Horgan confident Leinster can shake off ‘Heineken’ hangover
A win for Ulster at Liberty Stadium tonight will see the championship pennant fly over Ravenhill next season, but Horgan is determined that Leinster — two points behind — push them to the wire with a win of their own in Murrayfield against Edinburgh.
“It’s tough. We just want to make sure that we’re in a position where we’ve done our bit by winning on the last weekend of the season,” said the Meath man. “If Ospreys do us a favour that’s fantastic, but it would be criminal to lose against Edinburgh and hand it to Ulster on a plate.”
Having been at the summit of the table for long stretches this year, finishing second would be a disappointing end to a season that started with modest enough expectations but quickly took on a spiralling momentum of it’s own.
The hangover from their Heineken Cup exit has been hard to shake. Delighted as he was for his friends on the Munster team, Horgan didn’t even watch last week’s final, preferring instead to take a trip to London.
Munster may have halted their gallop, but they have also become Leinster’s barometer, their success in Cardiff proving that the ultimate prize in club rugby should not be beyond them.
“If we keep building, we can put ourselves in the shake-up in years to come. We can learn from Munster. They were there or thereabouts for the last five years. They’ve been exceptional and a team like that deserves to win it.”
As it is, Declan Kidney’s players should bring some of the adrenalin from that win with them on the plane Down Under next month, which should offset the inevitable fatigue many of the Irish players will feel after an long season.
If fatigue is a potential stumbling block, motivation isn’t, at least not for Horgan who last summer spent more time than any other Lions player on the bench as an almost permanent replacement on the Saturday side.
His form for province and country since has been outstanding, as was highlighted by the dramatic 78th minute try that secured the Triple Crown for Ireland in Twickenham last March.
“My only regret is not getting a lot of time on the pitch. In terms of experience and the people I met, I had a wonderful time and that side of the tour hasn’t really come out in the media. A lot of guys had a fantastic time and were honoured to be part of the Lions set-up.”
If Horgan has nothing to prove, then Ireland certainly do to a Kiwi public unimpressed with the Lions last summer and an understrength Ireland at Lansdowne Road last November.
“I’d imagine that would be the case because we’ve never beaten them,” Horgan said. “That’s warranted. If you start beating teams then they’ll give you respect. Until we do that and perform against them we won’t have their respect. That’s understandable, isn’t it?”
Tonight’s game at Murrayfield kicks off at 7.10pm and is live on Setanta Sports 1.
F Leonelli, M Pyke, P Godman, M Dey, N de Luca, A Monro, R Lawson (capt), A Jacobsen, A Kelly, A Dickinson, F Pringle, S Murray, M Mustchin, D Callam, A Strokosch.
Replacements: D Hall, C Smith, R Rennie, A MacDonald, G Laidlaw, B Cairns, S Webster.
G Dempsey, S Horgan, B O’Driscoll, G D’Arcy, D Hickie, F Contepomi, G Easterby; R Corrigan, B Jackman, W Green, A Byrnes, M O’Kelly, N Ronan, K Gleeson, J Heaslip.
Replacements from: R McCormack/E Byrne, B Blaney, D Toner, E Miller, B O’Riordan, K Lewis, R Kearney.
Nigel Whitehouse (WRU)
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