Keith Wood: Death of great friend Anthony Foley makes no sense

Keith Wood has paid tribute to his late, great friend Anthony Foley, after the former Munster and Ireland number eight died in Paris on Saturday.

Wood and Foley both grew up in Killaloe, County Clare, before going on to represent Ireland and Munster together.

They both helped steer Munster to the brink of European glory in 2000, when the province conquered the mighty Toulouse in the last four of the Heineken Cup before being edged out by Northampton in the final at Twickenham.

Wood would be long gone by the time Foley finally lifted the European Cup in 2006,but they were together when the journey began - a long time before that famous night in Cardiff.

On the Pat Kenny show on Newstalk on Monday, an emotional but composed Wood talked about his great friend, and of his death.

He said: “It didn’t make any sense yesterday. It doesn’t make any sense today. It’s just unbelievably disturbing.

“I knew him since he was five of six years of age. The Foley family moved to Killaloe. They were redoing a pub at the end of our street. The whole Foley family moved into our house for about three months.

“He was a man who loved sport. He loved the town. He was shy, but sociable. Driven beyond all belief from as early an age as I remember.”

On Monday Liam Toland spoke of Foley's intelligence on the rugby pitch, and this was something echoed by Wood, he said: "He was never the fittest or fastest guy, but he was the smartest guy I played on a field with. He was invariably where ever the ball was."

Foley maintained his involvement in rugby and Munster after his retirement, and his progression into the role of the province’s head coach was not a surprise for Wood, he said: “He was a one-club man. He played for Munster his whole life and that is pretty extraordinary.

“He didn’t speak a huge amount but everything he said was perfect. I played with him for Munster for a while and I played with him for Ireland for a while.

“When I was with Ireland, I’d nod at him to say something. Sometimes you just needed a point of clarity and in rugby, Anthony knew what clarity was, he knew the right thing to say at the right time, he knew the right thing to do at the right time.

“For me, it was a natural thing to get into coaching because this guy was a coach since he was 13 years of age.”

And it isn’t just in Ireland where Foley made a huge impact, Wood said: “The tributes are global. I remember when he had a testimonial in Limerick a good number of years ago and having a conversation with Zinzan Brooke, and he asked me could he go.

“I said, ‘of course you can go, you’re the best number eight in the world!’ And he said ‘I’d like to go, I’d like to go, I’d really love to be there for that.’”

And that global respect and reverence for Foley was highlighted by former England centre Will Greenwood on the Today programme with Sean O’Rourke.

Greenwood said: “Absolutely everyone who played with him or against him understood his absolute value to a 15 man game.

“He was an absolute gentleman off the field. Always the first to shake your hand and congratulate you. He took defeat on his very broad shoulders in the way you would hope you could educate your children to do in terms of bearing up with defeat and with victory in the same manner.

“That’s the sign of a truly, truly great sportsman. Please pass on condolence from across the Irish Sea from the English rugby fraternity to his family and friends, I hope they know and truly understand that he was greatly respected, admired and loved by the rugby community across the world.”