Anthony Foley: Authentic Axel

EVEN in a year when death seems particularly unforgiving, particulary voracious, the sudden passing of Anthony Foley — Munster Rugby’s emblematic and beloved ‘Axel’ — is especially hard to understand or accept. 

Aged just 42, his resilience in Munster’s red and Ireland’s green — and earlier in Shannon’s blue hoops — suggested a durability that would easily carry him beyond the allotted three score and 10. It was not to be.

Axel was never a hopelessly gifted wunderkind who cast stardust about him as he glided through our world, rather he more than maximised his potential to become a supreme leader and competitor. Where others built careers and reputations on a god-given talent, on fate, he built his on character, courage and almost tungsten-hard resolve. He epitomised the successful Munster teams, the ones that conquered the odds, and Europe. That streetwise defiance endeared him to us all — probably because he exemplified what so many of us would wish to be. Brave, loyal to a fault, smart and utterly authentic. May he rest in peace.