Munster right to be so proud of 'Axel' Foley, says John Fogarty

Joint top of the Guinness Pro12 and a bonus-point win in the bag from the first Champions Cup weekend secured: these are the weeks when dressing rooms should tingle with excitement and intent.

Rewind eight days and the walls in Leinster’s HQ in UCD were still reverberating to a succession of cacophonous, joyful roars as players and coaches continued to feed off the thrill of their win against Munster two days before.

There were no cheers yesterday as they convened for the first time since the defeat of Castres on Saturday, just an eerie quiet as a club and it’s people wrestled with the finality of the weekend’s dreadful news from Paris.