CJ Stander carried a debilitating injury into the Champions Cup semi-final yet finished top of the charts. Again.
76 minutes into Munster’s insurmountable task against Saracens, Francis Saili tried his side’s first offload of the day. Andrew Conway couldn’t hold on and a try went a-begging.
Scrum Saracens. Stander puffed his cheeks and packed down again.
It was one of those days that won’t be long remembered as the years go by. It was poor enough fare at the Aviva Stadium. One team’s defence wearing down an attack that offered few ideas other than heaving it into contact and steepling to ball sky-wards.
Stander was there to the death. Still charging as hard as his battered body would allow.
His try, on 79 minutes, was a scrap of reward for a performance of pure heart and determination. Stander’s ankle – damaged badly in the quarter final win over Toulouse – was held together with surgical roll, strapping and wishful thinking.
Here was a man that was 70% fit but 100% committed. When his heart was pumping and his lungs were searing, Stander moved like the Stander that trucked ball and bashed all before him back in February and March.
When there was a break in play or a Munster move broke down, it was then that you realised just how heavily Stander was limping.
In the moments before scrums packed down or a teammate was down for treatment that Stander’s face gave the game away. He would glance down at his right leg and shake his head. You just knew he wanted to be doing more; wanted to be getting to rucks faster and getting back off the line.
Following the game, which Saracens won 26-10, Munster director of rugby Rassie Erasmus revealed Stander was only supposed to play ’40 or 50 minutes’ but injuries to Tommy O’Donnell [winded], Jean Deysel [fractured rib] and Peter O’Mahony [concussion] meant he had to do 80-plus.
He still put up big numbers. Not Billy Vunipola numbers but he was the main man for getting Munster over the gainline. 18 carries for 30 metres gained. Six successful tackles. That try. It was only for pride but it was something.
As the final whistle, Stander’s shoulders sagged. This was not what he had dreamed of.
“This is not a full-stop,” Simon Zebo told us after the match.
The words are noble and Munster still have lots to play for. Stander sat five feet away from Zebo as the words were said but they didn’t seem to register with Stander.
His performance won’t go down in Munster legend because Munster lost with change to spare.
It should but it won’t. That is what makes Munster Munster.
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