
The Fabulous
Foleys are coming! 
England won't just take on Ireland at Twickenham on Saturday,
but a whole tribe!
The men's team will face up to long-serving backrower Anthony Foley as
he wins his 50th cap, and he'll be joined on the day by big sister Rosie,
who will earn her 21st cap for Ireland's improving women's team as they
appear in the appetiser.
Watching in the wings will be a proud father, former British Lion Brendan
Foley, who Rosie credits as an early influence.
"But we played Camogie (Irish game based on the rules of hurling)
and Gaelic Football as well, so we've been exposed to an awful lot of
sport. But I think that it always comes back to dad's influence,"
she said. "We wouldn't have had women's rugby at that stage of the
game in Ireland so Anthony started playing before I did, but I always
had a love for rugby. I have played County Camogie and Gaelic football
but it never actually quite caught my imagination as much as rugby does."
Ireland are expected by few to be victorious against England on Saturday,
and Foley admits: "England are a fantastic team, and we would love
to be playing at that level, but I suppose for us it's all about our performance,
and performing well.
"The reality of the situation is that they (England) are an exceptionally
brilliant rugby team. But we have a fullback and a couple of centres who
are fantastic, and our back row is a very powerful unit. Our No.7 and
vice-captain is Fiona Steed and when she steps onto the pitch against
England she will have 60 consecutive caps for her country which I think
is unique.'
Ieland coach Phillip Doyle is also complimentary of Steed's performance.
"It is an unbelievable feat getting 60 consecutive caps, yet if you
knew the girl personally you would understand (how she has done it),"
he said.
"The girl is 100 per cent behind her game. She is the hardest trainer
and is just a fantastic athlete and is already aiming for the next World
Cup, which will be her fourth."
Doyle says his side has no fears about running out on the famous turf.
"We are not afraid of playing at Twickenham at all. We don't care
where we play," he declared.
"We do play to our strengths, we have a very good rucking pack and
I expect us to cause England a lot of problems in the rucking department.
Also, our back row is very quick very aggressive and very strong, and
we have an outside half who is a good ball player and a good decision
maker. And our two centres are extremely physical - just ask France and
Wales what we did to them.
'The English strength, so far as I can see, is their back line. They are
very physical and very fast. We will have to close them down quite considerably.
Let's call a spade a spade here you know, if England's back line get in
behind us we know we are going to be in trouble. But then, I'm amazed
that they have left out Chris Diver, but the player in place is obviously
on form."
That player is Paula George, who, with 67 caps already to her name, could
well overtake Gill Burns' record tally of 73 before the year is out. But
she won't be retiring when she hits that mark, George assured Rugby Times.
"I definitely want to go to the World Cup and I will be looking for
retirement after that. It's only two more years and I know that my body
and my mind is capable of doing that, and capable of improvement, more
importantly," she said.
England should be winners, and comfortably, but they were disappointed
in their performance in victory over Scotland last time out, and George
spoke for all her teammates in saying: "We were very frustrated.
"We were hoping for a lot more ball, we wanted to play a much more
open game and that just didn't pan out at all, but we are puffing an extra
training session in next Tuesday which wasn't in the Calendar to iron
out a few of the problems that we had."
But the Twickenham call should help motivate England.
"I was dropped for the last one and until I get that phone call on
Monday my stomach is still churning really," admitted George. "I
just want to play there in an England shirt and play well once I get there,
and I'm hoping that this time I'm going to hit that goal and I am not
really looking beyond that at the moment."
The good news for George and England - and the bad news for Ireland -
is that she did get that call, remains England's No.1 fullback... and
is just raring to go!
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