It was ugly, stressful, and a relatively depressing watch — but that wouldn’t put O’Loughlin off adding to the one cap he’s won so far.

“I know what it’s like to be in games like that where everything seems to be going wrong, but you always want to be playing international games and at the end of the day, it’s a win,” he said.

“As a player, you try to get caps as often as possible so I would have loved to be there if I could.

“It was tough with balls going down that wouldn’t usually go down with Ireland teams. It was one of those days that you have to grind out the win and no one is going to be happy. But it is the five points at the end of the day which could be massive on the last day of the championship.”

O’Loughlin watched on as Ireland’s plans were disrupted by the early loss of Bundee Aki, forcing a midfield reshuffle, with Keith Earls moving inside from the wing, and Chris Farrell shifting in again — to create a new look Munster midfield.

As a versatile member of the backline union, O’Loughlin knows how tough it is to cover more than one shirt — a task made more difficult when the team is already struggling for fluid combinations.

“Yeah it’s tough, I’m not sure how often Keith trained there the last few weeks with Ireland but if you haven’t trained in that position, it is difficult, 13 is probably the hardest position on the pitch,” O’Loughlin said.

There’s massive partnership in certain positions especially in the back line and the way we play with our nines. They have to be on the same wavelength as the three-quarter line, the 10, 12, 13 so you are in new combinations and it takes time to get used to one another.

“I think Keith has played there a few times for Ireland so he probably wouldn’t make an excuse for himself. I say he’d back himself and I thought he was one of the better players on the pitch. Chris Farrell was probably training all week at 13 and then just to go in at 12, it wasn’t easy.”

Earls made some of the more impressive breaks from there, but some offloads didn’t stick — most notably the one to Stockdale with the line at his mercy — while others also failed to make passes stick that they usually would.

Performing under pressure is the most valuable asset a player has at the elite level, and O’Loughlin has learned that the simplest way to do so is to, well, keep things simple.

“When you are trying too hard, you generally tend to overthink things and that’s when you tend to make mistakes,” he said. “The last few seasons I’ve really tried to strip it back and play the simple thing rather than the flashy play. It is tough to do when you have to make these massive impacts in games and they get away from you and you don’t touch the ball for 10-minute, 15-minute periods.

“What the international coaches seem to go for is consistency and being able to perform and do the basics week in week out and not making a 50m line break if you are going to miss two or three tackles. That’s what you will get accounted for. I think even now when young lads are making their first appearance they see someone who has played a certain amount of times trying these mad offloads and it gets in their head that it’s okay to do that.”