Foley salutes red support
Saturday, 20 May 2006 21:35Munster captain Anthony Foley saluted the team's extraordinary fans after the Irish province beat French champions Biarritz 23-19 to win the Heineken Cup on Saturday.
The Millennium Stadium was a sea of red with the tiny pocket of Biarritz fans drowned by the amazing vocal support offered by Munster's long-suffering supporters who filled most of the 74,000 seats and all the city's pubs.
After two final defeats and five further knockout round exits they finally got their reward when first-half tries for Trevor Halstead and Peter Stringer and 13 points for Ronan O'Gara gave Munster a deserved success.
"At times out there it was awesome to see the amount of red," said Foley, who has missed just one of Munster's 77 Heineken Cup games over the last 11 years.
"When Biarritz came back at us the fans never got on our back, they are very knowledgeable, our crowd wouldn't be silenced today. Over the years they've been putting their hands in their pocket to follow us around Europe and it's great that we can give them some silverware. We all just feel like one, that's the big thing about this team."
Foley was on the losing side in Munster's two previous final appearances in 2000 and 2002 and the captain said he much preferred the other side of the coin.
"I've been in the ground twice when an opposition captain has lifted the trophy against us and to be the one to lift it on behalf of the lads was great because I thought we deserved it over the year," he said.
"What we achieved today has been magnificent, it's been a journey but its not over. We can kick on from here and if we do we can be competing for this trophy for a number of years to come."
