Foley braced for bigger battles ahead

Anthony Foley allowed himself a grin or two following Munster’s defeat of Saracens, but despite back-to-back opening Champions Cup victories, the head coach will take nothing for granted as regards qualification for the knockout stages.

As encouraging as the 14-3 victory against the English Premiership powerhouse was at Thomond Park on Friday night, to send Munster to the top of Pool 1 regardless of yesterday’s clash between group rivals Clermont Auvergne and Sale Sharks, Foley has been involved in European rugby long enough to understand a winning start to a qualifying campaign can unravel quickly over the remaining four games. And with home and away matches against Clermont coming up in December’s rounds three and four, that is certainly a possibility.

So while there was time to enjoy the hard-fought win over Saracens, which also denied Mark McCall’s side a losing bonus point with his side’s best performance of the season to date, he also sounded a note of caution.