Hell-bent on rescaling old heights

INTERVIEW/MARCUS HORAN: GERRY THORNLEYtalks to Marcus Horan, who has a whole new perspective on the game he loves

MARCUS HORAN is back. After an operation for an irregular heartbeat which was first detected when he was replaced, feeling dizzy and faint, in the Heineken Cup win at home to Treviso last October, for that alone he is grateful. But while it’s given him a new perspective on the game he loves, his ambition to rescale previous heights for both Munster and Ireland remains undimmed.

Last Friday night’s win over Glasgow was Horan’s first start at Thomond Park since that fateful October day. “Initially when things happened you think the worst and you don’t think you’ll ever run out in Thomond Park again. So last weekend was lovely. It was my first start at Thomond Park for a while. You just appreciate these things a lot more maybe.”

He admits his ailment had been troubling him for four years. “Just for periods after a scrum or a period of extreme exertion, I’d be feeling dizzy and light-headed. My legs would feel like jelly but I would try to run it off. Then it might go away for a while and it might come back.”

A bad day out for Ireland in Rome during the Grand Slam prompted tests which revealed nothing, before things reached a head against Treviso.

“That particular day in Thomond Park it was uncontrollable. Nothing was registering with me. I could see things happening in front of me but couldn’t react quickly enough.”

He was indebted to the Munster team doctor, Tadgh O’Sullivan, who laid Horan down on a bed in the medical room, wired him up and detected an irregular heartbeat there and then.

“I was still going like the clappers even a few hours after the game. I went to the Regional that night and it didn’t settle down until about midnight. So I knew there was an issue and there was a huge amount of uncertainty for the next week or so. I went to a specialist in Dublin and got bad news and was told more or less that I had to finish up. I met a guy then in Cork and I suppose the rest is history.”

Dr Gerry Fahy had performed the same procedure on Frankie Sheahan and it hasn’t played on his mind since returning. “The only way of testing it is to go balls out and just really test it,” he says, somewhat fearlessly.

Had he been obliged to retire at 31, he doesn’t think he’d have any regrets, helped as he was at the time by his wife, Cate, having their second child, Grace, to accompany Heather.

“I’d had a brilliant career up to that. It had been fantastic and I’d achieved a huge amount and I suppose they are the things you think about. But your priority is your health and your family, to be able to spend the rest of your life with them. I didn’t want to put that in jeopardy. Rugby is very important to me but there’s a limit you’ll bring it to.”

The rash of postponements in December delayed his return, which eventually came with his first couple of games for Shannon in three years.

“The weather wasn’t great, the pitch was pretty heavy, but listen, just putting on the Shannon jersey again is a great feeling. It never loses its appeal for me.”

All it took was a phone call from him looking for a game or two. “A lot of those guys, when I was playing with Shannon they didn’t even know what a rugby ball was, but there was a great buzz there. The club got on a good run for a while with a couple of wins after that. It’s gone downhill a bit since but it’s always a great feeling to go back with the club.”

When things aren’t going well in your career, he says, it helps to be reminded of where it all started.

“You see young lads plying their trade and trying to make it to the top. That’s where I started and you just realise the importance of the club scene and the guys who put the effort in there.”

He managed a couple of Munster A games and an appearance off the bench against Northampton, but the delayed return confined him to a couple of games for the Irish As in an otherwise watching brief during the Six Nations.

“I was hoping that maybe I’d get a chance to come in. You see other guys that were out for a while and they got in, so that was pretty hard to take, and it’s difficult. You’re trying to do as best you can but just the opportunity wasn’t there for me so there wasn’t much I could do about it.”

Now, though, he is targeting the Irish Tests in New Zealand and Australia in June.

“There’s no point in playing on if I don’t do things like that. I don’t see why not. I think there’s a perception out there that I’ve missed a huge amount of rugby. I haven’t. And as I say, we’re in the business end of the season now and Munster are in contention for things, so I’m gonna really give it a go.”