Man-of-match Foley head and shoulders above the rest

WHEN the going gets tough, they say, the tough get going and the adage was never more apt than in the wind and rain at Thomond Park on Saturday as Anthony Foley stood head and shoulders over every other player on the field.

He would have been even more effective had not referee Hugh Watkins afforded the Harlequins defenders far too much freedom to challenge him from well inside the ten metre line as he took a succession of free kicks while he was also less than pleased at the sin-binning of Marcus Horan and his ‘Quins rival Maurice FitzGerald after only the third scrum of the match.

“Obviously I thought it was too early and it was a bit harsh and didn’t resolve matters,” said Foley. “It’s a judgment call from the referee. The laws says the scrum has to be square, that you have to drive straight. But look at any scrum that went down tonight, they had clearly come straight across on Frankie [Sheahan].