Horan ‘in the mix’ for showdown with Saints
Horan, who underwent a medical procedure for a minor heart ailment before Christmas, was yesterday included in McGahan’s squad for the first time since their home Heineken Cup clash with Benetton Treviso in mid-October.
The 32-year-old prop had his first competitive game in 11 weeks in Shannon’s AIL Division 1A victory over Dolphin at Coonagh on Saturday and McGahan is delighted to have the Irish international available again.
McGahan said: “Marcus has worked extremely hard to get back but even though he has trained for the last three weeks, unfortunately he missed out on a few club games before picking up 80 minutes last week.
“To get that and get dirty and everything else that front-rowers do was very important. He has certainly ticked a lot of boxes and is in the selection mix for Friday without a doubt. We’ll have to see if he’ll start.
“It’s been a long stretch to put a front-row forward into a position like that. Wian Du Preez and John (Hayes) have done a great job and we’ll be very strong either way.”
Munster’s only concern, David Wallace, is still bothered by a calf strain and avoided much of the heavy work but is expected to take a full part in tomorrow’s captain’s run at Musgrave Park.
Meanwhile McGahan has little sympathy for Northampton who are bemoaning their five-day turnaround ahead of Friday’s crucial trip to Limerick.
Saints coaches Jim Mallender and Dorian West have been critical of ERC for obliging them to play two games in such a short period and seem to have grounds for complaint. Nevertheless, it’s not concerning McGahan.
“I don’t have any thoughts on the matter,” the coach insisted. “That’s the way it is. We’ve been hampered this year by things outside our control through resting programmes and you just need to get on with it.
“We got back from Treviso late on Saturday night and most got home after midnight. If Northampton left after their game on Sunday, they’d have been home at 5pm so you’re looking at 14 hours difference. It’s no big deal to my mind.”
The scrum and the breakdown are dominating the minds of coaches and McGahan is no exception.
He acknowledged: “Northampton put one on us over there and they certainly have an excellent scrum. We have come up against that in every game we’ve played and have always been a target. The evolution of where the scrum is now has been huge and you can’t overestimate how difficult it is to play if you don’t have a good scrum.
“We have needed time as a unit to get some continuity and scrum and match fit and we have progressed to make it solid and it has been solid over the last three ERC games.
“It doesn’t matter what anyone says or writes about any part of our game. We’re very honest and realistic about all parts of our team. You can’t reach any consistency if you have a huge deficiency in any one area so while we’re not the number one scrummaging unit, we’re certainly able to hold our own and make sure we have some platform on either side.”
As for the breakdown, McGahan argued: “We have worked a lot harder in that area to get more 50/50 decisions. You can eliminate a lot of penalties when you’re dominant at the breakdown. We have upped the ante with regard to work rate and intensity.”
McGahan makes no secret of his desire for revenge against Northampton given their opening day defeat.
“They turned us over in our last meeting and that was a blow to our pride and morale. We have progressed since and we’ll be looking to put that into play on Friday.”
MUNSTER Squad: W Du Preez, J Brugnaut, S Archer, J Hayes, M Horan, T Buckley, D Fogarty, D Varley, D O’Callaghan, P O’Connell, D Ryan, J Coughlan, M O’Driscoll, B Holland, A Quinlan, N Ronan, D Wallace, T O’Leary, P Stringer, R O’Gara, J De Villiers, K Earls, T Gleeson, L Mafi, D Howlett, I Dowling, D Hurley, P Warwick.
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