CJ Stander hungry for ‘dessert’ in Champions Cup

CJ Stander says he is driven by Munster’s failure to qualify for the knockout stages of the European Champions Cup for the past two years.

“It was like taking dessert away from me at dinner, you look forward to it and then you don’t get it,” was his colourful description of the team’s uncharacteristic failure to advance to the last eight of the tournament.

This time around, a man born and bred in South Africa and nowadays rapidly becoming more Irish than the Irish themselves if his performances in the green and red jerseys are to be taken at face value, has no intention of allowing such a disappointment to haunt him for a third successive year. Incredibly, he has been honoured with the man-of-the-match honour in so many Munster matches that he claims not to know the exact number, after his latest honour in Saturday’s win over Racing 92 in Paris.