At the turn of the year, CJ Stander was one of Europe’s in-form players. At the end of the Six Nations, CJ Stander was one of Europe’s in-form players.
By the end of the 2016/17 season, Stander was willing himself through games despite carrying an ankle injury. Still, many of us had him in our Lions XVs to take on the All Blacks.
Billy Vunipola’s shoulder injury hurt his chances of playing at blindside and he was left in a losing battle with the consistent, indefatigable Toby Faletau for the No.8 jersey. That he buckled down and get himself involved in the matchday squads for the second and third Tests in the drawn series says a lot about his fighting spirit, and talented
From October to March, Stander was putting in huge performances and silly numbers [see below] in just about every game he played.
CJ STANDER
21 carries
62 metres gained
1 clean break
3 defenders beaten
1 try
UMPTEENTH Man-of-the-Match award pic.twitter.com/PjyoHKSGeo— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) January 7, 2017
The flanker was picking up so many cut-glass vases and awards for man-of-the-match performances that he was considering getting a big display cabinet installed in his new Limerick house.
On April 1, his momentum was dreadfully shunted. Munster dealt with Toulouse handily enough in the Champions Cup quarter final but Stander hobbled off with an ankle injury and was spotted limping in the post-match lap of honour.
Munster were in the hunt for the PRO12 and Champions Cup, though, and the Lions Tour was coming up. Stander sucked it up and battled on.
He looked to adapt his game to ease the load on his damaged ankle but it did not stop him for putting in a series of commendable, if not blockbuster, shifts for Munster. After the PRO12 final loss to Scarlets, we questioned whether he was fully fit for the Lions but Munster director of rugby Rassie Erasmus assured us Stander would be a star in New Zealand. 12 hours and an early morning flight later and he was meeting up with the Lions squad in London.
SportsJOE caught up with Stander at the Guinness PRO14 launch, at the Aviva Stadium, and asked him how much the ankle knock hindered him over the final few months of the season. He revealed more on his fitness issues but, not wishing to use it as an excuse, spoke about tactical adjustments to his game. He said:
Stander with his right ankle heavily strapped after the PRO12 final.“Not really; the ankle was good. We got a cast in May made for me and I just put it on for games. I just think it was a long season and I had played a lot of games and took a lot of bangs.
“It’s funny when you start offloading more and not carrying, you have people telling you you’re offloading too much but when you’re offloading too much you’re not carrying enough so you never know what to do.”
Stander was hamstrung from early in the tour as Warren Gatland, leaning towards Faletau as his No.8, played him with a midweek side that struggled to get a handle on opponents until midway through the tour. Still, such was his impact that he became impossible to deny as the series went down to the wire.
“Just to be on the tour and playing all those games before the Test was unreal,” he says. “To be involved in the second and third Test was unbelievable.”
The 27-year-old is looking fresh after a month split back in South Africa and holidaying in Mauritius. He would love to get going as soon as possible but, with pre-season markers to be hit, he is not expected back until October 7 and the PRO14 game against Leinster.
Unsurprisingly, it was an experience with schools rugby that reignited his passion for… rugby.
“I went back to my old school again and started to do a bit of coaching,” he said.
“I almost wanted to cut my vacation short because you miss it. We do it for fun and we get paid to do it so it’s even more enjoyable.”
The ankle cast is gone but the enthusiasm remains.
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