CJ Stander recalls hilarious ’12 pubs of Christmas’ trip when he first arrived at Munster
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“You can’t speak English.”
Not many people might know this, but when former Munster and Ireland number eight CJ Stander first arrived on these shores, he could barely speak a word of English.
Stander was born and bred with Afrikaans as his first language, so when he arrived in Limerick, things were pretty difficult for him at the start.
These days, you probably wouldn’t even notice as Stander’s English is absolutely perfect, but before that was the case, the 2017 British and Irish Lion ended up in a few tricky situations.
One such situation saw him lost in Cork after being picked up by one of the Munster lads to go down for a few pints.
“I had been here for five days, staying in the Castletroy Park Hotel in Limerick, and Barry O’Mahony picked me up and we went down to Cork. I think I had like €60, that was all I had with me.” Stander told us.
“We had a great night, as we always do, and it was the 12 pubs of Christmas. At pub seven, we went to one place and the boys were all upstairs. I went down to get food, got outside, but then the guy on the door didn’t want to let me back in.
“I didn’t have anyone’s number so I knew I was in trouble. I didn’t know where to go, if I took a taxi to Limerick, I’m not going to make it. I was thinking I would have to sleep in the street for the night.
“The guy on the door said, ‘There’s no way you play for Munster, you can’t speak English, I’m not letting you up there.’
“I hadn’t played a game, so it was fair!
“The only thing I remembered was that the guys in Cork lived close to the Guide Dogs place, where they trained the dogs in Cork. I got into a taxi and told the guy I wanted to go to the ‘Blind Dogs’. He eventually dropped me around two kilometres from the house and I saw Barry O’Mahony’s car, got into the house, and got home safe.
“That was the funny side of it. The boys thought they had lost me and I thought I had lost myself.”
