Challenge close to home for Erasmus

To say Munster boss Rassie Erasmus knows tomorrow’s opposition inside out is, for once, an understatement.

When Erasmus started a professional playing career in 1996 that would be rewarded with 36 Test appearances in South Africa’s back row, it was in Bloemfontein with Free State, a team that would become the Cheetahs, whose evolution has now brought them to the Guinness PRO14 and a trip to Thomond Park tomorrow.

He would spend time at other provinces and represent the Cats in Super Rugby between 1998 and 2002 but it was back in Bloemfontein that Erasmus played out the final years of his career while learning the ropes as a fledgling coach, eventually taking the reins of the Cheetahs’