Foley fully focused for frenetic French foray

ANTHONY FOLEY is a veteran of 71 Heineken European Cup matches with Munster, he has scored a record 21 tries and enjoyed some of his happiest moments, as well as some of the most difficult, away to top French sides.

So he is under no illusions about the task that lies in wait against Castres Olympique at Stade Pierre Antoine on Friday night.

The captain was back in full harness at wet and windy Temple Hill in Cork yesterday, having missed last week’s visit to Edinburgh for family reasons. You suspect the break from almost ceaseless action throughout December will have done him a power of good and that this is the kind of game that ranks highest with one of rugby’s most honest and committed exponents.

“It doesn’t matter that Castres are out of the competition,” he insisted. “I played for Munster when we had Harlequins over and we had nothing to play for and we turned them over on our home patch. They’re going to come out with all guns blazing. They have a big forward pack, the scrum-half looked very sharp at the weekend, Delaigue runs the show from out-half and the wingers have bags of pace so we have to be alert everywhere.

“I can’t buy into the talk that they’ll come out with nothing to play for, they’re a professional outfit and will come at us with everything as we would expect. We have a lot experience and also a lot of young guys who may be playing their first game in France. It’s very important over the next three days that we focus in on our job and not get carried away on the what ifs.”

Coach Declan Kidney still is not sure as to the availability of at least three players who have been carrying injuries since the game at Murrayfield. However, he is hopeful they will all make it and I can’t see the team being far removed from the following: Payne; Kelly, Murphy, Halstead, Horgan; O’Gara, Stringer; Horan, Flannery, Hayes, O’Callaghan or O’Driscoll, O’Connell, Leamy, Wallace, Foley.

“They all took some part today and that showed their eagerness to try and prove their fitness,” said Kidney. “Each took a greater and lesser part, John Hayes not much, Jerry Flannery a little more and John Kelly a little more than that. None are ruled out and that’s always good in a six-day turnaround. Hopefully, the healing process over the next three days will allow them to play but it could be even Friday when we’d make the call. We’ll have as full a session as we can today at Thomond Park.”

Having seen his son Tony make a quick recovery from the illness that kept him out of the visit to Edinburgh, Foley is really looking forward to his latest sortie into French rugby territory. He pointed to imaginary grey hairs he had picked up watching the one-point victory over Edinburgh but, on a more serious note, stressed: “I thought the boys played particularly well, it’s been a very tough place for teams to go to over the past year or so we’ll take a lot out of the game. It’s a lot easier to play than to watch but the boys proved they were good enough to beat a good Edinburgh side.”

However, the captain is nothing if not a realist and he also accepted that it could have been the game in which the team lived up to his prediction that a really big win was waiting just around the corner.

“One of these days it is going to happen. If we stopped creating those chances, I’d get very worried. The fact that we do gives me a lot of heart that some day we are going to put it all together.”

MUNSTER SQUAD: Forwards: M. Horan,J. Hayes, F. Pucciarello, F. Roche, J. Flannery,D. Fogarty, T. Hogan, P. O’Connell, M. O’Driscoll, D. O’Callaghan, D. Leamy, S. Keogh, D. Wallace, A. Foley. Backs: P. Stringer, T. O’Leary, R. O’Gara, J. Manning, J. Kelly, A. Horgan, I. Dowling, B. Murphy, T. Halstead, G. Connolly, M. Lawler, S. Payne.