Many have paid tribute to Anthony Foley since his tragic death in Paris at the weekend, but one moving tribute really captures what the player meant to fans.
Describing when Ireland beat then-world champions England in 2004, Michael Kingston said: “Anthony Foley rampaged across that foreign field with utter Munster and Irish strength”
Kingston, originally from Goleen in Cork and now Director of the Irish Cultural Centre London, summed up exactly what the back row meant to Ireland supporters around the world.
”I write from London to pay tribute to a wonderful Irishman and explain what he meant to us.
“Only last week we celebrated here in London the wonderful achievement of the 2006 Munster Heineken cup winning team.
“That I should be writing this note so soon after is sad beyond words, but were I not to put pen to paper, it would be remiss of me- so that I can explain what Anthony ‘Axel’ Foley meant to the Irish Community abroad.
“In 2003 we had to endure the supremacy of English rugby championing their world Cup winning team. We of course congratulated them.
“As the team lined out at Twickenham on 6 March 2004 we expected that we were in for more of the same, playing against a brilliant World Cup winning team.
“Others however had different ideas that day. What we witnessed at Twickenham was an Irish broadside to the English homecomings celebrations, as effective as any battle on land or seas that the English have experienced in their long history.
“Like a farmer rescuing sheep on vertical fields from nonsensical positions on the coast of Co Clare in a storm coming in from the atlantic, and with no option but to take them to the top of the cliff- sheep under each arm- both as valuable to the survival of that small homestead, Anthony Foley rampaged across that foreign field with utter Munster and Irish strength, and brilliance, and the rest is history. He simply single-handedly that day led Ireland to victory and started a massive revival of Irish Rugby for Club, country, and all Irish Provinces.
“When I went into work in London the next day- my shoulders almost as tall as Axel’s, I was greeted in the corridor by one of the esteemed English lawyers who I worked for. Putting me in my place he said: We have to let the poor people win sometimes’.
“I said nothing but just thought: ‘We’ll see how long sometimes lasts”.
“And ‘sometimes’ lasted for so long, after all the heartbreak of the past for Irish Rugby. We won time and again at Twickenham, triple Crowns, a Grand Slam, and European Cups.
“Anthony Foley did not just let the poor people win: he turned us all into winners. He transcended the rugby field into all our lives, our homes and our workplace.
“We are forever indebted to Anthony and his family for that inspiration which we still thrive on today.
“May that giant of Munster, Ireland and of Inspiration itself rest in peace.
“We are forever indebted.”
