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Munster want emotional balance as they look to honour Foley and Payne
@Source: irishexaminer.com
Sheelagh Foley, mother of the late Anthony Foley, died peacefully last week with her husband Brendan Foley, the current Munster Branch president, and daughters Orla and Rosie at her side.
Former Munster staff member Michelle Payne, also wife of former player and team manager Shaun Payne, passed away in South Africa last week, from breast cancer, and speaking from Durban on Tuesday, Costello said: “Could I just extend our deepest sympathies to the Foley family and also to the Payne family. They were two very important people in the Munster community and a massive loss to us this week, and that’s very close to our hearts.
“Brendan and Sheelagh were here (in South Africa) this time last year, and Brendan picked up the phone and rang me Sunday morning to almost apologise for not coming and wished us the best.
“Obviously Michelle and Shaun were huge in the club as well. That’s really important to the group this week especially as we’re in South Africa as well - very close to our heart.”
Munster are looking for a way of paying their respects at Kings Park on Saturday ahead of kick-off with Costello saying: “That’s being discussed at the moment. Nothing has been finalised.”
The interim head coach also discussed the difficulties of channelling emotions into a coherent and effective performance on the field of play and paid tribute to the playing leadership spearheaded by captain Tadhg Beirne.
“Rugby is a very, very emotional game and I think any contact sport is. People talk about physically and mentally where you have to be. I think the third part of that is emotionally are you ready to invest everything you have and leave everything out on the pitch.
“That’s you as an individual and you as a team, and when emotionally you’re connected to a purpose or to a cause that comes out in any team sport, especially one as physically demanding as rugby, and then when you add in pride in terms of our province, our identity and what we stand for, what we represent, the people, how much we want to make people proud of our performance, so they can identify with who we are and what we’re about, I think all of that amplifies a lot of the good that’s there already and I think a lot of sports teams do it really well.
“We really leaned into it the last couple of weeks to represent people that we really care about and what they mean to the organisation and that came out in the performance. We will continue that on this week as well.”
Costello said the balancing act between leaning into that emotional side and not tipping over into poor on-pitch decision-making was “exactly the crux of it”.
“And that’s where I think the quality of the coaches and the experience they have, the situations they have been in and also the senior players.
“I won’t go into what was said but Tadhg and Peter (O’Mahony) over the last couple of weeks, supported by other key guys like Jack (Crowley) and Craig (Casey), they spoke so well about the balance of using that emotion but also making sure it’s balanced with a performance that’s build on execution and accuracy and being really smart.
“Same thing as discipline, if you’re over-aroused you give away too many penalties but you want to be playing right on that edge.
“When you’ve got coaches who are on it the way they are on it, and senior players that have lived it so many times, that really helps.”
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