There were times during his briefing of the press, at Leinster Rugby headquarters, today when tears were close to John Fogarty’s eyes.
The Cork native spent three years at Munster, from 2000 to 2003, and like so many people was in awe of Anthony ‘Axel’ Foley.
He never would have figured he would be sharing so many recollections of the Munster great, who passed away on Sunday, just five days out from a crucial Champions Cup date with Montpellier. Foley’s death has taken the entire country by surprise and everyone is trying their best to cope.
Fogarty, now Leinster’s scrum coach, spoke of how Foley defined Munster’s long, arduous journey to the summit of European rugby. He chose, at times, to reflect on Foley the man. He said:
“A couple of years ago, myself and Denis lost our dad and, that night, Anthony just arrived on the scene. He didn’t need to but he was there to support us and support our family. That’s what Anthony was to us – a good teammate and a good friend. He’ll be sorely missed.
“Our thoughts are with all our friends at Munster, particularly those that knew him longest, and with Olive [his wife] and all the Foley family.”
One scarcely credible Axel tale that has been doing the rounds in the last couple of days has been Foley receiving only one yellow card and conceding a scant five penalties from over 200 games in the Munster jersey. It is part of the Foley myth and hard to disprove as game and player statistics were not extensively tracked in the early days of his Munster career.
Fogarty needed a laugh in the midst of a tough press briefing and those statistics provided it. Grinning, he remarked:
“He was a very smart player, as I’ve said. A very, very clever player.
“He was such a likeable player that he had a very good relationship with referees as well. He could communicate the whole time.
“So much of the country fell in love with Munster on their quest for the Heineken Cup and he played such a huge part of it. He set the standard.”
A man of few words, teammates, friends, journalists and fans have all mentioned that when Foley chose to spoke, people listened.
Fogarty described the moment he felt he felt he had made his mark at Munster, as a young player, was when he got the Foley nod of approval.
“He didn’t say a whole lot to you [on the pitch]. It was more about how he went about is business and how he expected you to go about your business. If you did that, you got the nod of approval.
“When you were a young guy coming through, that nod was enough.”
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