Ireland has long had the knack of producing distinctive and memorable rugby players. Think of Keith Wood giving vivid life to “going bald-headed” for something, of outsize characters like Moss Keane or geniuses like Brian O’Driscoll and Jack Kyle. Shane Horne is a worthy successor to that tradition, an outsize – 6ft4in (190cm) and 230lb (104kg) – winger who combined the talents of a British and Irish Lion with an offbeat charm.
He was a significant figure in the rise of Leinster to European superpowerdom, playing more than 200 matches for his native province and winning the Heineken Cup in 2009 and 2011, the first time alongside fellow ambassador Rocky Elsom.
He won 65 caps for Ireland, scoring 21 tries. Highlights included a rampaging performance when the All Blacks were seriously scared at Lansdowne Road in 2001 and two tries, including the clincher, when Ireland won the Triple Crown at Twickenham in 2006.
He also follows in Irish traditions by being a great talker, but a listener as well. He’s looking forward to mixing with fans as well as the other legends during the Heineken Rugby Studio shows. “It’s really enjoyable for us to hang out with the fans and find out what they think and what they care about”, he says. “It’s interesting to get views from an outside perspective as they often provide some original insight and talk sense!”
That sense of rugby as a game which encourages fun and fellowship runs through his memories: “The guys I played with in Leinster and Ireland are some of my best friends today,” he says
Looking back to playing in the Rugby World Cup 2003 in Australia, he says: “We were lucky because there was a group of players there: Brian O’Driscoll, Victor Costello, Reggie Corrigan, who were all travelling together to play in the World Cup as young lads in Australia and for me it didn’t get much better than that.”
He’ll admit happily to watching “from a very green-tinted perspective”, but is far from alone in seeing his countrymen as serious contenders this time. “They have now won two Six Nations back to back and these players know what it is like to win,” he says, pointing out that this is experience some earlier Irish teams have lacked. “They have a generation of players that haven’t lost many rugby matches and they have a decent group to get through.”
And first-hand experience of coach Michael Cheika at Leinster underpins his thinking about Australian prospects. “He can get them humming. He is the perfect man to do that, to build a team and build spirit.”
He also rates an Australian, Israel Folau, as the man he expects to shine. “He shines every time he takes a pitch,” he says of the multisport star. “If you look at different parts of his game, the constituent parts, he is strong in every area.”
