Horan sends critics packing

Gerry Thornleyon how this afternoon, the oft-criticised prop will be ready, willing and able to prove himself yet again in a green shirt.

Whether regarded as too young or too small to be a prop, it seems as if he has spent his entire career striving to prove something to somebody; perhaps not only to others but also to himself. There are "driven" players and then there's Marcus Horan.

He was absent last week, and a cloud hung over his participation again in Rome today, but Horan has shown himself to be a resolute sort. Though he has been palpably irritated by the continual sniping at his, Munster's or Ireland's scrummaging, you sense it also spurred him on to new heights in the Croke Park games against France and England.

There have been the trademark astonishing plays in open territory, be it the full-length forward dive to somehow keep a touchfinder by David Skrela in play and deflect it backward as well as infield, or having the pace to catch the sniping Harry Ellis from behind.

Few props on the planet would have these in their locker, but while too loose for the likings of some purists, Horan has also produced three ultra-hard-working performances backed by his solid work in the setpiece. Against England, he has probably never had a better day at the scrummaging coalface.

All things come to those who wait, and Horan has served a longer apprenticeship than most. Having burst into the Shannon AIL-winning team at 19 and into the Munster squad that made it to the 2000 Heineken European Cup final, he had to bide his time behind Peter Clohessy.

With Ireland too, he earned his first cap as a replacement in the 83-3 win over the USA in the summer of 2000, but his second was over two years away, at home to Fiji. It wasn't until Reggie Corrigan injured an arm in 2003 that Horan finally got any extended kind of stay, and not until the last two years that he really nailed down the position.

It's been a tortuous process, and he scarcely conceals his disappointment and frustration along the way. It's clear, too, that he's more sensitive than most to the barbs. Referring to the "battering" the Munster and Ireland scrums have taken from critics, he admits, "I've found this season very tough."

Mindful of the Azzurri's renowned scrum, Horan sees this afternoon's game as an opportunity to "go to the World Cup with a bit of a reputation. I think it was very frustrating for us that the Welsh management and the players could come out at the start of the campaign and say they were going to target our scrum. It's a bit of an insult. I don't think we want that going into the World Cup. That would be important to us."

Reared in staunch hurling territory in Clonard, Co Clare, Horan has, as he describes it, just come through one of the most magical spells of his career. In the build-up to the two Croke Park games, he had plenty of interviews with the Clare People and the Clare Champion, while Tony Considine, the Clare manager, sent him an autographed Clare jersey the week before the French game.

"I think of some of the guys back home in Clonard who went on playing hurling long after I went to rugby, who would give their right arm to walk out onto the grass at Croke Park. I just feel so privileged.

"As a kid, I definitely would have been dreaming of playing in Croke Park before I would Lansdowne Road. That's the way it was and obviously when I took the line of rugby I never thought I'd be there.

"You kind of do have to think, even in the aftermath of the two games, did it really happen? I'm just so proud, not just for playing there, but because of what happened there against England. I think it goes beyond rugby, in the sense that every Irish person can stand up and say they've got to be proud of what happened there that day. It's something that I don't think will ever be forgotten."

It's funny how often the tale of a top sportsman originates in part from having to emulate or compete with an elder brother. It was his eldest brother, Paul, who introduced not just a young Marcus, the fourth of six siblings, but the entire family to rugby.

Although they were reared in Clare, his father, John, is from Tipperary, and so the great team of Nicky English, Michael Cleary and the Bonnars were adopted by them on big days out in Croke Park before the family converted him to the memorable Clare campaigns of 1995 and 1997.

Not only did his father and uncles play hurling, his mother, Margaret, herself from Clare, played camogie.

He can recall, vaguely, watching Ciarán Fitzgerald's 1985 Triple Crown-winning side, if not really understanding what was going on, the lure being the teams in green.

"If we were watching two snails going up the wall and one was wearing green we'd be cheering for it. That's the way we were."

Paul, four years older, went to St Munchin's and became the family's sporting pioneer.

"We hadn't a clue. He had been playing since first year all along and eventually he came home one day and said: 'Mam, we're in this cup final.' It was the Munster Schools Junior Cup. So we said we better go."

