Irish Rugby In Shock At The Death Of Anthony Foley

Irish rugby was in shock today at the sudden death of Munster and Irish rugby legend, Anthony Foley.

Foley was widely regarded as one of the greatest players ever to don the green of Ireland. He played 62 times for his country.

From Killaloe in Co. Clare, he was also a Munster man through and through. His father Brendan Foley had played for Shannon and for Ireland and, from an early age, Anthony Foley was groomed as a future Irish star, as Brendan managed him at his school, St Munchin's in Limerick.

"I was one of hundreds of schoolboy rugby players who had the good fortune to play against Anthony Foley in his days at St Munchin's – though it didn't necessarily feel like that at the time! Even at 18, he was strong as an ox and had the heart of a lion. He was at the centre of everything St Munchin's did and it was clear he was one of the stand-out schoolboy players of the era," comments Hot Press' Duan Stokes.

However, with the switch to professional rugby and the emergence of Munster as one of Ireland’s province super-clubs, it was inevitable that he would become a mainstay of the Munster set-up – which he did. The No.8 was there at the summit of the province's achievements, raising the Heineken Cup when the team finally reached the Holy Grail by beating the French side, Biarritz Olympique, in 2006, after losing two finals in a row.

He made his debut for Ireland in 1995 and scored a try in the game against England. He captained Ireland on three occasions and won his final cap in the Six Nations clash against Wales in 2005.

No cause has yet ben identified for his desperately premature death, though a “suspected heart attack” has been mentioned in reports. Munster had been due to play Racing 92 in their opening Heineken Cup joust today, but the match was postponed, following Anthony Foley's death.

Munster fans paid moving tribute to their hero – who was still a vital part of the Munstar rugby set-up – outside the stadium in Paris today. There was a spontaneous round of applause and a rendition of Munster’s adopted anthem, ‘The Fields of Athenry’. Tributes to Foley have been pouring in from all of the rugby greats, as well as from the President Michael D. Higgins and the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny.