CJ Stander was winding up English players before the Lions even flew out to New Zealand

CJ Stander is in New Zealand.

Around midday on Wednesday [NZ time], one of the British & Irish Lions main attacking weapons stepped off a Qantas flight from Australia and strode into his place of work for the next six weeks.

The Munster and Ireland back-row touched down in Auckland earlier today and looked eager as anything to get to his hotel room to shake off the jet-lag… after the media and sponsor’s commitments first, of course.

Before he jetted off with his new Lions teammates, Stander gave a quality interview to Munster’s Duncan Casey for the provinces Crooked Feed podcast [from 21:00 below]. Asked about mixing with Six Nations rivals, Stander showed an innate sense of understanding and a sense of humour that one could almost describe as uniquely Irish.

“I’ve experienced Irish culture for a good few years now and it will be interesting to see, from my side now, what will be the difference with them [the other nationalities].

“I’ve met up with them all a couple of times and everyone has been quite nice so far, but when you go four, five weeks into camp, away from home in New Zealand, you’ll see people’s personalities come out.

“Culture-wise, the Irish boys go about things in their own way and do your own thing. Every culture is different and I don’t want to talk myself out here, you know, but I’d reckon the Welsh boys and the irish boys will be quite similar.

“The rest will be quite different. There’s not a lot of Scottish boys so you won’t know what’s going on there but the English boys are always on their own, probably.”

Plotting allegiances with the Celtic cousins already. Stander knows the score.

Heading into the tour, we had our doubts that Stander is 100% fit and asked Munster director of rugby Rassie Erasmus about his talisman after last weekend’s Guinness PRO12 final. Erasmus responded:

“I think he’ll be good for the Lions… I think he will hit his straps.

“If you play him with a lot of superstars – and people don’t focus on you as the main ball-carrier – he’ll get into games. There are so many stars in the Lions squad that the focus will not only be on CJ Stander. There are so many other dangerous players [heading] out there. That will give him some breathing space. I think he’ll have an awesome tour like Peter [O’Mahony] and Conor [Murray] will have.”

We hope that proves to be the case because an in-form Stander will be crucial for the Lions if they are to have any hope against the All Blacks.

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