Stories
It’s a measure of how much professional rugby players love playing rugby that there’s only ever been a handful that have quit while still at the top of their game. In Ireland only Denis Hickie, Keith Wood and now CJ Stander have managed it.
Not many players communicate, verbally or non verbally, how much they love playing. But in his body language, his zest for contact, his smile, his non stop pep talks to teammates and his almost palpable desire, Stander stands out.
He’s not a gifted player that was always going to make it; he left South Africa because he was told he was too small. He owes a lot of his success to sheer doggedness, as though he had a point to prove as well as a game to play.
If there is a loophole in the laws someone will exploit it – don’t hate the player, hate the administrators of the game.
At 30, a back rower with his fitness and durability would easily be looking forward to three more years at his peak and another two after that in Japan. He has reportedly turned down a €400,000 a year contract in France, and he could have made half that again in his mid 30’s.
He’s an extrovert too and this week’s outpourings demonstrated how much he is loved by coaches, fellow players, and fans.
So who suddenly turns down money, adulation, and self actualisation? It’s rare for an athlete to have such perspective on the thing they have been obsessed about since they were seven or eight years old, so rare in fact that some don’t believe it exists. A number of pundits assume he will be back playing for a South African franchise in the Pro16 next September.
If Stander does play again, it will tarnish his legacy in the minds of many fans but that’s to expect a level of purity and selflessness from rugby players that we don’t seek or expect from any other pro athletes.
They’re all mercenaries to some degree, it’s just that World Rugby have some strange rules on eligibility and nationality. If there is a loophole in the laws someone will exploit it – don’t hate the player, hate the administrators of the game.
This week Stander’s “friend for life” Andy Farrell said “we’ve known for a few (6 to 7) weeks, I’m made up for him to be honest. He’s content with his decision and we’re happy for him”.
So Stander has been picked throughout this campaign even though the coaches knew he would be leaving the squad straight after the final game? If you’re looking for an example of sports people suiting themselves look no further than coaches who think only about winning the next game and what player will help them achieve that.
In recent years it feels as though there’s been a need to justify the project by picking the project players.
There are many who feel World Rugby’s project player rule is more than a mere legal loophole, but an assault on the integrity of the game and on our national identity. Neil Francis wrote this week in the Irish Independent that he believes it is “ethically and morally wrong to trade a symbol of our nation – a green jersey – under the flag of expediency or convenience. It is a corruption of our people and our island”.
Francis says he has a special affection for the Argentinian Rugby Union (ARU) because they pick players born in Argentina, with Argentinian passports and “they play with the sort of Latin devotion and irredeemable passion that you can only acquire by playing for the land of your birth and your forefathers”.
They’re also the team captained by Pablo Matera, who, along with lock Guido Petti and hooker Santiago Socino, between 2011 and 2013 posted a series of racist and xenophobic comments on social media including one where Matera mentioned “running over blacks” with his car. CJ Stander was born in South Africa, but he makes Irish people feel good when they watch him play and when they see how he interacts with fans, and maybe it doesn’t need to get any more complicated than that.
What is up for debate is whether any of Ireland’s project players are better than the Irish-born player they are keeping out of the team. Ireland have fielded sides where a third of the starters were project players, which is farcical.
As Liverpool have been taught recently in the Premier League, it doesn’t matter how good the plan is, if you don’t vary the plan sometimes.
In recent years it feels as though there’s been a need to justify the project by picking the project players. There is a very strong argument to say James Lowe, Jamison Gibson Park, Rob Herring and Billy Burns are not worth their place in the team, and while CJ has been the best by a distance, he was close to losing his place to Caelen Doris before Doris’s issues with concussion. If Irish fans are to be forced to check their compass on this issue, it should at least be for players that are improving the team.
Stander will be desperate for one last golden memory and no doubt his impending retirement will be used by the players and management as added motivation. Unfortunately, England will be all too prepared for that.
Stander’s one major flaw, as brilliant as he’s been, is an instinct to seek out contact. Like a bull, the more fired up he gets the more he runs hard at an opponent. This works against lots of teams but not against England who will see his direct running style as an opportunity rather than a threat.
If you wanted to distill Ireland’s strengths and weaknesses into one player it would be CJ Stander. Honest, hard working, fit, aggressive, passionate and great at turnovers but he struggles against bigger sides and too often doesn’t see where the space is.
No player splits opinion like CJ Stander. His strengths are so obvious that his most ardent supporters can’t understand why there’s any debate. He’s the one making all the tackles, getting the turnovers, cajoling teammates, and running for the full 80 minutes. He makes more carries than any Irish player in history, does it week after week, and usually gets over the gain line. What’s not to love?
But that’s also the problem – too much of Ireland’s play goes through him and so his tempo becomes the team’s tempo. He battles for every yard, every time, instead of knowing when to quit and go to ground for a quick recycle, or better again, soften up for the pass. It’s all flex, no deception and as Liverpool have been taught recently in the Premier League, it doesn’t matter how good the plan is, if you don’t vary the plan sometimes.
Interestingly, this season for Munster he has been evolving and in arguably his best ever performance for the province, against Clermont, he opted to pass more than he has ever done before. He can do it, and he and his team have reaped the rewards.
England have had a physical, tactical and psychological edge on Ireland since 2018. Eddie Jones will go into this game thinking he knows what to expect from CJ, and therefore from Ireland. It would be a nice surprise for Eddie if Stander the bull could also be Stander the matador. That would be the perfect parting gift.
Simon Hick is a Second Captains producer
