Horan wary of Georgia threat

MARCUS HORAN will be in the firing line when Ireland take on Georgia at Stade Chaban Delmas on Saturday.

It was no surprise to any member of the Irish squad, and especially those who practice their art in the front-row of the scrum, that the Georgians strength lies almost entirely within their tight five.

It was here that they gave Argentina a fairly torrid time in the first 40 minutes of their meeting in Lyon on Tuesday night.

Georgia were only 6 — 3 behind at the interval and while they tired in the second half, they really covered themselves in glory where the forward battle was concerned.

Horan expected as much given that half the Georgian pack, including the entire front-row, ply their trade in the first division of the French League.

“We’ll get nothing easy against these guys,” he acknowledges. “Georgia are a step up again on Namibia, especially in the front-row. We’ve seen the tapes of their previous games along with the Namibian game. They’re huge men and pride themselves in their scrummaging and we’ve just got to relish that prospect. It’s the kind of group we’re in and you’re going to expect that for the next few weeks. It should be the ideal stepping stone for what comes afterwards.”

Horan has played so much Heineken Cup rugby against French opposition that he suspects that he has played against the likes of David Khinchagashvili of Bourgoin and David Zirakashvili, now in the colours of Clermont Auvergne in the past.

Hardly surprisingly, the names don’t mean anything to him but that doesn’t deceive him where the Georgian strength is concerned.

“We’ve probably come across them but anyway we know for sure they have massive experience and are members of top scrummaging sides,” he commented. “This is a very serious match where we’re concerned. That was also the case last week when Namibia had several Super 14 players from South Africa in their side. We were under no illusions about their pedigree and the same applies to Georgia.

“It’s all about the pack for them. They were outstanding for most of the game against Argentina and they will be all out to hold their own against us or even turn us over. That’s a great test for us and I don’t think any of the pack will take them lightly. We have seen the tapes, we’ve seen the damage they can do and it’s going to be another big challenge. Unlike Namibia, we can’t afford not to capitalise on our chances against Georgia who are good enough to punish us.”

If there have been recriminations within the squad after the awful display against Namiba, they have taken place behind closed doors. And even the harshest critics of the performance would have to admit that from the head coach down, everybody has put their hand up and accepted the brutal truth.

“You can’t tiptoe around it or make any excuses,” said Horan. “On reflection, the one thing we can take from it was that we created a lot of chances and it was our last pass that let us down.”

He sounded a familiar note when observing that: “We probably didn’t take them through the phases, something we’re good at. Our fitness should have shone through and I don’t think we brought the pace up to negate what they were doing. The good thing is that the dropped balls and bad passes can be fixed and in a sense we are heading in the right direction in that we’re creating the chances. It’s about finishing them off now.

“Were we complacent on Sunday? Maybe. People tell us it’s a long tournament and someone was saying that we have to peak at the right time and I suppose we can’t be accused of peaking too early. There was a bit of nerves and high expectation going into the game. We feel that won’t happen again and now have the opportunity to put it right before the big games. It’s important for us to have our heads right and start well and not give these guys a chance to settle. We let Namibia back into the game and there were phases when they looked superb and even looked the better team and that was solely because we didn’t put them away at the opportune time.”

The front-row has been given most of the credit for the pushover try that clinched the bonus point against Namibia.

“We had them on the rack at the time and the referee couldn’t have given any other decision. That did give us a lift but we didn’t move on from there and turn the screw and that’s very disappointing.

“We’ll be penalised against other teams if we do that again.”

He readily admitted that every member of the squad was “shocked” when told at Monday’s post match briefing that the team in all conceded 39 turnovers. Even then, though, he took a small positive, claiming: “It’s a great thing that we can beat ourselves up so much over a poor performance. Nothing serious has happened, we have no injuries, things are going okay.”

Horan feels for the supporters while pointing out that: “We have given them that level of expectation because of the way we’ve played over the past few years. There’s no reason why our standards should drop just because we’re playing against Namiba or Georgia and surely we won’t allow it to happen again.”