As long as he can find the pitch, an under-performing singer can hide in a choir. A professional rugby player can never hide on his pitch. Especially on the international stage.
Not that Kevin McLaughlin hid against Italy when he won his first Irish cap in last February's opening Grand Slam defence against Italy. It's just that he was difficult to find. Crudely, one former international trashed his display with a pithy reference to the 'Clongowes choir boy'.
Irish coach Declan Kidney clearly struggled to commend the debut too and McLaughlin was jettisoned from every subsequent 22 during the championship.
Three months down the road, an injury to the player whose absence originally opened the door for him at the turn of the year -- Stephen Ferris -- could set him up for a redemptive summer excursion Down Under.
Apart from being a member of the RTE Philharmonic Choir, McLaughlin also became a Qualified Financial Advisor in January -- he clearly knows that the value of a stock can rise just as easily as it falls.
Brutish
A series of barnstorming displays has primed him for the brutish trip to face Australia, the Maori and New Zealand.
Still, there are some folk of a not necessarily nostalgic persuasion who would argue more vehemently that his opposite number this Saturday, Alan Quinlan, can offer much more to a tour that threatens to ruthlessly expose Ireland's lack of strength in depth.
Notwithstanding that particular growing clamour, it is unquestionably the younger man McLaughlin (25), not Quinlan (35), who is ploughing a furrow towards the next World Cup and it is the Leinster man who urgently requires the naked exposure June's tour will provide.
Given the rich lineage from which he drew upon during that intense build-up to his Croke Park debut, you sense McLaughlin's determination to return to the green shirt as soon as possible.
At least he was one of the last few to taste the Croke Park atmosphere, like so many of his forebears. Two of his father's uncles, on his grandmother's side -- Tom O'Reilly (1933 and '34) and his brother John Joe (captain in the 1947 win in New York and again in '48) -- won All-Ireland titles for Cavan.
"I always hoped that one day I'd get to emulate them and play in Croke Park," he says of that whirlwind February. "To do that was a dream come true." Since then, the thud of the tackle bag on international duty ensured harsh reality trod on his dreams.
"Yeah, it was tough," he admits of the fallow period following that dream winning Croke Park debut. "I was 23rd man for all the games so you're warming up as if you're part of the starting 22.
"You're getting a feel for it, you're getting pumped up but then not playing at all. So that was tough. Italy gave me the hunger to win more caps so I want to keep on improving and give myself the best chance of getting into the teams."
As dress rehearsals go, the 'final trial' element of this Saturday's Magners League semi-final clash against their fiercest rivals from the south couldn't offer a better litmus test with which to assess his suitability for a return to the front line.
"Definitely," he enthuses, oozing freshness after 'only' 23 starts for Leinster this term. "You're pitting yourself against guys who you are up against in terms of your position. There's no better way of testing yourself than coming up against quality guys in an intense match.
"I wouldn't say I'm tired. I've actually had quite a few breaks, I had those three or four weeks after Italy without playing a game. So I'm still feeling quite fresh and really up for this one.
"These matches are always extremely competitive, there's always an extra edge to them, there's always a bigger build-up to them. But ultimately it's two teams desperately wanting to win. It will come down to who's more accurate."
And, one suggests, who will adapt better to referee Nigel Owens at the breakdown and -- as Cian Healy might ruefully admit -- the scrums. In a week when Brian O'Driscoll's scathing condemnation of refereeing standards has been meekly ignored by Celtic League bigwigs, it is clearly open season on the topic. Quite right too.
"Rugby is the type of game where there is variation and interpretation of the rules," says McLaughlin. "It's very important that referees make it very clear from the first five or six rucks the way they're refereeing the breakdown.
"If you can adjust your game from then on, fair enough. It's inconsistency from within a game which can make it frustrating for the back-rows, what they are and not allowed to do at the breakdown.
"It's no problem if they want to referee one rule a bit harsher than the other, that's fine. Once they make it clear from the outset, that's not an issue."
McLaughlin does, however, have much time for Mr Owens. "He's a good example of a guy who's consistent," he says. "You know where you stand and what you can or can't do."
- David Kelly
Irish Independent
