Two weeks ago, CJ Stander revealed that he keeps his four most recent man of the match awards on a shelf in his sitting room. The best player vase he won against Stade Francais last year will now be getting lumped out to the garage.
Stander took home his fourth man of the match award of the season, last night, after another brilliant, inspirational outing against Racing 92.
There is a joke among the Munster contingent that the match sponsors should just get the ceremony out of the way before the match. Announce CJ Stander and be done with it.
No-one will complain.
Any ceremonies may interrupt his intense pre-match preparations, though. Not that Jerry Flannery would mind…
https://twitter.com/shanesmith32/status/822953541283278849
Stander delivered for Munster again in another big game when victory promised so much. Munster now have a home quarter final to look forward to as they wave goodbye to Stander for seven weeks of Six Nations action.
At Thomond Park last night, Stander made 66 metres for his side off 18 carries that included one clean break and three defenders beaten. Most of Stander’s carries were the hard-nosed heaves that gained a metre or two and go Munster on the front foot.
His stand-out carry arrived just before the half-hour mark and not long after the TMO had ruled out a Conor Murray try. The game was fraught, and tied at 0-0, when Stander got the crowd to their feet.
Munster ploughed in behind their talisman. Racing were ragged and committed numbers to the maul. There was an acre of space out wide but Simon Zebo, as he had successfully done 50 times before, backed himself and got the ball down. Try Munster.
Racing were given an almighty root up the hole by Ronan O’Gara after their craven caving at Stade Yves du Manoir on January 7. In Limerick, they showed some steel. Stander was needed in a defensive effort for large tracts of the second half and he did not shirk the task – he was Munster’s leading tackler, on 13.
Man of the match accolade No.4 of the season. He has started 11 games and made another appearance off the bench and has been named man of the match four times.
Post-match, Munster did the math and confirmed a remarkable Stander achievement – he has now won 18 such awards since arriving at the province.
I've been reliably informed by @Munsterrugby that tonight's was CJ Stander's 18TH man of the match award! pic.twitter.com/aiXHEj4CqC
— Pat McCarry (@patmccarry) January 21, 2017
He has played 92 times for Munster and started in 72 of those fixtures. One in every four Munster matches Stander starts, he is named man of the match.
Type in ‘CJ Stander man of the match’ into photo agency Inpho’s website and this comes up:
The search will soon spread over two pages. The Six Nations is just around the corner and Stander is coming into the championship in style.
He’s a handy lad to have around the place.
