In one of the day's many nice touches, whereas thousands in the stadium and elsewhere wore number eight for the day, fittingly Munster rested the jersey. Instead, CJ Stander wore 24, which was an honour in itself, and will no doubt return to wearing that now famed and fabled '8' with even more pride than ever.
“It was a big week, an emotional week,” said Stander. “I felt that he brought a lot to that jersey. He gave everything in that jersey. I think giving that jersey off for the day was a great touch. You can’t do him justice in that jersey so playing at 24 was still a massive honour. As I said you only get it for a game, you’re just borrowing it from the next guy. For me, it’s going to be a massive honour to play in that 8 jersey again. It means I need to work harder, and make him proud.”
As for the ‘24’ jersey, Stander is unsure what will be done with it.
“It’s in the changing room, on my hanger, I’m not sure what’s going to happen in the future, it’s something we’re probably going to have to talk about. It’s a special jersey. There’s only one of them. There’s not even two of them. You won’t get it again. I don’t know. I’ll just give you a lie if I give you an answer.”
As much as everyone else, this day will live forever in Stander’s memory.
"We were down to 14 men for 60 minutes and there was a stage, about 53 minutes in, we were tired, it was an emotional week and everything just came on top of each other. I looked up, everyone looked up, and we just got this massive roar, I can say it lifted you, but it really, really lifts you. A guy like Jaco Taute, when he scored his try, I heard there's a great picture of him holding on to his crest, and stuff like that picks you up. The crowd picks you up."
“That’s one of the best days I’ve ever had, in this stadium, and I don’t think I’ll ever have a bigger day than that, just to see the support out there, the lift we got from the warm up, from the run we did back to the changing room.”
“Normally with a game like this, I’m bigged up and ready to go, but I was calm today, I don’t know why. I think with the support we got, and with all we went through during the week, it was tough, but it made it easier today when we saw the support.”
When Tony and Dan Foley joined in the huddle for Stand Up and Fight, Stander admits that's when the enormity of the day hit him.
“I think everyone deals with emotion differently during the week and I wasn’t really emotional, crying, but I felt the loss inside me. When I saw the two boys walking onto the pitch, that’s when I broke down. The next few days and next few years are going to be tough for them and they’re going to miss a big man in their life, their father. I feel so sorry for their loss. I knew he meant the world to them, he meant the world to me. It was great to see them on the pitch today.”
Stander also reckoned that “boys became men today” but the question now is whether this utterly unique occasion also inspired a one-off performance, or whether Munster can again scale these heights. Stander was emphatic in believing it can be replicated.
“Oh yeah, for sure. As I said earlier, we’re our own team now, and if we drop the standards from what we did today, it’ would just be a shame. We know what we can do know, and this is the way we want to play, and the way Axel wanted us to play. This is a great benchmark to say ‘look boys, this is it, this is where we need to go bigger and better than this.’ I’m looking forward to the next match.”
