Foley salutes Munster’s travelling army
"French crowds tend to be very vociferous, very intimidating, but the fact that so many Munster people are travelling will considerably lessen that intimidation factor.
"He won't have 30,000 French supporters abusing him at every turn and questioning every decision. Everyone suffers in an intimidating atmosphere and referees are not above making wrong decisions under such pressure.
"The fact that the attendance should be fairly evenly split between both sets of supporters should take any outside pressure off the referee."
Much has been written of Munster's fans over recent seasons, thousands of whom have made financial sacrifices to follow the team through Europe.
No other team in the Heineken Cup has brought so many fans to far flung destinations on such a regular basis and Foley is still in awe of them.
"I don't patronise them when I say they are absolutely fantastic and they have dug us out of some very difficult situations, particularly playing away from home. We were told there would only be 4,000 of them at Welford Road but there were a lot more than that. I don't quite know where they got the tickets or how they got them but they made their voices heard.
"When we ran onto the pitch we got a fantastic reception and that gave us a major boost. "Right through these last few years it was heartening to know we weren't alone when we played games away. We were always able to take inspiration from the supporters and that is one of my greatest memories of the last few years."
Foley admits these are bonus days for Munster.
"Nobody thought we would get beyond the group stage but we did. Nobody thought we would beat Leicester but we did. And we can beat Toulouse as well.
"Because this is bonus territory for this year, some of the pressure is off and that, I feel, is one of the reasons why we performed so well in Leicester.
"We knew we had a chance if we performed to our potential and we are confident we also have an opportunity if we do the same against Toulouse.
"There will be no hang-ups going into the game and we're not worried about all the talk of Toulouse seeking revenge for the semi-final defeat in Bordeaux three years ago.
"A lot of their players weren't even around at that time so we are not paying too much attention to this talk of revenge. If that were to be the case, maybe we would look back to 1997 when they beat us by 60 points to 19 over there."
Foley can't quite put his finger on the reason why Munster have become known as miracle men of this year's tournament.
Accepting that the requirement to beat Gloucester by 27 points and four tries was a tall order, he did however insist that Munster should never be underestimated.
"There is a tremendous work ethic in this entire squad and there is enough experience within the group to make sure that panic isn't in our vocabulary.
"When you look around the terraces and see such a huge level of support when you think of the huge contribution made by the likes of Mick Galwey there is always a massive will to win and a tremendous desire to work for each other.
"There are quality players in every section of the pitch and everyone has experienced some great days in the red jersey so we also know how to win games, particularly the tight ones.
"There are lots of young players coming through and I think guys like Marcus Horan, Donncha O'Callaghan and Paul O'Connell deserve tremendous credit for coming into the team as replacements for experienced guys like Peter Clohessy, Gallaimh and even John Langford.
"The acid test for Donncha and Paul came at Welford Road and they left their mark against the vastly experienced Ben Kay and Martin Johnson."
Foley believes that, come what may this season, the future is bright for Munster rugby.
He just hopes it will become even brighter quickly like Saturday afternoon.
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