Medical team has early victory

The Irish "midweek" team might bask in some glory this week after adding Shane Horgan's name to the starting list of players to face France in Croke Park.

If the medical staff that patch up and rehabilitate the players between matches can add captain Brian O'Driscoll and scrumhalf Peter Stringer to the active and available list before Sunday's game, this will be seen as one of their most successful championship weeks in recent years.

Horgan is back on the wing a week before expected following surgery to his knee cartilage after Leinster's match against Gloucester in the Heineken European Cup. The Irish right wing started his rehabilitation the day after he had surgery, immediately climbing onto a stationary bike in the gym to begin the recovery.

Nominally back in on the right flank, he could be shifted into the centre if O'Driscoll's hamstring fails to mend in time. In that instance, Horgan's place out wide will be filled by Geordan Murphy. Unsurprisingly, his very strong preference is that O'Driscoll should be involved as captain.

"It was always my plan to get back for this game although we didn't state that publicly. We just wanted to see how it was going. It was in the back of my mind from the first day of the injury that there was a possibility of getting back. Luckily it has reacted very well to all the work we've been doing," said Horgan. "I've played in the centre before but have been selected on the wing this week. My preference? Well, it's that Brian should play."

Having Horgan back in the team has brought greater hope to an Irish side that looked set to be physically torn apart in the immediate aftermath of the game against Wales after O'Driscoll had hobbled off in the second half, Denis Hickie had a pumping head wound and Gordon D'Arcy was nursing a sore groin, having inadvertently done the splits during the match.

For Horgan the historic match is also a return to a stadium he has come to know through Gaelic football. The former Meath minor, who switched to rugby as a teenager, has played twice in Croke Park. "I haven't run on the (new) Croke Park surface because at the time the lads were over there I was injured. It just wasn't the right time for me to start running on it," he says. "No, I didn't make it to Croke Park with the minors. We didn't have a particularly successful year that year but I played there when I was eight. My national school got to a final there. I also played at the All-Ireland final in the mini sevens they have at half-time.

"I think though the pitch may have changed since then and I certainly never envisaged going back there as a rugby player. I played Gaelic football growing up so my dream would always have been to play in Croke Park and experience that. The path changed direction when I was 18.

"I played a year of minors and also Irish Youths and was brought into the Leinster training squad that year by Jim Glennon. Personally, I wanted to commit to one sport and one of them allowed me to do that professionally and the other didn't."

A follower of the Australian way of playing all sports growing up, Horgan's all-round athletic ability has served him well. The football background is surely an advantage at restarts, where he has been used extensively, as well as in general ball handling.

"Like many people of my generation I played every sport I was allowed to play whether it be athletics or Gaelic or rugby or swimming. I think it's good for everyone to do that and I think there are definitely passover skills there," he says.

Coach Eddie O'Sullivan sees Horgan's return as an important part of the Irish weaponry against the French.

"It's a nice surprise for everybody," said O'Sullivan. "It's a phenomenal recovery. Back a week early. Credit to the medical staff who managed him, particularly Brian Green, who did a great job."