Munster head coach Anthony Foley refuses to get carried away by Saturday’s thrilling 34-23 derby victory over Leinster at Aviva Stadium as his team finally got their disappointing early season back on track.
Having suffered wide criticism for a poor run of form under new coach Foley, Munster put in a sterling display reminiscent of the former forward’s playing days in the red shirt.
Foley, however, was not getting too excited by the change in fortune against the reigning Guinness Pro12 champions – though victory did taste sweet after sealing a first win in Dublin since 2008.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport, Foley said: “It was a great game, a great contest. We’ll savour this as we haven’t had many up here so we’ll enjoy the moment.
“But we’ll keep very level-headed about what we’re doing.
“We’ve got Scarlets next week, this [win] pushes us up the table a bit but that doesn’t really matter until next May. You amass your total and you get your points where you can."
The Limerick man was impressed with the attitude and effort put into a thrilling domestic head-to-head by his and Matt O’Connor’s Leinster charges in front of a 43,817-strong crowd.
“I was saying to Matt afterwards that this could have been a top-of-the-table clash because of the way our first four fixtures went but for the narrow losses.
“It was worthy of it, two quality sides going hard at it with a lot of quality rugby played.”
Foley added: “For me and the lads it just shows a good week’s work done. It was great that we could show the people what we were doing all week.
“So hopefully next week we’ll get backing in Thomond Park and we’re up against a very good side again against Scarlets, so it moves on."
"When you defend without the ball for long periods you do tend to get on the wrong side of the referee” - Anthony Foley on Munster's four sin-binnings
Referee Ian Davies brandished four yellow cards at Munster during an indisciplined 20-minute period of the second half, which Foley put down to having to be continually on the defensive as Leinster pushed hard to retrieve a 28-9 half-time deficit.
“Leinster came back at us hard in the second half and when you defend without the ball for long periods you do tend to get on the wrong side of the referee,” he said.
“I thought one or two [yellow cards] looked a bit harsh. But that’s way it is when you’re on the back foot.”
Foley, however, preferred to focus on the next round of Guinness Pro12 games and keeping the show rolling.
“We’ll enjoy the now but we’re not going to get carried away, and like if we’d lost, we still look to improve next week.”
Matt O'Connor's assessment of the game led him to conclude that his side had some "significant shortcomings" on the night.
Also speaking to RTÉ, he said: "In the first half, we just weren't good enough. They came to kill the ball and make it as messy as possible."
Dwelling on the shortcomings, O'Connor highlighted instances of play during the second quarter - a period that saw Munster outscore their opponents 23-3.
"We weren't accurate enough with the ball and they were a little bit better than us at the breakdown. As a result they got unstructured ball and we were a little bit soft. The tries we conceded in that period were inexcusable."
