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CJ Stander considers the labeling of Rassie Erasmus from Ireland as a “soft” team a challenge and has promised to save the insult for his next meeting with South Africa.
Before Covid-19 disrupted proceedings, Ireland was due to face the Springboks this fall, with the game originally scheduled for last Saturday.
But Ireland is now heading to Twickenham to face the physical challenge of England, a World Cup finalist and Six Nations champion, who have easily represented Andy Farrell’s team in their last three encounters.
Erasmus, the former head of rugby at Stander’s Munster, made the comment in a documentary comparing how Wales, his World Cup semi-final opponents, would be different from Ireland.
“They are not soft, they are not like Ireland,” was the quote, which former South Africa U20 captain Stander addressed today at a press conference.
“It’s a challenge, you know, because if that’s his opinion and that’s what he believes, then I would like, not to prove him wrong, but I would like to show him what we can do is what we want.” I’ve done it before, “he said.
“That’s a great statement to make and he published it, that’s his prerogative, that’s his thinking of us.
“It is not going to be easy to change your mind, but it is fortunate that we are not playing against them this weekend; we will get them at some point.”
Ireland’s most recent loss to Eddie Jones’s team came in February, just before the lockout and the Twickenham visitors that afternoon were unable to take their hosts’ physical flair into their face, and Stander himself got into an altercation. with Owen Farrell, son of the Ireland coach.
“Was he there? Just kidding,” smiled the 30-year-old, who will win his 44th international game for Ireland on Saturday as one of four changes to the team that beat Wales.
“They caught us at the right time, in the right place. Those things happen in a game, especially against England, they try to get into the game that way.
“On the field, this is just another guy, you just want to get in it and do your thing and then there’s some laughs.
“I think if I was a little younger and a little insecure, [I’d think] I’m going to have problems here. Look, we have a job to do and [Andy is] there, he is our head coach.
“He’s backing us and we’re backing him. We’re up against England and it’s us against them. He’s backing us.”
While boss Farrell insisted the team did not use the history of Argentina, which beat New Zealand for the first time on Saturday, as an example of how to overcome underdog status: “No, we haven’t talked about that at all.” – Stander said the 25-15 win has been a topic of conversation among the players.
“It was an incredible game to watch,” said the last row forward.
“He was one of those that you remember where you were.
“The most important thing was that they enjoyed playing for their jersey, for each other and they went out and played their game first, they didn’t make many mistakes.
“His tackle count was up there, so that makes a huge difference.
“You can see they really wanted to be in that jersey and they wanted to play for each other. We’ve seen that game as individuals, we talked about it in small groups about that win.
“I don’t want to go back in history, but when we play New Zealand [in 2018]I think cohesion against such a team is important. ”
Follow England v Ireland this Saturday via our live blog on RTÉ.ie / sport and the RTÉ News app, watch live on RTÉ One starting at 2pm, or listen to updates live on RTÉ’s Saturday Sport Radio 1.
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