Retired from professional rugby, Anthony Foley spent a season playing junior B football in Clare

After the roar of the crowd in Thomond Park and Lansdowne Road faded, Anthony Foley’s sporting focus narrowed to the GAA fields of east Clare for a season.

His local club in Killaloe, Smith O’Briens, were playing junior B football in 2010, and then-chairman Naoise Lawlor was looking for a way to revitalise interest in the code... Foley had retired from professional rugby. It was an obvious match.

And a familiar one, says Lawlor, who points out that Brendan Foley, Anthony’s father, had played in goal for Smith O’Briens in his own time.