That Munster are due to host Racing just a day after the 10th anniversary of Foley’s death is uncanny. But then, so much of the spirit of ‘Axel’ seems to live on

It’s hard to believe it’s a decade since Irish rugby was rocked to its core when the tragic news broke that Anthony Foley had died in his sleep overnight in a Parisian hotel. Sunday, October 16th, 2016. He was aged 42, a father of a young family, and it still seems just as wrong now as it did then.

Munster had been due to play Racing 92 that day and the sense of disbelief outside the gates of the Stade Yves-du-Manoir among the hushed hordes of the Red Army, save for a moving rendition of There is an Isle, remain vivid.

That Munster are due to host Racing just a day after the 10th anniversary of Foley’s death is uncanny. But then, so much of Axel’s spirit seemed to live on in the days and months and years that followed, up to and beyond this 10th meeting between the province and Racing in Páirc Uí Chaoimh this Saturday (kick-off 8pm).

Mick Galwey, a team-mate with Shannon, Munster and Ireland, will always remember the last time he was with Foley, when hosting a party at his home in Kilkenny on his 50th birthday just a week previously.

“Even though Leinster had beaten him that evening up in the Aviva, he still managed to come down to my 50th in Kilkenny. So, my last time with him was just top-class. Little did we know, we wouldn’t see him again, but it’s lovely to be able to look back and say the last time we were together, we had a great time,” Galwey says.

“Eddie Halvey and Frankie Sheehan and boys like that, and particularly Eddie, who hadn’t seen Axel in years, they both made it to my 50th. We had so many good times together, but the last time we were together was a great time and it’s small consolation, but it is consolation.”

In the poignant week that’s in it, few people are better placed to talk about Foley than Galwey. He has the unique distinction of being a team-mate in all three of Foley’s debuts for Shannon, Munster and Ireland.

“Anthony Foley was rare in Shannon because his dad Brendan was there before him. He knew Shannon before he ever came to Shannon. I’ve never seen a young fella just step in so easily.

“We had a good team, we had a good back row with Halvey and a young Quinny [Alan Quinlan] but then this young fella came through and Axel was amazing.”

Galwey wasn’t remotely surprised Foley went into coaching after his playing career finished.

“As a player, he was so intelligent and he had so much to offer. He wasn’t afraid to speak his mind, even in the early days, and he was great at making a decision under pressure.

“Looking back on it, rugby was his life,” adds Galwey, noting how Foley would come back to play for Shannon even when he turned professional, and he was a big part of eight of the club’s nine AIL titles.

Foley played for Munster 201 times, captaining them to their breakthrough 2006 Heineken Cup triumph. He also played 62 times for Ireland, captaining his country three times.

“His reading of the game was immense,” says Galwey. “You can’t coach talent and Anthony had that in spades. He was like a striker at number eight; he just knew where to be at the right time. Having a rugby brain like that is immense. You can often see fellas trying their best, in fact they’re trying too hard. But if you can read the game, if you know where the ball will be in a minute or 20 seconds, you can be there. And that’s very important.”

A week after his 50th, Galwey was at home in Kilkenny, about to go to a hurling game before returning to watch Munster’s scheduled match, when he noticed he had missed calls from Philip Danaher, John Fitzgerald and Peter Clohessy, whereupon another former Munster team-mate, Killian Keane, called him.

“Killian, how are things?” Galwey recalls saying - “and I was talking to him only this week about it.”

He says Keane’s reply at the time was: “Um, not good.”

“He said: ‘Bad news. Are you sitting down?’

“And I said: ‘Do I need to be sitting down?’ He said: ‘You do.’ And then he told me Axel had passed away. And I said: ‘Are you sure it’s not Brendan?’ No disrespect to Brendan, and thankfully Brendan is still with us and in great fettle.

“’No,’ he said. ‘It’s Axel.’”

Then Galwey’s phone lit up with constant calls.

“You didn’t need social media when you had friends, because everybody was ringing me. And I do remember it was a shock. None of us could believe it. It was probably the following day, the Monday, that it really hit me.”

There was solace to be had in shared grief for the two days around Foley’s funeral the following Friday, trying to comfort Olive and the boys, parents Brendan and Sheelagh, who has since died too, and his sisters Rosie and Orla, and being among the extended rugby family.

When thousands descended upon Killaloe to bid farewell to Axel, with many outside a packed St Flannan’s Church as Olive’s extraordinary eulogy to her husband was relayed through outdoor speakers, it was akin to a State funeral.

“We kept saying, ‘what would Axel think of this?’ We had to have the craic and that’s what rugby players do. We had two great days in Killaloe, and then we went to the match in Thomond Park, and it was sad when we were splitting up. We missed each other’s company because there was comfort in numbers, and never more so than in that week.

“I can never remember being at a sadder occasion, but to be with friends made it easier, and it’ll be good to catch up again this weekend. I’m meeting some of them in Cork on Saturday night, but it’s going to be a good turnout in Killaloe on Sunday, and rightly so.”

Galwey was one of the pallbearers who carried the coffin from the church. Paul O’Connell and John Langford were at the back, Galwey and John Hayes in the middle, with Clohessy and Keith Wood in front of them.

“Claw [Clohessy] is smaller than me and his shoulder was about 6in from the coffin,” recalls Galwey.

“It never gets easy, but I look back at the funeral, I look back at the sending-off we gave him and I am very proud of the way all his team-mates, all his friends, all his pals, we were all there.

“We have the game on Saturday in Páirc Uí Chaoimh and I’ll be down at that. But his anniversary Mass is on Sunday in Killaloe and there’s a lot of lads coming up to that, and I think that’ll be a day of catching up, and it’s what we all need, and hopefully his family will appreciate it.

“We have a Munster WhatsApp group and it’s been up there for a while and there’ll be a lot of his team-mates there, I can guarantee you that.”

It will be a reunion in memory of Axel.

The day following the funeral, without any training after a week of paying tributes and honouring their team-mate and coach, Munster hosted Glasgow in the Champions Cup at a packed Thomond Park. The ground was possibly the most emotionally charged it’s ever been that day.

Guided sympathetically by Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber, the team went back to Munster basics in many ways, with a performance that was both true to Foley as a player and coach, and one that would have made him proud.

Munster played with a generally controlled fury, roaring into a 31-3 lead and earning a bonus point by early in the second half. A 15m maul set the tone, Keith Earls offloading for Tyler Bleyendaal to finish. Blyendaal and Rory Scannell set up Jaco Taute soon after and despite Earls being sent off for a tip tackle on Gordon Brown, a brilliant Simon Zebo finish made it 24-3 at the break.

Relentless scrum pressure earned a penalty try and though Glasgow scored a couple of tries to make it 31-10, Conor Murray set up Rory Scannell for a 75th-minute try to ensure the win. Bringing their dressingroom anthem, Stand Up and Fight, on to the pitch after the full-time whistle, effectively bringing the crowd into the dressingroom, sealed an unforgettable day. A bonus-point win achieved by 14 players for an hour, but then again, they had started the day with 16 men.

“The match was immense,” says Galwey. “And do you know what I loved about it? I love the way on occasions like that players play above themselves. On days like that, it’s not about your coaching, it’s not about your talent, it’s about the X Factor, and I hope we see it again on Saturday.”

That would be another fitting testimony to Foley’s legacy, which Galwey believes will last for ever.

“That’s basically it. He was a Munster man coming from a Shannon and Munster family, and what his family have done for rugby, and what he has done for rugby, is fairy-tale stuff.

“For as long as fellas can still play for Munster in the number eight jersey, gone but never forgotten.”