Almost 20 years ago to the week, March 25th, 1987, the young Horan, nine at the time, was awestruck by the size of the crowd. His father, a keen photographer, still has the photos from the day. St Munchin's beat Crescent and Marcus joined in the pitch invasion.

"I remember going up to Paul and he said, 'Get off the pitch, you'll get crushed.' But there was a swarm of Munchin's supporters on the pitch. I just remember the buzz of it, it was just fantastic. Then I think we kind of copped it - this is kind of big."

Paul advised Marcus to be a prop.

"I don't know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing," laughs Horan. "So we started scrummaging each other."

Philip, his elder brother by a year, also went to St Munchin's.

"He was unlucky. He suffered a broken leg in his last year and never really recovered from it. I looked up to Philly. He was a lethal tackler in the centre; he'd cut fellas in two. Himself and the other centre, Ken Dowling, were renowned for their tackling."

Horan followed the well-trodden path to Shannon and swiftly broke into he first-team squad. Shannon hosted Garryowen in a Limerick Charity Cup match on St Stephen's Day, 1995, in the first match under the Thomond Park floodlights. Brian O'Brien rang the 18-year-old Horan and asked him to sub for Shannon. His father agreed, only on condition that he didn't play the full game. But Noel Healy pulled out on the day of the match and Horan was asked to start.

Going onto the pitch, Horan realised his name would be the first read out and feared his father's reaction: "I met him afterwards and he told me he went mad, but as it turned out I really enjoyed it and I scored the first try under the lights, and he was as proud of me. Things like that happened me. I had no fear in me and I was surrounded by experienced players like Mick Galwey and other big names. Niallo (Niall O'Donovan) always said to me if you're good enough, you're old enough."

As with John Hayes, Horan was carefully man-managed in terms of game time, all the while learning from Shannon's winning mentality. His tale, like that of Hayes, is another reminder there has to be more than the elite schools/academy route to the professional tier.

On the bench for the European Cup finals in 2000 and 2002, Horan was relieved just to be involved in last year's final after missing the semi-final win over Leinster despite weeks battling against a torn calf. "It was the worst 80 minutes I've ever known; not being involved and just having to watch it. It was hell."

When the players came into the victorious dressingroom, Horan suddenly realised he was in a race against the clock just to be fit for the final against Biarritz: "There were good days and bad days, and even on the day of the game I felt twinges. In the end I was surprised I kept going so long. At half-time it kind of seized up and I was panicking about it."

For Horan, the abiding memory will be Munster's palpable sense of defiance, whether in response to the early Biarritz try or the galvanising effect of the big screen relaying the scenes from O'Connell Street in Limerick.

"There was a drive there that probably wasn't there before and it was the culmination of all the disappointments that did drive us. Like, if you've to go through that to get one, then so be it."

So it carries on, and the pain of surrendering Munster's unbeaten record, stirred in with Ireland's failure to close out the win against France, made for an irresistible Irish stew three weeks ago against England.

"To be honest with you, you'd hate to drag the Munster thing into Ireland, (but) it was a huge factor for us. I found it tough after the Leicester game because I thought it was exaggerated as well. I felt we were a lot better than it showed, but some of the attitude of their team as well. I think when we've won we've always been gracious. But there's stuff that's hanging over from that game."

Missing out on last week's Triple Crown coronation was a return to hell: "It reminded me of the Munster-Leinster semi-final. The coaches had a laugh at me. 'Now you know what we go through every week.' You have no control and as the game was so tight your nerves were at you all the way through."

Still, he regards himself as more a part of this one than four years ago, when his only appearance was as a replacement in the last quarter against Scotland. Last season was different; he started all four of Ireland's wins.

Although he maintains the Azzurri scrum haven't put their mark on this tournament as they would have liked, he's acutely conscious of the game within a game, and the certainty that the Italian front row will be freshened up for the last quarter or so.

"As a group we've got to see this as a big target for us. Being the last competitive game until the World Cup, it's important for us to lay down a marker as a unit, and early in the match.

"First of all they put so much emphasis on their scrum that if we can upset them there it can be a psychological blow to them, but secondly, if their first front row are under pressure and the second set come in it's very hard to make an impact when things aren't going well.

"You do get on a high when things are going well and that's why it's so important for us to start so well."

Ready, willing and able to prove himself yet again.