Johann van Graan is swapping the beach for the coaching box this St Stephen’s Day as he prepares for Munster’s Pro14 derby clash with Leinster and Thomond Park.
The province’s recently-appointed head coach usually spends December 26 on a beach at home in sunny South Africa, where the rugby season is over at this time of the year.
But on Tuesday he’ll be at a sold-out Thomond Park, hoping to mastermind an interprovincial win over Leinster.
"It’s very different to me," admitted Van Graan, who has overseen four wins out of four in his first month in charge since taking over from Rassie Erasmus, who left to assume the Springbok’s director of rugby role.
"Normally on 26 December I’m on the beach on holidays, but at this stage I don’t want to be at any other spot in the world except here.
"Looking forward to the build-up. People are in a festive mood, Munster are playing at home in front of a capacity crowd, everything is going well with Irish rugby and we’re looking to put in a good performance.
"Leinster are playing pretty good rugby at this stage of the season. We’re busy formulating what we have to do get the result we want," he said, speaking to RTÉ Sport.
.@KEITHEARLS87 spoke to the media today as @Munsterrugby welcome Leinster to @thomondstadium in the @PRO14Official interpro on St. Stephen's Day! @MRSC16 pic.twitter.com/LCbSfPOULr
— Inpho Photography (@Inphosports) December 21, 2017
This is the start of a busy festive period for all of the Irish sides, with each playing three interpros between now and the first weekend of January.
Connacht-Ulster kicks it all off on Saturday, with games to follow thick and fast. Munster and Leinster are currently best placed of the Irish sides, each lying second in their respective conferences.
"It’s a very interesting scenario," said Van Graan. "You want to prepare as well as you can for a massive game on 26 December, but we’ve said all along that family and the human being are what’s most important and that’s what Munster is built on.
"We’ve planned very well for the next few days, we’ll train early morning on Sunday and then the guys will have to get away and get to their families and spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with their loved ones.
"Connacht and Ulster will have a bit longer to adjust because they play on Saturday. It’s Munster and Leinster that will have three games in eleven days.
"It’s a fine balancing act planning and how you want to play over the three games, which all present different challenges, two at home and one away, with the massive thing of Europe looming straight away after that.
"It’s a very full 25 days in the future and we’ll just take it one by one."
Van Graan has overseen two Pro14 wins and back-to-back European Champions Cup wins over Leicester since he took over and off the field there was good news too with back-rows Peter O’Mahony and CJ Stander both signing new, long-term deals with the club.
"Pete was man of the match at the weekend," said the head coach. "His line-out steals, his steals on the ground, his work-rate off the ball, the way he cleaned the breakdown - if you want to win big games in big competitions you need big players to perform and they certainly did that.
"It’s great to have both of them there for the next few years and the key thing isn’t always what they do on the field.
"The influence they have off the field, the experience they bring, what they put together in planning and training - when Pete and CJ walk in and the youngsters see them they know they’re part of something bigger than themselves."
