Gatland’s Lions clash in Dublin

WARREN GATLAND will be watching nervously as eight of his Lions squad go head-to-head in Munster’s meeting with holders Saracens in today’s European Champions Cup semi-final in Dublin. Munster are playing in memory of inspirational coach and former player Anthony Foley, who died aged 42 in the team’s Paris hotel in October. In 2006, Foley, affectionately nicknamed ‘Axel’ after Eddie Murphy’s character in Beverly Hills Cop, captained Munster to their first European title. And this year’s crop are plotting to lift the trophy in his honour. ‘You look at Axel’s wife Olive and his sons Dan and Tony,’ said Munster prop Dave Kilcoyne. ‘You can imagine the heartbreak they have gone through, the heartache. It does put things in perspective. At the end of the day, this is just a game. If us winning can ease their heartache, if it can put a smile on Olive’s face, or if Dan and Tony chat about how their dad played for and coached that team, if it gives them any bit of a lift, we definitely want to contribute to that. ‘We will always play for Axel here. He was a cornerstone of the club. Any man who gives that much of their life to one club deserves that kind of respect.’ Scrum-half Conor Murray failed a fitness test yesterday, but Peter O’Mahony and CJ Stander will lead Munster’s Lions charge. As a consequence, Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall is bracing himself for the intensity of a Test match. ‘The players know what’s coming. They know what they’re walking in to and they’re looking forward to it,’ he insisted. ‘Munster are wellcoached, hard-working and the nature of the occasion — the reference to Anthony — makes them incredibly dangerous. ‘We know we’ll come under pressure, but we need to understand that we’re not playing against superhumans just because the crowd are noisy. ‘We’ve got a very experienced group and we don’t need to tell them how to suck eggs.’ Acknowledging the strength of Munster’s driving maul — ‘as good as anybody’s’ — McCall claims England’s Grand Slam heartbreak at the Aviva Stadium last month is very much ‘in the bank’. O’Mahony and Donnacha Ryan are two of Munster’s set-piece cogs and both spearheaded Ireland’s victory. Memories of O’Mahony plucking an attacking line-out from Maro Itoje’s hands in the dying stages are fresh. ‘The fact our England players were at the Aviva three or four weeks ago is probably a good thing,’ added McCall.