Copeland gets go-ahead after passport scare
The Irish No.8, signed in the summer from Cardiff Blues, raised alarm bells on Twitter yesterday when he revealed he had had a kit bag containing his passport stolen out of his car on Tuesday night.
“Having your passport stolen along with all your kit, boots and other belongings the day before you’re about to travel is not fun!,” Copeland tweeted.
With Munster scheduled to depart Dublin this morning on a flight bound for Treviso, the news placed into doubt the likelihood of the forward making his competitive debut for the province tomorrow evening but the Wexford man was back on the social media site later in the day, posting a picture of himself with a newly issued travel document and writing: ““What’s everybody worrying about??? I got this! Looking forward to Friday now!” For Copeland’s head coach it was neither a new experience nor newsworthy.
“It is something that has happened many a time before,” Foley said last night. “His bag was robbed out of his car, his passport was in it so we had to go and get a new one issued for him today.
“I’m not sure it’s news; we’ve had taxis going up and down to Cork because fellas have left them behind before. It has happened on a number of occasions but if a fella tweets it it becomes news. It is not really an issue. I think the right people were on the job and they got it sorted. He has his passport now and hopefully we will get a reaction out of him.”
After a difficult two weeks, where a confidential report was erroneously leaked to players, the Munster boss has now had to react to a second series of diversions.
Aside from Copeland’s passport concerns, fellow new signing Tyler Bleyendaal’s serious neck injury suffered while still on duty with New Zealand province Canterbury could rule the fly-half and inside centre out for the rest of Munster’s season before he has even landed in Ireland.
Foley, though, has kept calm and carried on throughout.
“Injuries happen, that is in the game. E-mails going awry, that happens, we have addressed that and passports get lost, that happens,” he said.
“Last week’s defeat came down to Edinburgh turning up physically and us not playing well in our own ground, that hurt...
“Tyler’s injury happened in a game... we need to address these issues and we need to move on.”
Copeland’s availability, having missed the Edinburgh game with a slight rib injury, is a boost for the province, who are also set to welcome back Ireland captain Paul O’Connell and fellow Test summer tourists James Cronin and Felix Jones.
More will follow in next week’s home game with Zebre while Foley added that Keith Earls and Donnacha Ryan were a “couple of weeks” away from their seasonal debuts.
“Yeah, we’ve a few more back in line this week,” Foley said. “It is good to have these guys back, they have been training so hard and are enthusiastic to get back in.”
O’Connell’s return to the red jersey will be particularly welcome to Foley who said of the Lions lock: “I want him to get into the season, I want him to be happy where he is at, I want him to contribute to the team, bring his leadership. There are still a lot of young guys in and around. Obviously you want that experience to be transferred to others, hopefully (Paul) bring that calmness that comes with experience.”
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