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.”

Toughest eight they’ve come up against this season? “One of the strongest, but in this competition it’s very hard to say there’s a weak scrum. When you look back at them all, we’ve come up against some pretty formidable packs in the last few months. Clermont, Gloucester, they also had two strong scrums, the standard is high across the board.”

While the Munster pack hasn’t built its reputation on scrummaging, they are seen as an extremely dynamic unit in the loose, and they excelled there again yesterday, despite the difficult second half conditions. One of those who again caught the eye with his outstanding ball-carrying ability was openside David Wallace. Wallace is good at the basics and twice yesterday at crucial times he was where a good openside should be, the first occasion in attack, the second occasion in defence.

First, there was his support of Doug Howlett after the winger had made a superb diagonal break; when the All-Black ran into trouble, three tacklers, could easily have seen the ball turned over, first man to the breakdown was Wallace, set up the ruck from which Alan Quinlan got the try just before half-time. The second example was probably the most crucial of all; with Saracens needing just a penalty or a drop-goal to take this semi-final their magnificent blindside Richard Hill broke deep into the Munster 22, the possibility of a drop-goal setup very real. Again, after Denis Hurley had made the stop, in to try and strip the ball was David Wallace, and the unfortunate Hill was pinged for holding on. With time up all that was left for Denis Leamy to do was kick the ball dead. Game over. It was a critical call by referee Nigel Owens, one about which there was much talk afterwards, but Hill himself had no complaints, and as for David, well – correct call, wasn’t it? “It was just one of those things, he was isolated, you’ve just got to take those chances.” What David didn’t realise though was that time was actually up.

“I thought there was a few more minutes but when I saw Denis kick it into the stand I knew it was pretty much over.”

He added: “Conditions changed considerably after half-time, the ball was quite slippery and greasy after that, for both sides. I suppose we’ve played in so many different kinds of conditions this season, hailstones, rain, whatever, we’ve had some experiences this season.”

Think back – Llanelli, those incredible 32 phases in absolutely brutal conditions, the away point won in Clermont, the bonus point taken from Wasps in this same stadium to start this campaign, then the win in the return leg in Thomond Park – it’s been one hell of a run for Munster in this campaign. All counts for nought, says Marcus Horan, back to square one now for the final.

“You set out at the start of any season to win silverware, that is the ultimate in club rugby, winning in Europe. But people aren’t going to give you charity, it doesn’t work like that. Sport is cruel, we realise that no matter what you say about the group we came out of no-one deserves to win anything ‘til that final whistle is blown. We’re under no illusions. What happened in the past doesn’t matter, we’re up against a very experienced club now that has a great history in this competition. We have to re-assess our situation now when we come together again, start to prepare for that.”