ANTHONY FOLEY SAYS Munster won’t be getting carried away by their 34-23 win over Leinster at the Aviva Stadium, but admitted to pleasure at how his side ruthlessly went after the eastern province’s weaknesses in the first half.
James Cronin, Robin Copeland and Ian Keatley scored tries in the opening 40 minutes as Munster exploited Leinster’s soft defence around the fringes of rucks, although the latter came from an intercepted Jimmy Gopperth pass.
“Let’s do what we’re good at, let’s do what we’re good at,” said Foley in relation to Munster’s attack.
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“At times we had a couple of breaches, why go away from that? If we find a weakness, let’s go after that. We got a couple of opportunities, I think Felix Jones could have gone in under the posts, we had other opportunities out wide. If the space is out wide, we’ll go after that.
You go after the weakness, you don’t worry what it looks like to anybody else. It’s what’s valuable for you in that moment.”
Foley admitted to some “very antsy” moments for Munster late in the game, as Leinster enjoyed something of a comeback thanks to Darragh Fanning’s try and a penalty try from a powerful maul.
Four yellow cards in the second half put Munster under pressure, but Foley was buoyed by his players’ efforts when at a numerical disadvantage.
Conor Murray was man of the match for Munster. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
“Discipline is always a concern,” said Foley. “We pride ourselves on being very disciplined, restricting the opposition with the chances they get at goal. They mauled us, got a penalty try.
“I saw one in the first half exactly the same for us, we got nothing out of it. If its going your way, you take the rub of the green. If it’s not, you batten down the hatches and I thought we did that very well.
Full credit for the boys. I thought they acquitted themselves well. The physicality was excellent and I think we are going to have a lot of sore bodies tomorrow.”
Perceptions of the mood in Munster’s camp in the build-up to this encounter had been negative, but Foley insisted that had not been the case among the group.
“To be honest, we were never down on ourselves. We understood what we needed to do, how close we were to winning those games, particularly the Edinburgh game where we didn’t play quite well.
“We understood we’re not a million miles away from where we need to be. We weren’t perfect tonight and there will be things we’ll need to go away and work on. ”
'Let's do what we're good at' - Foley pleased with Munster's direct attack
ANTHONY FOLEY SAYS Munster won’t be getting carried away by their 34-23 win over Leinster at the Aviva Stadium, but admitted to pleasure at how his side ruthlessly went after the eastern province’s weaknesses in the first half.
James Cronin, Robin Copeland and Ian Keatley scored tries in the opening 40 minutes as Munster exploited Leinster’s soft defence around the fringes of rucks, although the latter came from an intercepted Jimmy Gopperth pass.
“Let’s do what we’re good at, let’s do what we’re good at,” said Foley in relation to Munster’s attack.
“At times we had a couple of breaches, why go away from that? If we find a weakness, let’s go after that. We got a couple of opportunities, I think Felix Jones could have gone in under the posts, we had other opportunities out wide. If the space is out wide, we’ll go after that.
Foley admitted to some “very antsy” moments for Munster late in the game, as Leinster enjoyed something of a comeback thanks to Darragh Fanning’s try and a penalty try from a powerful maul.
Four yellow cards in the second half put Munster under pressure, but Foley was buoyed by his players’ efforts when at a numerical disadvantage.
“Discipline is always a concern,” said Foley. “We pride ourselves on being very disciplined, restricting the opposition with the chances they get at goal. They mauled us, got a penalty try.
“I saw one in the first half exactly the same for us, we got nothing out of it. If its going your way, you take the rub of the green. If it’s not, you batten down the hatches and I thought we did that very well.
Perceptions of the mood in Munster’s camp in the build-up to this encounter had been negative, but Foley insisted that had not been the case among the group.
“To be honest, we were never down on ourselves. We understood what we needed to do, how close we were to winning those games, particularly the Edinburgh game where we didn’t play quite well.
“We understood we’re not a million miles away from where we need to be. We weren’t perfect tonight and there will be things we’ll need to go away and work on. ”
Here are all the tries from the cracker between the All Blacks and South Africa
Fiery first-half display powers Munster to stunning Aviva win over Leinster
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Anthony Foley Aviva Stadium Guinness PRO12 Leinster Munster Power Reaction