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'No, I don't live my life with regret' - Munster's van Graan on missing last Saturday's Boks triumph

Munster coach Johann van Graan during his days as South Africa assistant (Photo by Duif du Toit/Gallo Images)

Johann van Graan doesn’t do regrets. Ask him – as RugbyPass did at Wednesday’s Champions Cup launch in Cardiff – if there was any tinge of sadness that he was 6,000 miles away when his beloved Springboks lifted the World Cup trophy last Saturday and he insists there was no none. 

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As a South Africa assistant, first to Heyneke Meyer and then Allister Coetzee, he had earned his Test level stripes, soldering through 71 matches from June 2012 through to November 2017 when he decided he wouldn’t stay on under the incoming Rassie Erasmus and would instead take over the position Erasmus had just left vacant at Munster. 

It was this leap of faith that had him sat in a hotel in Cardiff last Saturday, watching events in Japan from afar as he prepared for Munster’s PRO14 game later that day versus the Blues. There was no disappointment, only elation that a team he previously invested so much into had achieved so much against the odds.  

“It was brilliant,” he told RugbyPass, seated in a top floor hospitality room at the Principality Stadium just days after guiding Munster to their latest league win at the adjacent Arms Park. “Very glad firstly for South Africa for winning it and what it means to our country, a third World Cup win. 

“Rassie has done a fantastic job with the team, his whole team and specifically with the players. It was an incredible performance and Siya (Kolisi) leading the team. I know a lot of guys who have put a lot of work over the last twelve, eight, and four years to get to this position, so very glad for them.”

(Continue reading below…)

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Van Graan’s phone has been busy in the interim. “I have spoken to most of them, just congratulating everybody. I have seen a good few videos and a few photos of people drinking out of the cup.

“Like I said, I would be very close to a lot of those players, also the coaching staff. I congratulated Rassie, Jacques (Nienaber), Felix (Jones), Mzwandile (Stick) and Matt (Proudfoot), a very good friend mine as well, Annelee Murray (PR manager), the doc (Konrad von Hagen) who has been there for over 200 Test matches. It’s just great to be South African,” he continued before outlining some lasting relationships with particular players. 

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“Look, first Test in 2012 was with Eben (Etzebeth) and seeing him develop as a man. When Siya (Kolisi) ran onto the field for his first test against Scotland at Nelspruit, the hug we gave each other then and the words that were spoken… seeing a lot of players develop into men, into fathers and into world champions is great to see. 

“Someone like Handre Pollard, came straight from the under-20 world cup in New Zealand in 2014 for his first Test against the Scots in Port Elizabeth, planning it that week and coming on the field, having a brilliant Test and the way he has developed. 

“Look, the reason why I am in this game is to make a difference in peoples’ lives and to be part of that journey was special. All credit to everybody currently involved in the coaching team, from the players and the management to SA Rugby. It’s brilliant that they won a third World Cup for our country.”

An irony is that Jones, a van Grann assistant, surprisingly left Munster in June with no job lined up only to be called in by Erasmus in an emergency after ill-health forced Swys de Bruin out of the reckoning. A few months later Jones is now a World Cup winner, unlike van Graan who is busy preparing for another Champions Cup campaign.

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“No, I don’t live my life with regret,” insisted van Graan. “I had a fantastic time at the Springboks and I had this opportunity to come to Munster and it’s one I grabbed with both hands. I have loved my time here (with Munster) and you have got to be happy for other people when they achieve success and it’s incredible for South Africa to win the World Cup for the third time.

“I was privileged to be at the two previous World Cup finals, in ’95 as a 15-year-old boy and I went to the 2007 World Cup just before they won it in that final in Paris. I was fortunate enough to have been at the previous two and watched the third one in Cardiff. It was great to be involved.”

Looking back on that breakthrough triumph 24 years ago, he said: “I sat next to a Namibian and a Scottish gentleman and I remember Joel Stransky’s kick was in my line of sight it but I remember more what it meant to the country. 

“Previously, I was a ball boy at Loftus when South Africa made their first season back since isolation and I was standing next to Andre Joubert and met Nelson Mandela there for the first time which made a massive impression on me. 

“After I met him I went off to buy his book, Long Walk to Freedom, and I tried to understand so much of what he went through. I remember him coming down the tunnel in ’95 with the No6 jersey and the sense of pride of being there.

“I also went to the inauguration in ’94, so it was great to be there in ’95 and my heroes back then won the World Cup, Joel Stransky, Joost van der Westhuizen. In ’07, I knew a lot of Bulls players who were involved and then it was great to be involved in the Springboks after.”

WATCH: RugbyPass travels to South Africa for an episode of Rugby Explorer… Jim Hamilton explores the stunning cities of Cape Town and Porth Elizabeth and meets the local rugby communities 

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JW 1 hour ago
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Lol you need to shoot your editor for that headline, even I near skipped the article.


France simply need to go to a league format for the Brennus, that will shave two weekends of pointless knockout rugby from their season and raise the competitions standards and mystique no end.


The under age loophole is also a easy door to shut, just remove the lower age limit. WR simply never envisioned a day were teams would target people under the age of 17 or whatever it is now, but much like with Rassie and his use of subs bench, that day was obviously always going to come. I can’t remember how football does it, I think it’s the other way around with them, you can’t sign anyone younger than that but unions can’t stop 17 or 18 yo’s from leaving for a pro club if they want to. There is a transaction that takes place of a few hundred thousand for a normal average player. I’d prefer rugby to be stricter and just keep the union bodies signoff being required.


What really was their problem with Kite and co leaving though? Do we really need a game dominated by Internationals? I even think WR’s proposed calendar might be a bit too much, with at minimum 12 top tier games being played in the World Championship. I think 10 to 12, maybe any one player playing 10 of those 12 is the best way to think of it, for every international team is max, so that they can allow their domestic comps to shine if they want, and other nations like Japan and Fiji can, even some of the home nations maybe, and fill out their calendar with extra tours if they like them as a way to make money. As it is RA don’t have as good a pathway system, so they could simply buy back those players if they turn good. Are they worried they’ll be less likely to? We wait for baited breath for the new season to be laid out in front of us by WR.

It could impose sanctions on the Fédération Française de Rugby, but the body which runs the Top 14 and the ProD2, the Ligue Nationale de Rugby, is entirely independent.

It’s not independent at all. The LNR is a body under, and commissioned by, the FFR (and Government control) to mediate the clubs. FFR can simply install a new club competition if they don’t listen, then you’d see whether the players want to stay at any club who doesn’t tow the line and move to the new competition, as they obviously wouldn’t fall under the auspice of world rugby. They would be rebels, which is fine in and upon itself, but they would isolate themselves from the rest of the game and would need to be OK with that. I have no doubt whatsoever that clubs would have to and want to fall in line to remain part of the EPCR and French rugby. Probably even the last thing they would want is to compete with another French domestic competition that has all the advantages they don’t.


All those players would do good for a few seasons in France, especially the fringe ones, with thankfully zero risk of them being poached if they turn good. New Zealand had a turn at keeping all of it’s talent, and while it upticked the competitiveness of the Super Rugby teams into a total dominance of Australian and South African counterparts (who were suffering more heavily than most the other way at that stage), it didn’t have as positive an effect on the next step up as ensuring young talents development is not hindered does. Essentially NZR flooded the locate market with players but inevitably it didn’t think the local economy could sustain any more pro teams itself, so now we are seeing a normal amount of exodus for the availability of places again. Are Australia in exactly the same footing? I think so, finances where dicey for a while perhaps but I doubt they are putting money constraints on their contracting now. It’s purely about who leaves to open up opportunity.

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