Frustrating Night For Foley

Munster captain Anthony Foley

Munster captain Anthony Foley, on the occasion of his 68th Heineken Cup cap, was left frustrated as his side allowed Sale grab two late tries for a 27-13 Pool 1 win on Friday night.

Foley, who turns 32 next Sunday, will be hoping to celebrate his birthday a day previously with a win, and a bonus point one if possible, against French side Castres next Saturday.

That game will be played at Thomond Park, the venue for Foley’s Heineken Cup debut against Swansea almost ten years ago.

His Munster troops will have to draw a line under the reversal to the Sharks as soon as possible and Shannon star Foley, who took the blame for Sale’s first try as he allowed the ball squirt out of the Munster scrum for Sale scrum half Sililo Martens to eventually touch down, wants his side to cut out the errors.

“I don’t think they really deserved a winning margin like that,” Foley insisted on Friday.

“But fair play to Sale for the win – they took every opportunity and we just let ourselves down with a couple of silly mistakes.

“It’s frustrating because we’d worked so hard and then gave away two soft second half tries.”

Foley’s opposite number Sebastien Chabal, the giant French man whose heavy hit on Federico Pucciariello laid the foundations for Sale’s second try from Jason Robinson, said: “It’s a very difficult pool but at the start of the year we spoke about the quarter-finals.

“We want to win this pool and are backing ourselves to win this pool.

“This was our first game in the competition and we have showed other teams what we’re capable of in this competition this year,” added Chabal, who won a European Challenge Cup medal with the Stockport club last May.