then. You think about when there were 300 people at games here, and then compare it to the last day, it’s unreal. For a lot of years we were struggling at the bottom of the table, but you see the confidence and the ambition in the younger players coming through. There’s an expectation from them to win games.
"But I'm glad I've seen both sides of it. You think of all the lads who put their heart and soul into this, like Adrian Flavin who texted me last week. I'm sure they're getting a lot of satisfaction out of this too. Hopefully it's a sign of things to come for a few years. Looking back, when we were losing it wasn't great to be going through but it probably makes what we're going through now all that sweeter.
“We’ve an unbelievable hunger to win this. You think about it, definitely, but you don’t allow yourself to dwell on it too long. You bring it back to the things you need to focus on. We’re not going to change anything this week. But I know everybody really, really wants it.”
