Horan happy to answer Ireland’s call

DON’T underestimate the scale of what Ireland achieved on Saturday, nor the pride taken in that green jersey — that was the message from the top table afterwards, both coach Declan Kidney and team captain Brian O’Driscoll hammering home the achievement list by Ireland.

Beat a team above us for the first time in over two years, check; beat a team we hadn’t beaten in our last three attempts, check; get a win, any kind of win, over Argentina, check; and most critical of all, hold onto our eighth seeding in advance of the 2011 World Cup draw, check.

With all that in mind then, for those Munster men who could only stand back in admiration last Tuesday as their stand-ins won the hearts of the rugby world with a monumental effort against the All-Blacks, this match, this Argy-Bargy, took precedence over everything.

But for Marcus Horan, there was never any question about where his ultimate loyalty lay. “To be honest with you, playing for Ireland always makes it easier to miss a Munster game; putting on that green jersey is a big deal. It kind of annoyed me that a lot of people seemed to think we were upset about missing the Munster game; if it was at the point of missing out on an Irish jersey, an Irish cap, I wouldn’t be too happy about it. There was a lot more at stake for us with Ireland, we’re very happy with this result.”

Much as is made of Munster’s magnificent achievements in Europe over the years, in Thomond Park last week, the big stage in rugby is at international level, the World Cup the biggest stage of all. The red shirt is a stepping-stone to green, a major stepping-stone but a stepping-stone nevertheless; Saturday was a stepping-stone to the next World Cup — Marcus Horan has his priorities spot on.

“The pressure all week was about the world rankings, about the seedings for the World Cup. It’s tough when you’re playing against a team ranked ahead of you, psychologically more than anything else.

“We know we can beat them, we’ve seen that over the years; they were the better team in the World Cup but that was a psychological barrier we had to get past, and I think we did well in doing that. People talk of the autumn ‘friendlies’ but I don’t think they’re that friendly any more.

“There’s a bit more at stake, and with the points situation this year it was very important for us. We did really well this week.”

So they did, Marcus and co in the pack. The Argentineans were missing some big names from the backs, but their game is built around a notoriously combative raw-meat-eating pack; on this occasion, and very definitely, Marcus could take a grim satisfaction in the fact that Ireland, clearly, won that particular battle. We had the usual few shemozzles, but on this day anyway, there wouldn’t be a backward step. “There’s no love lost between the two sides, but I think we handled them a lot better today. We all realised the prize at stake, way more important than getting involved in small little scuffles.

“Mind you I don’t think anyone took a step backwards either, any time one of us got a dig he had three or four green shirts around him, and that was important too, it proved we were up for the game. Having said that our discipline was excellent. We were well fired up for it but we held our heads when we had to. It was tough, but I don’t think they got on top of us in any area in the forwards. Our scrum was outstanding, and we did really well at the breakdown; they’re just a hard team to break down. The try we scored was the first try they had conceded this autumn — that will tell you a lot.”