Foley happy with Munster’s ‘small steps’

Head coach Anthony Foley will have the pleasure of taking a winning team into Munster’s Guinness Pro12 campaign but he has demanded plenty more hard work from his players ahead of Friday’s season opener at home to Edinburgh.

Foley took charge of his first home game on Friday night in Waterford and saw his players bounce back from a 45-8 hammering at Gloucester the previous week by defeating London Irish 17-5 at a sold-out Regional Sports Centre.

It was a much improved performance from a team with a lot more experience than the rookies who came up short at Kingsholm, featuring solid debuts for summer signings Robin Copeland and Andrew Smith, tries from wing Ronan O’Mahony and scrum-half Duncan Williams and an impressive outing from fly-half Johnny Holland, who kicked a conversion either side of the break and a second-half penalty to see Munster home and keep the Tomás O’Leary-led Exiles scoreless after half-time. The only blot on the landscape was an injury late in the game to inside centre Cian Bohane, whose strong showing was brought to a halt by a knee injury.