Positive omens from new recruit
The Springbok centre landed in Cork Airport yesterday to take his place in the Munster squad, just days after news broke that the Jo’Burger restaurant in Dublin, which specialises in South African cuisine (trans: as much red meat as you can shake a kebab skewer at), was granted court protection from its creditors.
If he’s in the mood for some of the more exotic southern-hemisphere foodstuffs he may have to rely on food parcels. In the meantime, there’s always drisheen if he’s on the prowl for some protein.
The South African cut an affable figure at the Cork Airport Hotel yesterday for his introduction to the country’s media. As you might expect, he exuded enough raw health and strength to make the assembled journalists fidget uneasily in their seats and feel guilty about scoffing the free sandwiches on offer.
As you mightn’t expect, however, he produced a neat line in dry asides.
Yes, the team is all that counts, he said when asked about his favourite position, but he didn’t anticipate wearing the number one, two or three shirts.
He’d be based in Limerick but wasn’t sure of his street address (trust us, it sounded funnier in person).
No, he didn’t think the South African coach would be stepping down any time soon – didn’t he have a fine name, anyway? Munster will be hoping, mind, that Jean’s comedy routine doesn’t go to the extremes that namesake Peter’s did, even if the likes of Luke Fitzgerald probably found little enough to amuse him in the Springbok coach’s dismissal of Shalk Burger’s eye inspections during the Lions clash a few short weeks ago.
Overall we shouldn’t have been too surprised with Jean de Villiers’ contributions yesterday, maybe: he arrives with a big reputation for telling interceptions, and his sense of timing was spot-on when it came to comic delivery.
A good omen, maybe.
THE South African’s arrival reinforces some impressions about world rugby – namely, how small that world actually is.
For instance, following a Tri-Nations clash with the Wallabies, de Villiers was able to sound out Australia assistant coach and Munster alumnus Jim Williams about the pros and cons of wearing the red jersey.
For a slightly detached view of life in Ireland as a pro from overseas he was able to bend former Leinster star Rocky Elsom’s ear after the same contest.
Munster, for their part, didn’t have far to look for first-hand accounts of de Villiers’ abilities, given how many of their players swapped provincial red for Lions scarlet earlier in the summer. Clearly they saw nothing in the big man’s performances on the hard African ground to suggest he wouldn’t do as good a job in the mud of Thomond Park.
Elsewhere on this page you can read Munster CEO Garret Fitzgerald’s comments on the importance of the entire package when it comes to getting an overseas player to fit into the Munster – the challenge of having a player who will contribute off the field as well as on.
That hasn’t always worked out, of course – one of the lasting regrets of every sports fan in the country must be the fact that we never saw the phenomenon that was Christian Cullen in full flow, for instance – but it’s fair to say that from John Langford to Doug Howlett, Munster have recruited exceptionally well over the years. The man who sat on de Villiers’ right yesterday, his countryman Shaun Payne, now Munster team manager, is further proof of that.
It would be over-egging the pudding to say that yesterday we saw advance evidence of how de Villiers will add to that illustrious list of imports, but there were trace elements of his attitude to be found elsewhere if you had your eyes open this summer.
For instance, when he collected a World Cup medal in Paris two years ago, he only played 40 minutes in the tournament, having ripped a muscle in his biceps in the Boks’ opening game against Samoa.
Before the opening Test this summer against the Lions, he said: “I remember getting my medal – and not feeling part of it.”
A man who felt unfulfilled when he got his hands on a World Cup medal? Sounds like he’ll do just fine.
* Contact michael.moynihan@examiner.ie
