Club rugby has vibrant future, says Horan
At a time when there is an element of doom and gloom within the clubs since provincial rugby has taken a firm hold of the game, Horan believes the club scene still has a vibrant future.
Although from a GAA background, Horan is an established rugby international and attributes a lot of his success to the emergence of Keith Wood as an international class hooker.
Horan is from Clonlara, Co Clare, not too far from Wood's stomping ground of Killaloe, and his first introduction to rugby was at St. Munchin's College, the alma mater of Wood and, of course, Anthony “Axle” Foley.
“It all seemed to happen for me after I won a Schools Munster Junior Cup medal. I went on to play for the Munster and Irish Schools before joining Shannon.
“No matter what people are currently saying about club rugby, there is a tremendous tradition to be upheld.
“Certainly, from my perspective it spurred me on to doing what I am doing now.
"When I joined Shannon I only had to look at the photographs on the wall, at the Irish internationals and the Lions players they had produced, even at the successful Munster senior cup, league and All Ireland league teams, to be inspired.
“All of a sudden I was mixing with a lot of the guys who had brought the club so much success and it was great to be made feel part of the family. I don't really know what the future holds, but I believe the club scene will always be a big part of the Irish rugby scene.
"I don't think the success of a club is necessarily defined by the presence of huge crowds at particular matches.
"From my point of view, I feel very much the same when playing for Shannon as I do for Munster or Ireland. I would always go out to do my best to help the team I'm playing for at any particular time and it doesn't matter whether it is a representative game or not.
“Maybe things have changed a bit in that club games are no longer as big as provincial matches, but that doesn't lessen the importance of them. The club scene is the grass roots of the game and no matter what people might think, it's where the players of the future are going to be produced.
“I know in Shannon, at least, that people are really proud to produce good young players and see them move on to better things in the sense that they make it as professional players. I suppose it's the way forward.”
Certainly, Horan hasn't turned his back on the club scene even though he doesn't get much opportunity to play in the famous colours these days. “I certainly could never contemplate having to go through my rugby career without playing for the club as often as possible.
“OK, I started my rugby at school but my development took off due to the help I received from so many people in Shannon. Along the way I have had a great time, won AIB League and Munster cup medals. These medals are prized possessions.”
Horan won the first of his 12 caps against the USA in the summer of 1999. His last was against Scotland at Murrayfield earlier this month and helped consolidate his place on the Irish squad to travel to the World Cup in Australia in ten days time.
The burning question of late has been whether Horan would be capable of moving from one side of the scrum to the other if the need arose in Australia.
In the second half of Ireland's win over Scotland, coach Eddie O'Sullivan was tempted with the experiment and Horan moved pretty seamlessly to the other side. It's not an issue he is particularly keen on developing right now.
“I see myself as a loose head prop, but have played tight head on a few occasions. I honestly thought I did OK in that regard at Murrayfield, but I doubt if Eddie is keen to experiment during the World Cup.
“The main man in that position is John Hayes but he has been injured and that's the reason why Eddie was trying out other options, like having Reggie Corrigan and myself move across.”
Horan was in Limerick yesterday to attend a special function at the Shannon RFC headquarters during which leading mobile communications network O2 announced a new three-year sponsorship partnership with the club.
“We see this deal as a fitting association with one of Ireland's most famous rugby clubs,” said Catherine Tiernan, Sponsorship boss of the company.
The deal was welcomed by Shannon president Melvin McNamara.
“We feel privileged to be invited into the same camp as the England rugby team, the Arsenal soccer club and the Cork Gaelic football and hurling camps,” he said.
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