The Foley factor: How Munster harnessed Axel emotion on raw, emotional night at the Páirc

Whatever about whether the game should have been in Cork or Limerick, Munster and their fans delivered a fitting celebration of Anthony Foley as they saw off Racing 92 in the Champions Cup

STAND UP: The Munster squad and backroom team kick up a rousing climax to a European night in Cork with the ‘Stand up and Fight’ anthem, a tribute to Anthony Foley. Pic: Nick Elliott, Inpho

Clayton McMillan praised his players’ navigation of an emotional week at Munster yet that did not mean there was a lack of sentiment in their want to honour the memory of Anthony “Axel” Foley.

Supervalu Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday night had become a shrine to the late Heineken Cup-winning captain and head coach, whose sudden death in Paris at the age of 42 a decade ago last Friday has resonated within Munster squads since.

The 10-year anniversary of his passing on the eve of a European pool opener against Racing 92 was marked with a touch of class with the Parisian club once again the opponents as Munster got their Champions Cup underway with a 33-25 victory in Cork.

Foley’s familiar number '8' was replaced for the evening with his latest successor in the position Brian Gleeson wearing no. 24, and the entire Munster matchday squad walked onto the pitch with the same digit on their left breasts of their track tops. Foley’s predecessor as skipper Mick Galwey was part of a choir from their Shannon club and the late back-rower’s alma mater Ballina-Killaloe as they joined opera singer Jean Wallace, wearing Axel’s club jersey, in a rendition of the club anthem “There Is An Isle”.

Captains Tadhg Beirne and Racing’s Maxime Baudonne exchanged No.8 jerseys before kick-off and having had a minute’s silence to mark the passing of Lions player Hyron Andrews the previous day in La Rochelle, the 24,906 inside Páirc Uí Chaoimh saluted Foley with a 60-second round of applause in the eighth minute of the match. That came moments after Gleeson had scored a try from the late great’s playbook, attacking off the base of a five-metre scrum to power Munster into a 5-3 lead.

Four more tries would follow for the home side as they did just enough to hold off Racing for an opening-night victory in Pool 3 and fittingly the Munster players and management formed a circle around the centre spot to belt out “Stand Up And Fight” in memory of a man who is still honoured with an “Axel” call after every team meeting.

"I didn't personally know the man, but you actually feel like you know him through the constant mentioning and presence of his name,” New Zealander McMillan said. “That's been really good for me and the other guys that are not necessarily from Munster but want to understand him and the legacy of Munster.

"I thought the players managed the week really well. We had some disruptions. We had one day in at UL, our normal training base. They had a big (EU) function there with a whole lot of dignitaries. We weren't able to go to our own base. We adapted. We changed up the week.

"That, along with everything going on with the memorial around Axel meant it was a different week, but I thought they showed a huge amount of professionalism and just kept their emotions in check.” 

For back-row replacement Jack O’Donoghue, the night was a particularly poignant one. Now 32, he is the only current player who had been coached by Foley and he had been in a similar circle in 2016 as the squad formed a similar circle at Thomond Park after Munster had blown away Glasgow Warriors on an emotionally-supercharged afternoon the day after their head coach’s funeral.

“For me personally, it was very emotional,” O’Donoghue said post-match. “I stood in that circle 10 years ago as a young fella just coming through. I was asked after the game what Axel meant to me. You know, he gave me my first opportunity; he put time and effort into me, sitting down with me as an academy player watching videos, watching training and teaching me the little intricate bits of the game.

“To be 10 years on and to still be in that circle, it was very emotional for me because it means a hell of a lot to me.

“It means a hell of a lot to still be in this group and to still be playing and putting in a result and getting a result like that, it meant a lot.” 

O’Donogue added there was: “A lot of pride. I'm really proud of the performance that we put in to get the result. It's a tough, tough week, you know, with the emotions, to try to keep them down and to focus on your job and to put down a performance like we did.

“I think to come away with the four points is huge and exactly what we wanted to do and exactly what we set out at the start of the week to do.” 

The back-rower also spoke of a meaningful jersey presentation by Axel’s widow Olive Foley on the eve of the game.

“It was incredibly powerful. She's an incredibly powerful woman, and she speaks a lot about belief and belief in God and how that has helped her.

“She's someone I've actually stayed in touch with since Axel passing, and it was just great to see her and to show how strong of a woman she is. To be able to stand in front of us 10 years on and to present us with our jerseys, it meant a hell of a lot.

“And to show the strength that she has, it just filled me with massive strength as well, that you know you could go out and face anyone, the way she spoke in the dressing room before our captain's run.”