Gerry Thornleyin Wellington talks to the Leinster and Ireland stalwart Shane Horgan

SHANE HORGAN'S admiration for Brian O'Driscoll has risen another notch. Deputising for O'Driscoll as Ireland captain for a day last week in circumstances that could hardly have been less propitious, Horgan reckons the eye-opener was a sample of the pressures O'Driscoll must bear.

"Sometimes I think flippant remarks are made about the captaincy and that's without a knowledge of the difficulties that go with the job. I had a tiny little snippet, and without the full responsibilities of the media and the whole week and the microscope your personal life is under and your family life is under. It's a massive, massive job and it takes a really strong character to do it, and to have done it for as long and as well and as successfully as Brian has done it I think is really remarkable. I think it's seldom acknowledged how good a job he's done."

Horgan is one of the more publicity-shy of the Ireland players, and the experience of captaincy induces no envy of whoever fills what to him must sometimes be a lonely role.

"It is, and especially with the place he (O'Driscoll) holds in Irish rugby; it's a very, very difficult place. And for someone who's held that place so long and walks around with that pressure on his shoulders, I think it rests lightly on his shoulders compared to how it could affect other people."

Indeed, the thought occurred that by comparison, Keith Wood's personality would make him relatively at ease with the role.

In an international context, O'Driscoll, Horgan and co won't look back too fondly on the season just ending. Horgan admits it took Leinster a while to shake the World Cup off, and that, in retrospect, the hangover lingered into the Six Nations.

"Maybe there was a trepidation there which hadn't been there before. I don't know if that's correct or not, but maybe there was. These things can change on very, very fine lines. A couple of passes, a certain number of phases of play, a try and then you build on from that, or one that you got which you shouldn't have got, can shake off the past and you can move forward from there. But it didn't happen and that's why there's been a change."

Some recompense came by way of the Magners League, only the second medal of his career to go with the inaugural 2001-2002 Celtic League triumph over Munster in the final. Trophies and medals are the hard currency by which a player, all the more so one in his late 20s, starts to judge his career. As if to emphasise the point he recalls Felipe Contepomi saying in the huddle before the title-clinching game at home to the Dragons that he had never won anything in rugby.

"I think it will serve us well in a huge way next season but in its own right, as an achievement, it has to be acknowledged. Our fans again made us the best-supported team in the competition, and it was really important to them that we achieved a level of consistency which saw us win a lot of games. To bring that feel-good factor through to next season can only serve us well."

He admits to being envious of anyone, and not just the Munster players, who wins the Heineken Cup, as it remains one of the big, unfulfilled dreams of his career.

"It's weird and sportspeople are strange animals because there's definitely envy coupled with the fact you've got some very good friends in the team and you're delighted for them. You want them to succeed but it doesn't make you any less hungry for it."

Horgan recently put pen to paper on another two-year contract with Leinster and looks set to see out his career there.

"I've never been massively tempted to go abroad, I have to say. I've always been extremely passionate about Leinster. I'm from Leinster, I've always wanted to play for Leinster, I've always wanted to win stuff with Leinster and I've always really enjoyed my time there. I've watched it grow, and I think I've grown with it in some ways.

"Rugby is a physically and mentally demanding game and I would find it difficult to give the same commitment on a day-to-day basis to any other team."

That passion, he reckons, doesn't come with signing a contract; it only comes when you've lived with and invested a part of yourself in a team, and he envisages remaining a Leinster fan for the rest of his life.

The subject that clearly still rankles with Horgan is David Knox's scattergun parting shot.

"I got on well with Knoxie. I thought his comments were," and he pauses, "some of his comments were disgusting, actually. He let himself down, he let our organisation down and I'm glad that he's no longer a part of it.

"I thought it was completely the wrong thing to do . . . I didn't think it showed a lot of character. They posed a lot of questions, but I think they posed more questions about him than the people he was talking about."

Against that, the prospect of Alan Gaffney returning and Michael Cheika rejecting overtures from the Waratahs to remain with Leinster excites him.

"He (Cheika) is the heartbeat of Leinster at the moment. I think he's got a really good balance between the intellectual rugby technician and the rough heart of a rugby man. He marries those two key features of rugby coaching very well."

The Leinster backs, he admits, weren't as polished as in previous year but Gaffney - or Riff, as Horgan calls him - can only be beneficial, given the "amazing" depth in their back division.

First though, there is the small matter of the All Blacks and the Wallabies. Although this season is in its 12th month, Horgan maintains he hasn't found the prospect of this tour as tough as previous ones largely because the season has fragmented, not least by injury-enforced breaks.

"Playing rugby in Ireland is never really tough; it's never really an issue. You're always privileged to do it, and 99 per cent of the time it's good. It has its drawbacks, like any job, but they're really in the background, especially for this tour, and I'm looking forward to it."

Saturday in the Westpac Stadium provides the latest in 21 attempts to tick the one winless box in Ireland's rugby history.

"It really is embarrassing," he says with a suitably sheepish smile. "I know the All Blacks are an exceptional brand and they've had great teams throughout the ages but I'm convinced that at some stage there's an Irish team good enough to beat them.

"We came close here a couple of years ago, twice really, and probably should have won the first game. I do find it a little bit embarrassing that we've never beaten them. I think they look on us as a bit of a laugh and they think we come over and we'll stick it to them for a while, but it's something I'd really like to do, I really would."