Wallace and Horan prefer to stress positives

Six Nations Championship: The presence of Marcus Horan and David Wallace, corner-stones of a rejuvenated Munster pack, should fill the Irish supporter with confidence, even when heading to Paris this weekend.

Both may be on the wrong side of 30 but they remain at the peak of their powers and will bring 94 caps between them to the City of Lights as well as 12 tries. Having been internationals for eight years, it's warriors like these that the rugby public expect heroics from when the French avalanche comes crashing down.

And yet, those punters who left Croke Park on Saturday night after yet another flat Irish display may not be convinced by the positive spin both Horan and Wallace put on the Italy game.

"Look at England at the moment, they lost their first game at home," notes the Shannon prop. His point being Ireland remain on course entering round two.

The form of both men suggests positives. Remembering snippets from Saturday, you see Horan stooping to gather possession on his boot laces and sending a speedster into space or Wallace breaking the line on several occasions.

Like most individuals, they tried to force the issue but the team performance still carried a resonance from those miserable World Cup nights in Bordeaux.

An unmistakable feeling of being stuck in a rut exists. Understandably, the players deny such a theory.

"I don't think there is a rut," says Horan. "There is huge ambitions in the team. We've had great achievements down through the years, which are quickly forgotten, I suppose, by a lot of people and we are always trying to better that.

"For any sportsperson you are trying to achieve your best. We are not losing the run of ourselves but we won our first game and we are where we want to be."

He's right on both counts. Past glories are easily forgotten, especially when replaced by inglorious World Cup exits, and secondly, Ireland are exactly where they want to be, heading to Paris with everything up for grabs.

The fear of another backward step remains, however, especially after a new French era exploded to life in Murrayfield on Sunday while Ireland churned out the same old patterns.

"We are always trying to tactically evolve," states Wallace.

"From game to game we change tactics, from the last few years to this year we changed again and that's a good thing, because you can't be too predictable. It doesn't happen overnight so hopefully with more training it can come good.

"Every game is different. It's not a case of having one game plan; it evolves with every team you play against and the different players.

"The French are in transition - look at their strength in depth. It's tremendous what they have, even with a lot of changes. New guys are more eager and you can't say that's a positive for us but we need to play our foundations well and get into it a bit."

What about the ever popular theory that Ireland are unable to evolve because they are stuck in a game-by-game routine where each result is inter-linked to the future of coach Eddie O'Sullivan?

Horan disagrees. "I think that's more coming from your side (the media) to be honest with you. I don't think there is any feeling like that in the squad.

"We are all playing for each other because we know each other so well and have been through so much together. We are all good friends here, good mates. That's what a team does; we work hard for each other. I don't think anyone looks at it like that at this stage.

"We're in a situation where we've had disappointment and I've experienced it with the squad before where we've had poor autumn internationals but come back and won the Triple Crown the following year.

"That's about trying to gel together . . . things that are going on outside we can't control.

"The sign of a good squad is if we can stick together and get it back on the road. We have to keep enjoying ourselves."

However, the enjoyment factor will be shelved over the coming days as they enter the realm of video analyst Mervyn Murphy.