Foley Flying High

There was a near four-year gap between Dave Foley’s PRO12 debut and his European bow but when the opportunity finally arrived at Kingsholm in January, the Tipperary man grabbed it with both hands.

The 25-year-old was one of Munster’s stand-out performers as they secured a vital 20-7 win over Gloucester that helped to secure top spot in Pool 6 and a home quarter-final against Toulouse next month.

“I was delighted, I hadn’t even been on the bench up to that so to get my first start was great,” said Foley.

“I waited quite a while for it but with the quality of players in front of me I had to wait my time and develop myself physically and mentally.

“I was quite nervous in the hotel. The day before I was fine, I was just trying to keep my mind off it and keep myself occupied and then in the morning I started to get a little bit nervous.

"But I’d be a little bit nervous before most games, it wouldn’t matter who I’m playing against or what competition it is but as soon as I got to the ground I was happy enough and I just took it as another match.”

The 6’ 6”lock made his debut against Connacht in 2010 and earned his long-awaited Heineken Cup debut after a rampaging performance off the bench in the defeat in Ulster the week before the Kingsholm clash.

Foley revealed that his performance in the Ravenhill cauldron was a result of many years of hard work finally coming to fruition.

“I think I had been ticking away nicely. It was really important that I put physicality on my game and I think it’s been coming on well and even in the games before Ulster you could start to see it coming and it all came to a head up there.

"I suppose I was lucky enough then to get my nod from the start over in Gloucester,” he added modestly.

Academy graduate Foley believes that he has benefited from his steady progession through the system at Munster and lauded the competition for places in the current squad.

“I really had to wait my time here because of who was ahead of me. If it was with some other clubs you mightn’t have had to wait as long because they wouldn’t have the quality that was ahead of you.

"I suppose that was a big factor but I learned a huge amount from the older players and from playing in the B&I Cup, the Interprovincial games and the Rabo starts that I could get in the past few years. It was quite slow coming up to this year but I’m still learning and I was happy to wait my time and keep pushing.

“There’s massive strength in depth there and it keeps pushing fellas on and the younger lads and the older guys have to keep playing as well as they can because there’s always another fella behind you.”

Foley and his Munster team-mates return to training at CIT today after a week off as preparations begin for the RaboDirect PRO12 clash against Treviso at Thomond Park on Saturday, March 22nd (ko 7:15pm).

Click here for more details on Munster's upcoming home games.