Experience tells Shaggy to focus on the now

SHANE HORGAN INTERVIEW: Johnny Wattersontalks to the big Leinster winger ahead of Saturday's crunch Heineken Cup return group game against formidable Clermont

TODAY HE is Shaggy. Even for him, the beard is a little longer, the fringe crookedly pushed aside. Layered in lycra and tracksuits, ice on the path, Shane Horgan belongs to that Leinster cohort celebrated by one-time sports writer and now author Paul Howard.

He has been around since the rogue Ross O’Carroll Kelly was actually coining it in the Tiger years but there are few players now more alive to Leinster’s needs than Horgan, the winger who you just know will get a few high balls; who the opposition will know will get a few high balls; who everyone knows will get a few high balls and few will be able to do much about it.

As Leinster coach Joe Schmidt listed his injury concerns yesterday and pointed to the centre positions as problematic, it was suggested that as young tyros Horgan had played there with Gordon D’Arcy outside him. A possible back to the future alignment?

“Yeah,” said Schmidt.

“But then you take his (Horgan’s) aerial threat away from where he is strong.”

Horgan scored his fourth try in as many outings last Sunday, his 27th try in 81 Heineken Cup matches, or more than a try in every four outings. If he wasn’t provincially seasoned and internationally anointed his name would be shouted just as loud as that of O’Malley, Ryan, Conway or McFadden.

Familiarity’s influence ensures that despite his recent elevated performances the cheerleading is muted for the right wing. Just doing what he does, you suppose. He’s played French teams for a decade, taken all the hits. But this week there is a swagger and Horgan is standing where others are not.

“It was a seriously physical game. Everybody is hurting,” he says of last week’s clash with Clermont.

“Obviously, there are some doubts for the weekend but we’ll see how the injuries heal. Everybody will be fighting to be out there.”

The six-day turn-around for matches is like that. First a body count. Then recovery, or not. Almost like a mini-tournament, patching up and delving deeper into the squad makes selection more inexact and make-do than scientifically precise. But no less interesting because of it.

“It’s tough,” adds Horgan. “It develops a sort of siege mentality. We’ve had a tough couple of weeks here just with the weather conditions. It’s almost been impossible just to get out on to the pitch and train. It was good to get out at Skerries last week. I think it was probably the only pitch in the country we could have trained on and it was important to do that session.

“We can train again today and then the six-day turn-around after such a physical game . . . But these are the challenges. It’s a very tough group to get out of and then you add on the external challenges like the weather and injuries. It’s exciting. I think everybody is rising to the challenge.”

With Malcolm O’Kelly and Girvan Dempsey retired and Brian O’Driscoll fighting for fitness, Horgan and D’Arcy cut a fine pair. With young players fizzing around, his utility role is more than line-breaker, high-ball fetcher or body bag. Leo Cullen and Nathan Hines provide pack craft but Horgan and D’Arcy know to ignore the alluring siren call that they are now topping the group. Understanding is appreciating the value of the present and not reducing Clermont to a handful of individual strengths.

“(Aurelien) Rougerie playing in the centre poses a really significant threat, he carries the ball to line very hard. He’s very difficult to stop,” he says. “(Julien) Malzieu too. You look at the back line and they are all very big men. Then you have got a massive number eight, a massive backrow and great ball-carriers in the frontrow.

“I don’t think they are a team where you can identify one or two and go ‘okay, if we stop them then we’ve stopped their team, we’ve stopped their ball-carrying, we’ve stopped their go forward’. They are too good a side for that.”

At 32 years old, getting excited is measured. There must be a good reason. And there are none yet, not with just tree rounds played. Horgan knows it.

“The only time it matters to be top of the pool is after the last game,” quips the sage. “I don’t think the guys have been looking at it. I certainly haven’t been. This next game against Clermont, that’s where all the attention lies. Not on the group.”

It’s a view that is serving him well.