Horan: Paris not last chance saloon

PRESSURE may be mounting on Irish rugby coach Eddie O’Sullivan, but Munster prop Marcus Horan has dismissed suggestions that the squad will effectively be playing for their coach’s future in Paris on Saturday.

Rarely has a win felt so empty as Ireland’s five-point defeat of Italy at Croke Park and a similar performance at the Stade de France would invite annihilation from the hosts, who destroyed a fancied Scotland at Murrayfield on Sunday.

In the event, the pressure on O’Sullivan would multiply tenfold but Horan refuses to countenance the idea that there is far more than mere points at stake against the French.