John O'Sullivantalks to the Ireland prop who wants to end the Six Nations tournament with a bit of a reputation, scrum-wise

MARCUS HORAN has a point to prove and he’s earmarked Saturday’s pivotal Six Nations Championship clash with Wales at the Millennium Stadium as the perfect forum to address what he perceives as an annoying legacy from the victory over Scotland.

The words “Ireland’s frontrow” and “targeted” are more than occasional bedfellows in Test match preview-speak and the Munster triumvirate of Horan, Jerry Flannery and John Hayes could be forgiven for being a little tetchy when time and again they acquit themselves with a minimum of discomfort.

In this Six Nations campaign alone the Irish frontrow – Ulster hooker Rory Best has also played a sizeable part – has more than coped adequately with the set-piece demands presented by France, Italy and England but last weekend at Murrayfield, Horan cut an unhappy figure.

It wasn’t that Scotland were dominant in this facet of the game, far from it, but that the Irish frontrow allowed referee Jonathan Kaplan to become an intrusive presence at scrum time.

Horan recalled: “I was very frustrated at the time and looking back on the (video) tape some of the decisions you would question, but having said that we have to deal with what is out there and we didn’t perform well enough.

“We didn’t front up and I am hugely disappointed in our performance at scrums last weekend. We let the side down a bit. It could have been a lot worse. There was one scrum in the 22 when they drove us back.

“I thought they hit too early and pulled back. I hold my hand up. I shouldn’t have done that. I was waiting for him (Kaplan) to reset it. It could have been a serious mistake; they could have got in, in the corner and it could have been a different game completely.”

His primary concern along with his team-mates is to guarantee against a repeat. “We’re definitely trying to target that, fix it in time for the weekend. Whatever about the so-called reputation we have had; we have worked hard on it up to the Scottish game and we slipped back a small bit.

“Whatever the result at the weekend, we want to leave the Six Nations with a bit of a reputation, scrum-wise. It’s our last game to show ourselves and I think we need a big one from the frontrow especially.”

Horan and Hayes – it sounds like a firm of solicitors – have played virtually every minute of the campaign so far whereas other countries have tended to rotate their props regularly. However, Horan’s eyes widen at the mere suggestion he could be afforded more of a break to lessen the physical demands of playing in such a relentlessly attritional position.

He ventured: “It’s tough.”

“Would you like a breather?” one inquisitor offered.

“God, no: when things are going well you don’t want to miss out on things like this. This is what my career has been about, trying to win things at the highest level. We have missed out a couple of years so this (match) is huge for us. When you are feeling sore, tired and miserable, winning makes it a little easier to bear.”

Munster’s two Heineken Cup triumphs present an easy analogy that those players will feel completely at home but Horan dismisses the notion. He contends that for the two finals Munster supporters far outnumbered their counterparts which clearly won’t be the case at the weekend while the mental scars of the 2005 Six Nations clash will still be vivid for some of the Irish team.

That was the occasion when Ireland rolled into Cardiff chasing a Triple Crown while Wales were trying to clinch a Grand Slam: the home side prevailed, a memory that according to Horan the Irish team don’t want to repeat on Saturday. The roles in terms of the respective goals are reversed this weekend.

The Irish prop is adamant that the team won’t be cowed by the pressure of expectation.

“It’s a good pressure. It’s great to be in this situation, unbeaten. It’s time to take that on our shoulders,” said Horan.

“The key for us is the first 20 minutes and how we put that pressure back on them. Everyone is really looking forward to the challenge because we haven’t been in this situation for a while.

“They have a lot at stake, defending champions, home pride and stuff like that so there is a bit of pressure on them. They’re a good side but there is pressure there for them too.”