Irish rugby fans revelled in the sight of CJ Stander smashing himself into Wales after belting out Amhran na Bhfiann when he made his international debut for his adopted country.
But it so nearly didn't happen.
Stander is part of Schmidt's 32-man squad that will be travelling to his homeland, and revealed to Ruaidhri O'Connor in today's Irish Independent (make sure you read the full interview, it's an exceptional piece of writing) that he very nearly gave it all up to work on the farm.
The former South Africa U20 captain was disillusioned with rugby because his coaches in South Africa thought he was too small and wanted to turn him into a hooker. The discussion about the positional change lasts for seven months and the pressure weighed heavily on Christian Johann, and he turned to his father:
I was just emotionally drained, I couldn't fight this thing any more and I rang my Dad and I said 'look, you have to come up to Pretoria and talk to the people here because I can't take this'.
He came up and had a meeting and afterwards he said, 'this is a shambles. If there's something else, go for it or you can come home to the farm. It's not going to be the same money, but at least you'd enjoy it'.
Of course, by then he was able to tell his father about Munster's interest once Shaun Payne called. After a little bit of research, his dad was on board - his parents thought it was a great opportunity. But he so nearly followed his dad's original advice to come back to the family farm:
It is drastic when you look back on it now, to think about stopping playing rugby, but it didn't seem it at the time. I enjoy farming.
Looking back, I would have regretted going to the farm, because the last four years I have enjoyed it so much and I started loving this game even more.
Stander's ambition as a kid was to take over the 500 acre farm that his parents own on the Western Cape "At 12, everything for me was farming. It was just farm, farm, farm." He claims he didn't really know what rugby could provide him - so while he wanted to play for the Springboks, the desire wasn't huge. The culture in South Africa meant that he seeing the bigger players picked ahead of him, and that dampened his drive and desire to play. Then Munster came calling, and being aware of the residency rules and the rugby culture in Ireland spoke to him:
I was getting this feeling that I wanted to play for Ireland that I can't really describe. It was a bigger feeling than I'd had for the Springboks
Stander has bought into the cause like no other project player before him. Irish fans love his passion, and it's clear that Stander has an affection for Ireland. So when the topic of going 'home' for this test series is brought up, he feels the need to correct a few people:
We have the old quote 'Home is where the heart is' written on the wall at home in Limerick
I would love to say the farm is home, but it's not. The last eight years, I'm there for a week or two weeks at a time and that's not enough. When I'm on vacation in South Africa, Limerick is home. My stuff is here.
My life is here, my wife is here, my dogs, my family is here. Limerick and my house is my home. I've only been here for four years, but that's just the way I live.
Just when you thought you couldn't like him anymore.
Make sure you read the full interview with Ruaidhri O'Connor. It's incredibly good.
