Back in their schooldays they packed down on either side of the frontrow in the Blackrock College team which won the Leinster Schools Senior Cup in 2013. Sometime soon, ten seasons on, Jeremy Loughman and Oli Jager are about to become team-mates in the same frontrow again, and for Munster this time. Such are the sometimes curious journeys within professional rugby.
They were born just 17 days apart in July 1995, the elder Jager in London and Loughman in Reno, Nevada, and have taken suitably circuitous, if not dissimilar, routes to this point having previously done so en route to Blackrock also.
Jager, whose mum is Irish and dad is Dutch, was raised in Ireland from a young age and after taking up rugby in Newbridge College switched to Blackrock, where his father, Ham, was a strength and conditioning coach.
Despite playing for the Irish schools, Jager missed out on a place in the Leinster academy and moved to Canterbury to attend the Crusaders International High Performance Unit. He worked his way through the Crusaders academy, the New Brighton RFC club side and the Canterbury provincial side. Four years later he broke into the Crusaders squad, with whom he won seven Super Rugby titles and played over 50 times until being signed by Munster this week.
Loughman’s family moved to Kent when he was four due to his dad’s work in the oil and gas industry, before then settling in Ireland when he was 12. Having taken up rugby at Athy, he broke into the Leinster Under-18 side, also then moving to Blackrock College for his final two school years.
He did make the Leinster academy, and played five times for the province, before being released. He then accepted the offer, initially, of a three-month development contract with Munster. Now in his seventh season with Munster, with whom he’s played 87 times, Loughman also has four Ireland caps.
“It’s mad how it goes around like that, isn’t it?” said Loughman this week in advance of Jager’s arrival on Thursday. “When I was in fifth year, I was loosehead and he was tighthead and he was in sixth year then. We had one year together.”
Loughman has kept an eye on his one-time schoolmate.
“I wouldn’t watch too much Super Rugby, to be honest. But I’ve seen some of his games, finals and that. He’s obviously a big man, a big presence there. I remember that from school. He was like a man among boys at that stage.
“He has a big set piece focus as well so it will be interesting to get him over and see how he settles in and what differences he sees.”
Although they’ve remained in contact, Loughman was unaware of Jager’s imminent arrival until it was announced.
“I only heard about it when everyone else did, I’d actually been chatting with him a good bit and I met up with him in the summer tour in New Zealand. I’m looking forward to him coming over. I would have got on with him very well in school and we kept in touch over the years, so it will be good.
“It’s a crazy record he has, isn’t it? I think he’s won every year that’s been available for him to win that he’s been there. It’s massive having someone coming in who has been in such a high performance environment for so long now and it’s incredible just to pick their brains on what’s different.
“It’s a new viewpoint on things as well with that experience. It will be nice to see how someone else does it because he’s coming from such a successful environment. It will be really nice to see if he has any different points on things.”
Loughman replaced the injured Cian Healy just before the final World Cup squad was announced, but after playing the last half-hour of the pool win over Romania didn’t see any game time again. He still describes his World Cup as an “incredible” experience.
“Obviously devastating how it ended but in terms of a learning curve for myself it was class just to be in and around the lads for so long, seeing how they go about their week, their prep, all that stuff.
“It’s definitely helped with my preparation stuff, how I see the game, just being able to work alongside these guys who are the best in their position, seeing how they go about day to day. You’re with each other for so long and there’s massive experience there.”
As with all those with lighter World Cup loads, Loughman was straining at the leash for some rugby and having returned against Ulster a fortnight ago, is likely to start his third successive game against Leinster on Saturday.
“We’ll have a big target on our back and they’ll be looking for revenge up there. I know they all will be. It’s massively exciting. It will be a proper match, a proper rivalry match.”
But Munster will also travel to Dublin, so often a graveyard for their ambitions over the last decade, with renewed belief and, finally, happier memories from their last visit, namely that 16-15 semi-final win over Leinster at the Aviva last May.
“It was kind of one of those wins we needed to get, a monkey off the back,” admits Loughman. “It just showed everyone how we were moving forward as a team and in terms of that rivalry, pushing ourselves as a better team and challenging for those big games, that we’re turning up and not just a semi-final team.
“It was massive, a morale boost for everyone to see that when we do our work right, we can achieve what we’re aiming for.”
