Not that it qualifies as news any longer: CJ Stander was Man of the Match for Munster against Racing last night. Stander was his usual barnstorming self - he had eighteen carries and thirteen tackles - and, though Andrew Conway may feel hard done by, he was a deserving winner. It brings his Man of the Match record to absurd levels: his fourth in eleven starts this season, and his eighteenth in seventy-three Munster starts.
Stander is also nailed down for a place in Ireland's back-row ahead of the Six Nations, and may achievable the remarkable feat of keeping his Munster captain Peter O'Mahony out of the starting team. Stander has slotted seamlessly into Schmidt's Ireland, and one of the reasons he has done so was elucidated by Brian O'Driscoll.
O'Driscoll was speaking on BT's highlights show of the European Rugby weekend, and in paying tribute to another remarkable Stander performance, he gave good detail on precisely what impresses Schmidt:
One aspect that you'll see in a lot of players that go to Irish camp under Joe Schmidt is when they get tackled, he is big on this idea that "60% man is the ball-carrier": so 60% of the responsibility of that ball coming back is on you. So good placement, fight in contact, fight on the ground, and make sure it is that ball is put on a platter.
It's a good point by O'Driscoll: amidst the fire and brimstone of the typical Stander performance, it is easy to occasionally miss the understated aspects of his game, too.
Elsewhere, in the same show, O'Driscoll and Lawrence Dallaglio previewed the four quarter-finals, with O'Driscoll admitting that Wasps will fancy their chances away to Leinster:
Leinster have played an awful lot against Wasps in recent years, and certainly in recent seasons: they've been in the same group on a couple of occasions. Myself and Lawrence have played against one another for our respective clubs, with mixed success for both teams. Wasps won't be afraid going over to Leinster having had such a resounding victory at the RDS last year, and of all the home quarter-finals to visit, maybe they see Leinster as the team to have a proper go at.
We wait and see, but hopefully nothing will scupper the glorious prospect that is a Munster/Leinster final.
