To get the title’s great but I don’t want it to take away from this week...it’s something SPECIAL

Stander knows bigger prize awaits at Twickenham

WATCH out anyone sitting down to dinner near CJ Stander if Ireland win the Grand Slam on Saturday.

The Munster No8 admits he wanted to clear the table and dance on it last Saturday as the players and their partners ate beef Wellington after the win over Scotland.

Emotion almost got the better of him as he watched on the big screen as France beat England to confirm Ireland as Six Nations champions.

For the first time as a senior player, Stander was a title winner.

“We as players and partners were sitting on one side and everyone else was celebrating,” recalled the 28-year-old.

“Luckily the speeches had finished and the other game was on a big screen. Everyone was celebrating and enjoying it. Even the Scotland players had a few cheers. It was special. We just looked at each other. We had a glass of wine but then you’re back into this week.

“We didn’t really celebrate because we knew we had another job at hand against England. There’s a lot to think about and work on. To win a championship with a game in hand is a great achievement and that will never be taken away. I’ve never had it before, it’s the first senior win ever in my life.

“Inside I felt I wanted to flip the table and dance on it but I knew we had another game to go. When we got back to the hotel I went for a walk around Dublin and you could see people had celebrated well. It looked like St Patrick’s Day had happened a week before its time.”

But Stander knows there is still a big job to be done this weekend. He continued: “To get a championship is great but I don’t want to take away from this week. It’s big for us. It’s something special.

“We need to make sure that we keep it inside. If you can get this right at Twickenham, then the celebrations on Sunday are going to be great.”

South Africanborn Stander was ineligible to play for Ireland when they won the Six Nations in 2014 and 2015 so he was desperate to win silverware this year.

He admitted: “It was one of my main goals. I’ve been in a lot of finals, a lot of semi-finals – a lot of groups that got there and didn’t have it. Last year against Scarlets, last year against Saracens, it’s tough. Glasgow four years ago up in Cardiff was tough on a provincial level. When you get into this group you just try to play well and fill in.

“And then you get to a point where you feel you can give something back to the group and to the other players.

“You want to start winning things because people talk that way, train that way. To win something, I didn’t know whether to cry or to laugh.

“But again we’ve got a week to go still though it was good, that five minutes

I had with my wife, to celebrate it. It’s still unreal.

“The players in this group know that we’ll never get this opportunity again so we have to train well and play well.

‘We don’t want to wake up on Sunday being happy but sad as well.

“We’ve got an opportunity and we want to take it but we know it’s not going to be easy.”