THE TIGHT SQUEEZE for loosehead jerseys in Munster encapsulates a lot of what they are trying to build.

Depth, without major disruption for the province’s gameplan and goals.

Jeremy Loughman made his first European start on Saturday against the Ospreys and provided critical moments in the win. With Dave Kilcoyne injured, the man Loughman displaced in the pecking order – James Cronin – then came off the bench and delivered an invaluable 84th-minute bonus point.

Karl Dickson’s officiating left it tough for any front row to walk away feeling they had an upper hand in the scrum. But while Loughman barrelled his way over for a first-half try, his marquee European moment did not take the shape of nuts-and-bolts prop work. It was something a little special.

Just over a minute had passed on the clock after Keith Earls’ razor-edge finish in the left corner when Munster forced a midfield spill. Loughman was first to react and regather while running towards his own line. And he didn’t shirk the responsibility of making the play on turnover ball, breaking around Marvin Orie and angling his run right before flinging a zippy pass to Chris Farrell.

The centre unleashed Andrew Conway against Sam Cross and the wing made light work of scorching a route to the line.

“He was actually the first guy I signed at Munster,” Johann van Graan says of Loughman after the Athy man earned the man of the match gong.

It’s great to see guys getting their opportunities and using it. We, as a group say it’s a squad effort from everyone involved, so when you get your chance you’ve got to make a difference.”

“Congrats to Jeremy or getting this opportunity and coming up with a man-of-the-match performance. But I think he’ll be the first to admit it was a tough battle. The pack did pretty well, we put the line-out under pressure and like Pete (O’Mahony) said the scrum was a massive battle, the gain line was a massive battle and the maul was a battle.”

The battles will grow all the more fierce now in the weeks before the Christmas inter-pros. Racing 92 go to Thomond Park next week with their craving for European success ever-growing. Then comes a back-to-back run-in with Saracens. Depth of resources will be absolutely crucial, not least at 10 where Tyler Bleyendaal proved an effective director of Munster’s late onslaught. Not bad for the third-choice out-half.

Bleyendaal celebrates with Keith Earls. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO

While Ben Healy was brought as a travelling reserve to Swansea this weekend – along with Shane Daly, Fineen Wycherley and Jack O’Donoghue – Van Graan was hopeful that JJ Hanrahan could step up training after tweaking his hamstring.

“The only update I can give (on Hanrahan) is, he actually ran pretty well with the medical team this week. It’s not serious. There’s a good possibility that he could be available next week.

“He stayed behind with our staff at the HPC and hopefully we will get some good feedback on Monday and we’ll give him every chance again to be available and should he be available we’ll most likely pick him in the 23. 

“He’s done really well in a week so hopefully we’ll have him available but don’t want to speculate on it, we’ll see how it goes on Monday.”

The head coach adds: “We, as a group, spoke inside about depth and having Shane Daly and Ben Healy here for the experience and Fineen and Jack, they didn’t even make the 23 this weekend.

“You need depth in this competition and just looking ahead at what’s ahead … you can never have enough players of quality and that was one of the things we ID’d two years ago, we’ve got to improve as a squad.

“What’s very satisfying is someone like Jeremy, came in from nowhere two years of development and now he’s man of the match in a Champions Cup game as a starter.

“From a coaching point of view it’s so nice to see.”