‘TIME TO PULL ON SHIRT IN TRIBUTE’

MUNSTeR director of rugby Rassie erasmus insisted the province were determined to get straight back on the rugby field against Glasgow Warriors this Saturday following the death of head coach Anthony Foley. Sitting alongside club captain Peter O’Mahony at an emotional press conference in Limerick, erasmus said his main concern was to support Foley’s family, but that the team were eager to honour the memory of a club legend at Thomond Park this weekend. A press statement was released by european Professional Club Rugby (ePCR) which confirmed the Champions Cup clash against Gregor Townsend’s side would go ahead as planned. Foley was found dead in his hotel room by a member of the coaching staff just over three hours before the side was due to face Racing 92 in Paris in their opening game of the competition on Sunday. It was confirmed earlier this week that he passed away due to a heart condition. That game was postponed by the ePCR with the support of Racing 92, but erasmus feels it is time for the Munster players to pull on the red shirt again and that he wasn’t aware of any talks to postpone this weekend’s game. ‘The opportunity to play this week, with all the respect which we have obviously, it was the most important thing to play the game for him, you know. So we didn’t go down that route to discus with them (Glasgow) as far as I know,’ said erasmus. ‘We just try and make it as normal as possible, as much as you can. The main thing is that we’re there for Olive and the kids and that’s been our focus outside of being in the four walls. ‘Obviously that’s all we’re thinking about outside of maybe the 60 or 70 minutes of training that we did today and yesterday. We’ve just got to be there for them now. It’s not about us. It’s not about anything else. It’s about minding them now over the next few weeks.’ O’Mahony was particularly distraught when asked to speak about a coach he idolised as a young Munster supporter. Foley, who in 2006 was the first Munster captain to lift the heineken Cup, retired as a player the year before O’Mahony joined on a development contract in 2008 but was an ever-present for him as a coach thereafter. ‘My first game that he coached me at Munster was an Under-20 game. We won it 3-0 and that suited Axel as good as if we’d won it by 70,’ said O’Mahony (above). ‘he wanted to win for Munster at any cost. ‘I was lucky, I grew up following him around the place, even though he didn’t know it. And then to be allowed to come in and rub shoulders with guys like him... ‘For him to be around and to be allowed to talk to him and be in his presence, it was a dream come true at the time and it stayed that way up until last weekend. ‘I learned a huge amount from him. I couldn’t pick just one thing, and I couldn’t just pick the rugby side of stuff. I learned life skills from him, family skills from him. Seeing him bringing (his sons) Tony and Dan around the dressing room after games, I used to say I’d love to bring my kids around. ‘When you’re thrown into a scenario like this, it puts a lot of things into perspective for everyone.’