Foley’s input could fashion unlikely win

Paris has been the burial ground of many burgeoning Irish rugby international careers.

I have grown up in a generation that has known little but heartache against the French. Every second year I would sit hopefully in front of the television, wishing this could be our year. Fred Cogley’s commentary always started optimistically but as the game wore on even he winced as the French opened up on the helpless Irish.

So many great French backs showcased their class against Ireland. Blanco, Lagisquet, Sella, Saint-Andre, Ntamack, Barnat Salles and Clerc were but a few of the greats who left Irish tacklers flailing as they cruised in for score after score.

But it was always the forwards who did the early damage. Roumat, Benazzi were beasts of men who battered Ireland into submission, opening up the space out wide for their glamorous backs.

The inevitable consequence of this biannual drubbing was a host of changes to the starting 15. Many players’ international careers ended in Parc des Princes. A few unfortunate souls won their only cap on that desolate ground, unjustly banished to international obscurity as punishment for yet another loss on French soil.

Their only consolation could have been that they would much later make it on to Anthony Foley’s, self-selected ‘One Cap Wonder’ team.

Foley regularly entertained his Irish teammates on bus journeys by listing his most recent starting 15 on this ignominious team. Of course, any recent first cap winner was straight into Foley’s side. Any uncapped players on the bus were wishing they could make the cut. But once you were on the team, you were eager to get straight off it. It’s ironic Foley is back on the Irish team bus and this time he’ll be winning his first away cap as an Irish coach.

It isn’t easy getting called into a starting team a couple of days before an international. When you’re on stand-by, the focus of management is all on your injured colleague. Getting the call-up at the last minute gives you very little time to prepare or to work within you unit in training. Being called in as a replacement forwards coach the week before a key international must be exponentially harder.

Foley will have to upskill quickly in order to learn a whole new catalogue of lineout calls, back row moves and attack patterns. In Munster he has an in-depth knowledge of the various systems that are applied. But in the Irish job he is assuming control of someone else’s structures and has had a week to prepare his forwards for their biggest contest of the Six Nations.

As a player, Foley’s greatest muscle was his rugby brain. He always had the innate ability to be in the right place at the right time and he had great footballing ability. So many times for Munster and Ireland, he was the player that made the crucial tackle, pass, carry or score.

He was also mentally tougher than anybody else, fearless in his play and confident in his own ability.

Sometimes great players don’t make good coaches. Foley though has a natural ability to coach. In his first year in charge of the Munster ‘A’ team he led his young side to a British and Irish Cup final. He built up a great rapport with the young players and instilled confidence within the setup. He also worked incredibly hard off the pitch becoming a student of the game, analysing hours of video footage and consulting with other coaches in order to improve his ability.

Tomorrow he will watch his pack go head-to-head with a French pack on course for a Grand Slam. Ireland has won in Paris only twice in the last 60 years and the odds are stacked against a shock win for the travelling team. But sometimes a new voice in training can reinvigorate a squad. Foley will have brought that to the squad and perhaps some fresh ideas. The last time Ireland won in Paris Foley played a pivotal role at the base of the scrum. This time he’ll be sitting in the stand, hoping his charges can pull off an unexpected win. Otherwise he could be having flashbacks to those awful thrashings of the past.