No regrets for CJ Stander after taking early retirement

BACK AT HOME: Former Munster and Ireland player CJ Stander acknowledges the crowd at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Pic: INPHO/Laszlo Geczo

It was with a broad, knowing smile that CJ Stander greeted Graham Rowntree’s joke that he had agreed to pull on a Munster jersey one more time.

Stander was sat comfortably at his table at Páirc Uí Chaoimh as head coach Rowntree joked from on stage at Munster Rugby’s Gala dinner this week that the former Ireland and Lions back-rower had agreed to play in the following night’s game against South Africa A.

The cheer from the 300 or more people in the room that greeted the mock announcement was telling. Still only 32, almost two years on from the lightbulb moment that told Stander his time was up as a hard-carrying battering ram of the highest order, the general consensus was that a return to the jersey he pulled on 156 times in a nine-year career with the province was not beyond the bounds of possibility.

Yet Stander’s smile said something different, as he had explained to the Irish Examiner just a little while earlier.

“I’m 32 but the body’s old, it’s had enough so I couldn’t go back now. It’s too late now, way too late.” 

Instead, Stander was working outside the lines, as an analyst on Virgin Media’s broadcast as Munster made history on Thursday by playing the first rugby match at Cork GAA headquarters, in front of the sport’s largest ever crowd in the province of 41,400 and defeating a South African touring side on a landmark occasion for all manner of reasons. 

It was the sort of evening he would have been tailor-made for but then again so was the night at Thomond Park, on December 13, 2020 when something inside him said the end of his playing days was fast approaching.

“It was a switch actually. Playing against Harlequins in the European Cup at Thomond Park and I just felt, ‘I’m not enjoying this anymore’. I went home that night and spoke to my wife and said ‘that’s me, I’m done’.

“She took it all right, took it quite well but after I did that I started enjoying the rugby more. I’m one of those guys, if I say ‘yes’, yes is yes, what’s done is done, no turning back. So that was in December, I went through the Six Nations and then made it public and we all moved on.

“There were no doubts, never. I know what I am capable of and I knew I was going to start falling off my best performances so I thought before anyone sees it I’ll just say goodbye.” 

With an IRFU offer of a renewal to his central contract on the table and guaranteed income for the next three years, it was a brave moment to make such a life-altering decision and others might well have hung on and milked a few more euros out of their employer.

“Yeah, I probably could have,” he said. “It would have been easy. I think a lot of guys probably do push it a bit more but I always wanted to finish on top and I always wanted to miss the game. I wanted to say I still enjoyed the game and not go ‘I should have done it earlier’. So that was a perfect time for me.” 

Life is good for the Standers back in South Africa. CJ, wife Jean-Marie and daughter Everli live in wine country, just outside Cape Town in Paarl, where he works in construction management, freelancing as a broadcast rugby analyst, primarily for national network Supersport. Yet the work brought him back to Ireland last weekend for the first time since he bowed out as a player in May 2021 when he was in the commentary box for Ireland’s impressive victory over the Springboks.

“It’s good to be back. A lot of memories and a lot of good memories coming back and it’s good to see everyone again and that everyone’s doing well. It’s good to see old friends and places and all our favourite restaurants.

“We were in Dublin for two days, did a bit of commentary, then down to Limerick for three days with all of our mates and went to our old house and all the restaurant spots, all the stuff we like, and said hi to all our friends.

“I do miss Ireland and miss Limerick. I don’t miss playing but I do miss the craic.” 

Stander was back on a plane to Cape Town on Friday and will watch Saturday’s Test against Fiji from afar, impressed by the strides the Ireland team he was a part of under Andy Farrell is finally bearing the fruits of the groundwork laid in the first 18 months of the head coach’s tenure when the Munster No.8 earned the final 20 caps of his 51-Test career with the national team. 

He firmly believes Ireland’s continuing success can only be good for the province he served unstintingly for so long and still refers to both with a “we” rather than “they”.

“I think Andy’s actually got a squad now that he can count on. He’s got good depth and it’s good to see guys getting a chance and it’s a great time to be getting opportunities in games like this. Fiji are probably not going to be as physical as the Springboks or as mentally tough but it’s still going to be physical, still going to be a physical game.

“We got a few injuries the last time we played them, I think Joey (Carbery) broke his arm in that game, but it’s great to see them getting opportunities because the more Munster (players) we can get in the Irish team the better the team does.”