Full circle for Johann van Graan back home to make new memories

'It is full circle coming back with Munster, a club I’ve learned to love and call my home'

Munster head coach Johann van Graan: 'It is full circle coming back with Munster, a club I’ve learned to love and call my home'. Picture: Gruffydd Thomas/Sportsfile

For a while there during his media conference from Pretoria, Johann van Graan got a little lost in the reverie of his recollections of a life spent at Loftus Versfeld.

It would be a stretch to say the Munster head coach was misty-eyed as he spoke at length of his days as a ball boy at the famous stadium up on South Africa’s Highveld. He talked of standing next to Springbok legend Andre Joubert and Nelson Mandela, and of joining the Bulls at the start of his coaching career in 2003, yet as he prepared his current team for their United Rugby Championship resumption against his former team this Saturday, the 41-year-old made it clear he is back in town to make some new memories.