Ian Keatley backed to turn form around by Anthony Foley

Under-pressure out-half Ian Keatley has been backed to turn his form around after some frank discussions with Munster head coach Anthony Foley.

Keatley missed three place kicks including a penalty in front of the posts when the game was tied at 6-6 during Munster’s 31-19 Champions Cup loss to Leicester Tigers at Thomond Park last Saturday, and had a game to forget with a missed tackle on Niki Goneva as the Fijian scored the go-ahead try just before half-time in a match tightly contested to that point.

His performance was such that a section of Munster supporters greeted his substitution on 74 minutes with a cheer construed as ironic, a reaction that was described by Foley as “disappointing” and which has since been the subject of much criticism from pundits.

Not unconnected, Munster yesterday re-published a statement on its website it had first posted in November 2014 calling for supporters to show respect for players and officials during home games under a charter entitled R.E.S.P.E.C.T. which promotes “sportsmanship and positive participation”.

Keatley looks set to continue in the Munster No. 10 jersey this weekend when his team travels to England for Sunday’s return fixture with Leicester at Welford Road and head coach Foley said yesterday the player knew he had to improve his form.

“He turned up today and he knows himself things need to be better,” Foley said. “You know you can’t go around fooling a fella or codding a fella and he knows. He’s spoken frankly about it and he’s showed up today and trained well.

“He needs to get on with it as well. I don’t think he intentionally missed any of those kicks. It wasn’t something he did on purpose. It happens to everyone. I’ve played with enough out-halves who have missed kicks.

“Down in Kinsale, I watched one of the best rugby league out-halves (Yorkshire Carnegie’s ex Leeds and GB Rugby League star, Kevin Sinfield) miss one in front of the posts (against Munster A on November 20). It is hard at times for the kickers, it’s their responsibility but we try and look at it as a collective. As a group we have to stand together and improve. Those kicks wouldn’t have mattered if we had executed a few other things better.”

Foley said the best way to get a positive reaction out of Keatley had been both an arm around the shoulder and the opposite.

“You have to have a bit of everything. We left him alone for the first few days. I’ve spoken to him a couple of times on the phone and in person and with all professional players they have to figure it out for themselves and then we need to get back into it.

“You can’t mollycoddle a fella either. We need to get our work done, we need to go over and play on Sunday and try and get a result.

“What are we, 7/2? That’s not bad odds. We need to go there and do something. There’s no point in having our heads down, we need to get up and go.”

Foley said neither tighthead prop BJ Botha (concussion) nor fly-half Tyler Bleyendaal (quad muscle) had been ruled out of the trip to Leicester this weekend. Botha suffered a second concussion in three weeks on Saturday night and was withdrawn at half-time while Bleyendaal, named on the bench as Keatley’s back-up, pulled out of the matchday squad after feeling tightness in the thigh of his kicking leg in the previous day’s training session.

“BJ Botha is seeing a specialist today and we will know more after that,” Foley said. “And Tyler ran today, so we’ll see what way he is and what he is capable of doing and not doing.”

Munster will need all hands on deck if they are to reverse last Saturday’s home defeat and keep their Champions Cup pool campaign alive, despite still having four games left and 20 points to play for.

“We have (a bit of leeway),” Foley said. “We know we can’t make any assumptions in this competition so you’ve got to concentrate. I can go to the group and say we have four games left and it doesn’t really matter if we don’t take care of the job next Sunday, but our sole focus is on going to Welford Road and trying to get a result. It’s a tough place to go. We need to go there and play and we need to try and take some of their strengths away from them.”