Munster remember Anthony Foley in the best way possible
Saturday was all about Anthony Foley, honouring his passing, his unprecedented contribution to Munster rugby and somehow delivering a performance reflective of everything that he stood for over his 22 years of unbroken service to the Munster senior set-up.
Given the excellence of Glasgow’s performance in their 42-13 Champions Cup win over Leicester Tigers in the opening round, Munster at their best, would be hard pressed to win this one. Yet the hallmark of Munster rugby over the years, especially when chasing that first, elusive Heineken Cup success, was character in adversity. The necessity for those attributes was never in greater demand than in the buildup to this contest.
From the outset, this was an extraordinary day. Even the Munster flags that sprinkled the road from Cork to Limerick had been bolstered and replaced by spanking new editions. It was as if Saturday not only represented a changing of the guard but also a new beginning.
The passing of Anthony Foley has served to remind Munster people what matters most. The collective spirit and will that proved so forceful in the roller-coaster years towards the good times were back in evidence in a display that defied all logic in terms of how modern professionals should prepare for a challenge of this nature.
Quite how the Munster players managed to get their heads in the right place to play at the level delivered in the opening half was quite astonishing. Then again, are we surprised?
When I was expressed my condolences to CJ Stander at Anthony’s funeral in Killaloe less than 24 hours earlier, all he said was “we will do it for Axel”. The message was clear and Munster weren’t found wanting in one of the most emotionally charged days I’ve witnessed witnessed at a sporting event.
If anything it appeared as if the emotional energy radiating around Thomond Park had more of a negative effect on the visitors.
Glasgow looked shell-shocked at times and were taken completely by surprise by the ferocity of the Munster assault.
One has to ask: What else were they expecting?
The surprise was that Munster were able to somehow unleash a display of such clinical accuracy and efficiency, superior to any seen from the hosts at the famed rugby venue for a long time, in the most demanding and testing of circumstances.
very Munster player called upon to perform was going to dig deeper into his reserve of strength and energy than ever before and that is exactly what transpired. How fitting that Tyler Bleyendaal should use the occasion to finally show the Munster faithful what he is capable of in a stunning performance. Watching on from the stand, Ronan O’Gara nodded approvingly.
A far more recent arrival in South African Jaco Taute played with such a passion, commitment and unyielding physicality that you just knew he had grasped the enormity of the whole occasion. He looks a quality addition.
The pressure placed on the shoulders of this young group to deliver something special was beyond the realm of normal human expectation. The fact that they not only produced a quality of display not witnessed at this level for some time but dispatched a very good Glasgow side by a margin of 21 points, securing a bonus point, was the stuff of fantasy.
Don’t be surprised if, on their next outing against Ulster in Belfast on Friday night, Munster appear flat and listless and, if that transpires to be the case, so be it. The events of the last eight days will have taken an enormous amount out of this group.
Each and every player went above and beyond the cause. The Munster scrum, with the front row of Dave Kilcoyne, Niall Scannell and the exceptional John Ryan pulverised their internationally-capped Glasgow counterparts along with all three of their replacements for good measure. The confidence gleaned from that dominant platform allowed Munster the space to grow and worked the crowd into a frenzy.
When Keith Earls was red-carded for his reckless tackle on Fraser Brown after only 19 minutes, you feared the monumental work gone into generating a stunning 14-point lead in as many minutes was gone out the window. You felt for Earls and could imagine the thoughts running through his head. Would his clumsy tackle be responsible for losing a game that Munster were desperate to win? Thankfully for him, those left to finish the task just rolled up the sleeves and worked even harder. A team victory if ever there was one.
If stunning renditions of The Fields of Athenry and There is an Isle set the ground rules in the 15 minutes before kickoff, it was the raucous delivery of Stand up and Fight, led by Sinead O’Brien and the Munster Rugby Supporters Club, that launched this special day. The signal went out, a collective responsibility on the shoulders of the 25,600 present to acknowledge every tackle, every maul, every scrum engagement in order to lift the players on the field.
Nothing I have ever witnessed in sport will match that spine-tingling moment when the game was won and Anthony Foley’s two boys, Tony and Dan, joined the victorious squad and management in their own version of Stand up and Fight.
This post-match ritual is normally reserved for the privacy of the changing room but all week people have been sharing their feelings in public. The dressing room doors had been opened to the public ever since Sunday’s tragic news broke and there was no separation between the players and the wider sporting Irish public.
It was entirely fitting then that Munster captain Peter O’Mahony chose to let everyone in the stadium along with the watching television audience into the most private and intimate of team moments. It was incredibly moving and could prove pivotal in the future direction of rugby in this province.
Anthony always preached that Munster were better when they had a cause. The players knew they had a special one last Saturday and delivered in a manner reflective of the very best days of this proud rugby province. In doing so they honoured the legacy of a true Munster legend in the most appropriate way possible.
His remarkable wife Olive stated in her incredible funeral oration on Friday that Axel would have hated all the attention focused on him over the last week. What he would, most certainly, have approved of was the brilliance of the collective display put on across the board by the forward and back units to mark his passing.
In many ways that was the most significant tribute of all over a week filled with pain and sorrow.
