Foley dismisses talk of Munster unrest

ANTHONY FOLEY, Munster’s Heineken Cup winning captain in 2006 and now a senior member of the management team, last night dismissed as “nonsense” media reports that there was unrest in the current squad.

Foley presided over the Limerick launch of “Rags to Riches, the Story of Munster Rugby”, a beautifully compiled book by Barry Coughlan of the Irish Examiner.

He was also glowing in his praise of the contribution that Coughlan has made to the game in the province through his writings over many years.

Many greats of the game attended including Moss Keane, Brendan Foley and Gerry McLoughlin of the team that defeated the All Blacks in 1978. Keane has been battling cancer but looked a picture of good health and expressed himself quietly confident about the future. Peter Clohessy and Mick Galwey from the recent past were also present along with many other famous Munster players and family members.

“It is nonsense to be honest with you,” insisted Foley about suggestions that all was not well in the Munster camp. “You get a couple of bad results on the bounce and people start reading things into them. We’re conscious that we’re ring rusty at the moment and fellas haven’t enough game time under their belt. But we always knew this was going to be the case. At times you’ve got to hang in there and fight and that’s what we’re doing at the moment.

“We’re also conscious that no trophies are given out in October and November. You don’t need to be shooting your best game at this stage of the season. Obviously, we were disappointed with the result of the Leinster game and at what happened in Northampton. It’s just a matter of putting our best face forward and trying to get a positive result.

“Of course, fellas will be disappointed. They have a lot of self pride and at times wouldn’t be happy with the way things are going. No one likes losing to Leinster in Dublin, let alone by 30 points. That hurts you and hurts everyone in Munster rugby.

“Northampton was never going to be an easy place to go a week later and at one stage, we were going to be on the end of a hiding. But the players showed an awful amount of character to come back and nearly win it.

“Somebody told me about this kind of talk but it’s nonsense, absolute nonsense. It gathers more momentum with bad performances and the only way to stop that is by our performances on the pitch. Therein lies the problem. This weekend, we have Treviso, then Edinburgh, then Ulster and then the international break. These games are of massive importance so that we can get momentum back in.”

Foley added that targeting five points against Treviso at Thomond Park on Saturday would be unwise. “I’ll take four now if you hand it to me,” he said. “After what they did against Perpignan, you can’t dismiss that. You’ve got to go out and play them on their merits and hopefully get a win.”

On the subject of the six-week suspension handed out to John Hayes, his long-time club, provincial and international colleague, Foley pointed out that rugby was a contact, physical sport.

“When there’s a guy underneath you in a maul, you have to put your feet somewhere”, he stressed. “When you hit a ruck these days, you have to be careful. In the past, maybe it wasn’t necessarily so. Now, though, you feel for John. There aren’t a lot of miles left on the clock. You don’t like to see a guy out of rugby for six weeks at the same time as the Heineken Cup, the Magners League with the November Tests coming up. You like guys to be humming at this time of year.

“It’s totally out of character for John. It’s something he has never been associated with. It’s just a pity that more leniency wasn’t shown towards him. Leinster didn’t have a big problem with it. They backed up John’s case, their doctor coming out saying the cuts on Cian Healy’s face came from a fall the previous week. Hopefully common sense will prevail at (tonight’s) appeal hearing. Look at his career. Look at his character. They acknowledged he didn’t do it intentionally and yet they gave him the maximum.”