Anthony Foley: Planning key for Leinster

The last four. France. Sunshine, hard pitches and high stakes.

Few people know more about all that than Anthony Foley. Seven times Munster have been detailed to face Gallic opposition on the continent at the European Cup’s penultimate stage and ‘Axel’ has been on call for all but one of them.

Four visits as a player yielded two victories and a pair of agonising close calls and he was assistant to Rob Penney this last two seasons when the province fell just short of Clermont Auvergne and Toulon in Montpellier and Marseille.