Lining out in Munster red for the 67th time in the Heineken Cup will matter little to the province’s captain Anthony Foley, unless his side can trump Biarritz in Sunday’s quarter-final.
Lining out in Munster red for the 67th time in the Heineken Cup will matter little to the province’s captain Anthony Foley, unless his side can trump Biarritz in Sunday’s quarter-final.
Still, the 31-year-old – who scored two tries for Munster in their run to being Pool 4 winners – has admitted it’s just “nice to get back on the horse again” after Ireland’s Six Nations woe of two weeks ago.
“It’s a goal we have to aim for, an opportunity to put what happened in the last fortnight behind us,” said Foley, following squad training in Limerick yesterday.
“This is the big one now. We’re playing to win – to survive or be eliminated. It gives us an awful lot to play for. We realise where we are, how good our performance needs to be, so we’re really up for this.”
One of ten players in Alan Gaffney’s 26-man squad for the San Sebastian test who started against Biarritz in 2001, Foley has fond memories of that titanic 38-29 quarter-final win over the French.
“They gave us a fair few frights that day before we eventually managed to come out on top. This is a new scenario though because their side, particularly, has changed so much in the intervening years,” insisted Foley, who scored a maginificent try hat-trick when the sides met four years ago at Thomond Park.
“We cannot draw any comparison and we’re playing them on their home patch. Biarritz have been one of the form teams of the competition.
“It’s a major challenge, we’ve been to France before – been written off before – gone there when the odds were totally stacked against us. We have to be positive and go out there to win. That’s exactly the mood we will be in.”
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