'It breaks my heart': CJ Stander on those who questioned his Irish credentials 

Munster's CJ Stander after the Rainbow Cup clash with Leinster. Picture: INPHO/Ryan Byrne

CJ Stander said that it breaks his heart that a few people have an issue with him coming from South Africa to play for Ireland.

But as he brings the curtain down on his career with Munster and Ireland, the 31-year old said the vast majority of people here have supported him over the past nine years and that he will leave with a heavy heart.

And he recalled when he appeared on The Late Late Show that he lived on a diet of eggs and noodles in his hotel room in his first week in Ireland trying to save money to bring his fiancée over — not realising that all the food and facilities in the hotel had been paid on complimentary.

He said he can’t wait to get back home and link up with his wife Jean-Marié and two-year-old daughter Everli — both appeared live on the show from South Africa — as he brings the curtain down on a career which saw him chalk up 51 Irish caps and make 155 appearances for Munster.

He said the past nine years have been a wonderful success story but admitted to host Ryan Tubridy that the minority who questioned his credentials to play for Ireland did bother him.

“I would lie if I said it didn’t bother me. It breaks my heart. I wanted to show I’m so proud for playing for Munster firstly and then you get a chance to play in an Irish jersey. And a lot of people had spent time on me as a person.

“And that is one thing I am going to miss, the culture that everyone looks after everyone. And then there are a few people who think it is not okay for me to be there.

“If I look at the players who came before me or after me, they did the same thing. They played their hearts out for the jersey and wanted to give something back. It is a tough job to be there, so perform and then to get negative comments like that coming away. You could block it out but it always comes to you. If someone sees you on the street and asks you about it. But it breaks my heart, they don’t know me, my goals or what I wanted to achieve.”

He paid tribute to the late Anthony ‘Axel’ Foley and others in Munster who took him and helped him develop. And he admitted that he was fairly naive when he arrived in Ireland as a 22-year in 2012 via Amsterdam from his home in George in the Western Cape, having never flown on his own prior to that.

He had €1,000 saved to bring with him but knew he needed to make it last.

“I had never flown by myself, it was always with a team, and I almost got lost in Amsterdam, tried to leave the airport building. I had very little English and I was struggling. I could have asked the family (for money) but I had just got a fiancée and I knew I wanted to be my own man coming over.

“The manager at Munster drove me from Cork down to Limerick and put me in the Castletroy Hotel. I only had this thousand euro and I knew I needed to get a house as my fiancée, my wife now Jean-Marié, was coming over in a few weeks and I wanted to be set up and I wanted to save money.

“So I went across to the local shop and bought eggs, a dozen I think, and noodles. The cheapest things I could find and I could understand, only things I could see that I knew.

“I went back to the hotel room, cooked the eggs in the kettle, poured the noodles with warm water over them and that was my dinner for five days. But after training I was putting away three or four plates of food and the lads were saying, this guy can really put away some food but he’s going to blow up.

“I walked down to reception on my last day at the hotel after a lovely stay and the lady said ‘did you enjoy the facilities at the pool and the spa’? And I said ‘I don’t want to pay for it’ and she said it was complimentary! I missed the boat.

“And there was this unbelievable restaurant, I had seen guys having steaks and so on and then I was asked did I enjoy the complimentary breakfast, lunch and dinner. I should have asked the question.”