JEAN KLEYN believes this could be lucky number seven as he aims to win silverware at his old haunt.
Ireland lock Kleyn returns to the Cape Town Stadium where he made his name in his native South Africa to face the Stormers in tomorrow’s URC final.
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He has fond memories of the Stormers from his two seasons with them before his move to Munster in 2016 under the late Anthony ‘Axel’ Foley.
Kleyn admits that a failure so far to win silverware with Munster bothers him — but he thinks this current team is better than any from the last seven seasons.
He said: “I’ve been with Munster a good few years now. I’ve 130-something caps (135).
“As far as a club means something to me, it means everything to me.
“For us to win a trophy, it would be incredible.
“It is something we’ve been building towards over the last seven years.
“I would say since Axel passed away, there has been upset and a lot of changes in the coaching staff and we’ve struggled to get cohesion through the last seven years.
“But this year, we’ve potentially cracked it.
“Our coaching staff are coaching a very exciting brand of rugby and we’re all really enjoying playing it.
“The best thing for a team is healthy competition and when you’ve got a young fella pushing with every fibre in his being to be in the team.
“And I think we have at least one player in every position that’s a young up-and-comer that is pushing the rest of us to be our best every day and every weekend.”
In recent times, amid regularly failing to win on big occasions, the closest Munster have come to silverware was the 2017 PRO14 final — a game Kleyn missed.
But having seen off Leinster at the Aviva Stadium in a dramatic semi-final, the Munster lock believes they have cracked it. He added: “I think it’s something we’ve been coaching for a while, the calmness in the chaos.
“And I think because we’ve placed such an emphasis on it, just be calm in the moment, you know, you think you have no time but you have way more time than you think.
“So I think for us, it’s really becoming second nature to take a breath and just find a little bit of stillness in the chaos.
“I don’t think any player in professional rugby would not be up for a final so there is obviously going to be that factor.
“Are we going to be over emotional? No.
“Do we plan on barging in and throwing fists? Probably not. But we’ll be emotionally up for it, absolutely.
“It’s very much a mindset for us. We pride ourselves on physicality, we pride ourselves on detail, we pride ourselves at outworking other clubs, not just on the pitch but in the week.
“I think we train harder than most teams in the URC, if not most teams in the world.”
