Horan: Ospreys fallout will spur us on
Horan feels the galling defeat to the Welsh side will motivate Munster in the Heineken Cup semi-final showdown with Biarritz, but has called for a massive improvement in form and attitude.
The loss, he feels, was the wake-up call Munster desperately needed going into the real business end of this European championship.
“It’s going to focus our minds because we can’t afford to play like that and make the mistakes we did,” he said.
“Being honest about it, I don’t think any of us showed up on Saturday and we let ourselves down. We didn’t just park it but confronted defeat, and quickly came to the realisation that our game simply wasn’t up to scratch. The Ospreys looked like the hungrier team and seemed to be playing for a lot more. It was a lesson for us.”
Horan couldn’t quite explain why Munster flopped but insisted that they couldn’t afford a repeat this weekend.
“If you could answer that question you’d solve a lot of questions in rugby. It just didn’t click for us. Maybe late on in the game guys started thinking about the next week but that’s just not right, it’s not the way we operate and a lot of us were ashamed of the way we played.
“Sometimes defeat is a good thing. People might say if we had thrown out a huge performance against the Ospreys, won and coasted through it, we might go into the game the following week thinking everything is rosy, so it is a way of focusing the mind and we know that this time we get just one chance,” he added.
Although Munster secured more than ample revenge by beating Biarritz in the 2006 Heineken Cup final, Horan still harks back unhappily to his first encounter with them in the 2005 quarter-final when Biarritz stormed into an unassailable 19-0 lead before Munster produced a brave but unsuccessful second-half fight-back that yielded 10 unanswered points.
Horan believes Munster have come a long way since: “My memory of the game isn’t great, I only realised this week that Ronan O’Gara wasn’t playing that day; maybe we were overawed by where we were, by the heat and by who we were playing. I think we played some great stuff in the second-half and nearly caught them at the end. Maybe if we had a bit more time… But that’s a great thing for us: we’ve been there, we know what it’s like; we have experienced playing in the exact same stadium, against the same team with the same sort of atmosphere, so that can’t be an excuse now and a lot of guys realise that.”
Horan says Munster cannot be fearful or afford to give Biarritz a head-start tomorrow and hopes there will be no early disasters.
“Fear can be a positive thing and in ways it’s probably what drives us. It’s the fear of letting yourself down, the fear of being beaten, the fear of letting a French team run away in the first half an hour and having to chase a match, and that it could end up a ridiculous game.
“You do need that fear there. We know we can win out there in France, we’ve done it before, but we do need fear of losing to drive us; I think we have that for tomorrow.”
Fitness is another crucial factor at this time of the year and Horan believes Munster won’t suffer in that regard, even if the barometer continues to rise in the north of Spain.
Personally, he is enjoying his rugby and feels fresher and fitter than for a long time following his health scare earlier this season.
“I feel good. I’ve had no relapse or anything. There should be no problems from a team perspective. We would pride ourselves on our fitness and a lot of guys feel very fresh. From our point of view it’s about taking our game to a level where it’s going to be uncomfortable for them – and see who can last the pace better.”
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