SUPER GRAAN

Quiet, thoughtful and unassuming, former Reds coach Johann has reinvented himself from nearly man at Munster to a giant of English Premiership

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But this weekend, when Bath face Munster again — a meeting of past and present, of wounds and wisdom - its worth remembering how his story really went and how the man walking out at The Rec is not the one who walked into Munster back in December 2017.

There were three television cameras, half a dozen radio mics, a few photographers and the full curiosity of Munster rugby leaning in when van Graan stepped into the room for the first time as the club’s new head coach.

He talked about pressure, expectations, the legacy that stretched behind him like a red shadow. He also said something else - “I've got no ego”.

In elite coaching, that’s the equivalent of walking into a gunfight and announcing you forgot your bullets.

He seemed almost unsure, hesitant in places. But then, somewhere during that first season, before a Champions Cup quarterfinal, he began casually mentioning where he'd been before — a World Cup semifinal as an assistant coach with the Springboks, a Super Rugby final with the Bulls. Suddenly the unassuming man in front of them had the scent of steel.

That Toulon win in 2018 - Munster’s great ambush of the European aristocrats - was the peak of his Limerick years, a reminder that for all the talk of safety-first rugby and process-driven coaching, he understood high-stakes days as well as anyone.

His tenure in Munster delivered five semifinals and a final - depending on who you asked, either the record of an almost man or the work of a man who overachieved while handcuffed.

THE WHISPERS

MUNSTER is a place that mythologises unity. The folklore is part fact, part fiction, but all heart.