Foley aims to get more contract deals over the line

Munster head coach Anthony Foley is hopeful more of his players will commit their futures to the province in the wake of a quartet of key contract signings yesterday.

Ireland internationals Felix Jones, Dave Foley and Dave Kilcoyne each put pen to paper on two-year contracts yesterday while Stephen Archer’s three-year deal, revealed yesterday, was confirmed by Munster as preparations continued for the Champions Cup visit of pool rivals Clermont Auvergne to a sold-out Thomond Park on Saturday evening.

There are still more futures to be decided, not least that of captain Peter O’Mahony, whose current two-year IRFU contract is up in June, but Anthony Foley is optimistic a lot of business can get done in the coming weeks.

“It’s an ongoing process. You don’t do them all in the one go,” head coach Foley said. “You do it over a period of time. There are more talks going on.

“Obviously it’s great for Felix, Dave Kilcoyne, Stephen Archer and Dave Foley to commit their immediate future to Munster and hopefully a few more will follow in their footsteps.”

Also out of contract at the end of the season is 26-year-old Archer’s older tighthead prop rival BJ Botha but asked what the implications were for the South African World Cup winner — 35 in January — Foley replied: “Haven’t gone there yet.”

O’Mahony, revisiting a subject he addressed in an Irish Examiner interview two weeks ago, confirmed his own contract negotiations were ongoing.

“Fingers crossed I can get it done quite quickly but we’ll let it run its course. I’m worried about the rugby side of things. I’ll be happy enough to get it done whenever it’s done.”

As for those players already celebrating new contracts, both full-back Jones and lock Foley spoke of their relief at getting their deals over the line so early in the season.

“It’s nice to be able to get it done and boxed away and concentrate on playing. It is nice,” Jones, 27, said. “I’m absolutely delighted to be staying. I love the guys, I love the coaching and there’s not much more I can say other than I’m delighted about it.

“For me, it probably has been easier because this is one of the few negotiations where I haven’t been coming off a career-threatening injury.

“It’s something you don’t want to be stressing about, hoping you can just say ‘that’s done’ and get it over with. I was happy to get this out of the way. I wanted to stay here, it never came down to being tempted by anything else or anything.”

For lock Foley, 26, the new contract caps a stellar month, having won his first two Ireland caps against Georgia and off the bench against Australia.

“Good to get the contract out of the way and look forward. I have two caps for Ireland, I am out of the one-cap wonder which is always a bonus and hopefully I will get more but it is not something I’m focused on. I have always said that I just want to play for Munster and any bonus I get from that is just a bonus.

“It is the earliest I have done it. Any contracts I have signed up to this I have signed them at bad times, I dislocated my shoulder, I had bad injuries, and my contracts have dragged on. Munster were very easy to deal with this time round and it is good for me that I have it done early and I can focus on me and me alone.”