Munster players to stand up and fight for a fallen friend and colleague

A province unites at Thomond Park this afternoon to honour the much-missed Anthony Foley and bring some small sense of closure to this most traumatic of weeks for Munster Rugby.

For his close-knit family, his wife and two young children, and the friends he left behind all too suddenly last Sunday in Paris, the grieving will continue, of course.

For the rest of us, today’s Champions Cup Pool 1 clash with Glasgow Warriors at Thomond Park is a chance to pay our respects in a place that meant so much to Foley, first as his father Brendan’s son, through to his own rugby career as a Shannon clubman, Munster hero and then coach.

The outcome of the match has been rendered inconsequential by the premature death of a man whose efforts for Munster and Ireland’s cause touched not just to those who worked and played with their brother in arms but also, as the outpouring of sorrow across the rugby world and beyond this week has amplified, so many thousands of others.

For the participants in the piece, the difficulty of delivering an athletic performance in such circumstances is unimaginable, particularly coming only 24 hours after the Munster players had joined the congregation at St Flannan’s in Killaloe for Foley’s funeral. Witnessing captain Peter O’Mahony on Wednesday try to summon the words to describe his anguish during a press conference was heartbreaking enough, heaven only knows how he and his comrades will be feeling when they walk out onto the Thomond Park pitch having just buried their friend.

Director of rugby Rassie Erasmus, speaking also at that grief-tinged press conference at the High-Performance Centre in Limerick that Foley had for so long imagined as a pipe dream and only recently made reality, acknowledged the Herculean effort required by his players.

“It’s difficult, everyone knows it’s difficult. I know the players had so much respect for him that they are trying to get on with it and trying to do the job the way we think and the way they know Anthony would want us to go on with it. That’s what drives us, it’s what makes us committed to putting in a proper performance out there. I think that’s the way we’d want to handle that. That’s the way Axel, with all respect, would want us to handle it. That’s what drives us.”

Not one of his players felt the need to cry off from today’s game, eager, as Erasmus put it, to take the opportunity to honour their fallen coach. The side he named yesterday reflected that, with just one change from the XV originally named to face Racing 92 in Paris last Sunday, and that an addition rather than cover for an absentee. Keith Earls will start on the left wing having completed his return to play protocols for a concussion sustained against Leinster in Dublin a fortnight ago, with Ronan O’Mahony dropping to the bench.

Yet long before kick-off is signalled at 1pm by French referee Jerome Garces, the real meaning of this gathering will be acknowledged. Books of Condolence will be open for all supporters from 11am in the Fan Zone beneath the East Stand and in the Munster Rugby Supporters’ Club bar.

A special commemorative match programme has been produced, documenting Foley’s life in rugby and the tributes paid to him in recent days, with a percentage of proceeds from its sales going towards a fund or charitable cause to be agreed upon by the Foley family.

And a minute’s silence will be observed during which a special tribute to Axel will take place in the West Stand. There will be a nod to Foley’s beloved Shannon RFC when the MRSC Choir performs ‘There Is An Isle’, and soprano Sinead O’Brien will lead their traditional pre-game performance of ‘Stand Up And Fight’. The teams will take to the field with a guard of honour formed by young players from Shannon RFC and students of his former school St Munchin’s while at half time the girls team from Foley’s hometown club Ballina Killaloe RFC will take part in a mini rugby display alongside Bruff, Waterpark and Tralee/Listowel.

And somewhere in all of this, Glasgow should be forgiven for trying to win a game of rugby. Gregor Townsend’s players must surely be struggling to comprehend the situation in which they have found themselves. Last weekend they hit top gear to brush aside Leicester Tigers on their new 4G pitch at Scotstoun and score a bonus-point victory over the former European champions. Ordinarily the Warriors would have travelled to Ireland supremely confident they could follow that performance up with a severe test of Munster’s resources.

Somehow this talented and exciting outfit must now find a path through the sadness, emotion and passion of the home crowd and the grief-stricken players they will be roaring on. It is for them as unique an experience as it will be for everyone else this afternoon. A victory for Munster today will be nothing short of miraculous but the result does not matter. Yet if nothing else the province’s players will feel duty-bound to give their late friend the mother of all send offs with a performance he would have been proud of.

After a week of such unexpected sorrow, that would be the most fitting tribute of all.