Foley: Has rugby crossed the line?

MUNSTER captain Anthony Foley wants safety to become a priority in rugby. He believes the game has become more dangerous in recent years and he yesterday highlighted three disturbing trends that need to be addressed.

Foley has never been one to shirk from a physical challenge, but says that spear tackles, shoulder charges and 'flying wedges' are much too dangerous and should be outlawed.

On the eve of Munster's Heineken Cup clash with Castres at Thomond Park today (5.15pm), Foley agreed with recent comments by Donal Lenihan that the game has become over-physical.

Foley commented: "You can see with the amount and severity of some injuries that the game has crossed the line.

"There are spear tackles, an increasing amount of shoulder charges as opposed to making valid tackles and, from there, the increasing emergence of flying wedges coming off the back of mauls.

"By nature rugby is a physical sport and players know that going into it. You can only hope that it's refereed properly. It's not something that you can unduly worry about. Once you become a professional, you know you run the risk of injury; in fact it's inevitable, and if you wrap yourself up in cotton wool, you can still get injured.

"I remember when I played hurling, if you pulled out of anything, that's when you got the slap; so the best advice was to get stuck in.

"It's a physical game, so you've got to go for it, whilst also placing trust in the referees and touch-judges."

When the going gets tough, Foley has the solution. "You've got to look to your team mates to help out and make sure people aren't left isolated or in danger."

Foley is concerned about certain developments: "There are more shoulder charge tackles nowadays and the flying wedges, like we saw in Sale recently, is particularly hard to deal with.

"Teams will set up at the back of a ruck, have three players come flying around all bound together, and the only way to stop them is to go under them. It's not man on man then; it's man against two or three men and it becomes very important that if you make that tackle, your own players are there to protect you as well.

"The game has become that way because teams are so defence conscious and to break through the gain line, you need to hit it in twos and threes."

Castres have become almost perennial opponents for Munster in the Heineken Cup, but many things have changed since Munster first travelled to France in 1995 under the captaincy of Pat Murray.

Foley recalled: "The first time we were level at 12-12, had a scoring opportunity but turned over the ball with a three-man overlap, conceded the try and lost the game. Ultimately, that cost us a place in the semi-finals of that inaugural competition."

But Foley says it was a learning experience. "That was before the Munster supporters got on board. There might have been a few who travelled, but essentially it was the 22 of us against 8,000 of them.

"We hadn't ever experienced anything like it, so to lose by one score and lose eight minutes into injury time was pretty ok for the times that were in it. There was a very intimidating atmosphere that we had never experienced."

Foley admitted the level of heckling they experienced would inspire Munster on future travels to France.

"It gave us a taste for more; fellas wanted to go back to France and play there again, which of course we have done many times. Nowadays, we're better prepared, and better able to cope with the intimidation that is part and parcel of the game in France."

Foley plays his 69th Heineken Cup game in Munster's 70th appearance: "What I like to focus on is the development of the tournament, and the excitement it generates for both the players and supporters.

"It is an incredible competition the way it has evolved, the way people have bought into it. It has now become one of the most important competitions outside of the Six Nations Championship.

Foley says Munster plan to keep Castres guessing today: "I'd like to think we could vary our game, put it up to them in the pack, use our half backs to get us into attacking positions and ultimately break down their defence. It's becoming increasingly difficult to do that nowadays. Last week, the game was decided by mistakes.

"Today, mistakes will have to be kept to a minimum."