Improved scrum key to victory, says Horan

ALL THE talk in the build-up was of the damage Cobus Visagie and the Saracens scrum could do to Munster and in particular loose-head prop Marcus Horan.

The advance warnings all turned out to be well justified; Saracens were indeed powerful in the set-piece, and Visagie is indeed a destructive tight-head, a wrecking-ball.

But, the scrum held, and Marcus did his bit. Why, even in one Saracens put-in, such was the Munster pressure exerted that the ball was turned over. Good day, says Marcus, but also educational, right from the first scrum. “Yeah, a big hit, but our scrum has improved an awful lot, we acquitted ourselves there, I’m very happy with the outcome. It was tough, a good battle. Both sides fought hard, but then it was all a bit nullified with their two props going off, we had uncontested scrums for a while and that took from it. Even when they came back to full strength it still took from it from the battle a bit. But I enjoyed it, you learn from playing against guys like Cobus; he’s a great character and a great servant to rugby, I’m delighted to- have played against him. It’s nice to measure yourself against such guys and to come out with a win is great.”