CJ Stander: Springboks v Ireland is the ‘biggest series ever’
CJ Stander reveals the excitement is building in South Africa.
Former Ireland number eight and South African-born CJ Stander has labelled the upcoming clashes between the heavyweight nations as the “biggest series ever”.
Stander, who was a Munster favourite during his time at the province, played over 50 times for Ireland before making a shock retirement from all forms of the game, aged 30.
The back-row helped Ireland win the Six Nations Grand Slam in 2018 and since retiring he returned to South Africa and is now running a boutique hotel in Franschhoek, near Cape Town.
Exciting building
Speaking in an exclusive with the Irish Mirror, Stander has revealed that the excitement is building in his home country as the world champions prepare to face their “bogey team”.
“It seems to be the biggest series ever, everyone is talking about it,” he said in the interview.
“Look, what I normally do is I gauge matches on ticket requests from people and I promise you if I could get as many tickets as I wanted, and had the money to buy them, I would have bought the whole stadium.
“I would have sold 50,000 tickets for myself and their friends’ friends and neighbours and clubs – everyone is calling us, that’s how I know it’s highly anticipated.”
South Africa is known for its rugby-mad public and Stander said the atmosphere in the country is at fever pitch as “everyone” is excited about the upcoming two-Test series.
“In Ireland everyone talking about rugby tends to be ‘in’ Irish rugby but, literally here right now, everywhere I go, I can hear people talking about it, the kids, the adults, the taximan, the busman, the waiter, the chef, everyone is excited,” he explained.
“I suppose when the top teams play against each other, people who are interested in it, you can feel it for sure. Everyone here is getting ready.”
The massive series will kick off on Saturday, July 6, at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria before the Springboks and Ireland meet again seven days later at Kings Park in Durban.
Ireland have come out on top in the past three meetings between the sides, the most recent being their 13-8 victory over the Springboks in the World Cup pool stages.