A dynamic ball carrier with plenty of pace, MARCUS HORAN has bedded into the Ireland team as first-choice loosehead in recent years.

Horan, educated at St. Munchin's College and the Limerick Institute of Technology, regained the number 1 jersey for the 2005 summer tour to Japan and has kept a firm hold of it ever since.

Leinster veteran Reggie Corrigan ousted him for the 2003 World Cup and the 2004 and 2005 Six Nations campaigns, but Horan's fine performances for both province, he was outstanding during Munster's Heineken Cup-winning run, and country catapulted him back into the starting line-up.

An honest scrummager, Horan debuted against the United States in 2000, but had to wait over two years for his second cap against Fiji. The Limerick man scored his third Test try as a replacement against Wales in March 2005 and was Ireland's only try-scorer in the November 2005 defeat by New Zealand.

He nabbed his fifth try in the 2006 win over South Africa and was ever-present in the 2007 Six Nations championship, apart from the Scotland game which he missed due to a calf strain.

Horan was part of the 2007 RWC squad and also the 2008 RBS 6 Nations featuring in every game and notching up his sixth try in spectacular fashion against Scotland.