JOHAN VAN GRAAN says that Simon Zebo has made such a seamless return to Munster this summer it’s as if he was never away and that he’s looking forward to seeing what the province’s all-time top try scorer brings to the side this season.
The 31-year old, who scored 60 tries in 144 appearances for his native province before moving to Racing 92 three years ago, has lost none of his old flash on and off the field, according to the Munster head coach.
“Zeebs came in on the first day and it was like he was never away,” said van Graan. “When he came back at the time in pre-season the group was still pretty young so that was really good for him to get to know all the non-international lads.
“He has been brilliant, worked really hard on his conditioning. You can also see from a leadership point of view, a back-three point of view, the role he will play in the team. We have a lot of depth in those positions. Right from the offset we said he is not guaranteed a place in the team.
“Just like every other player he is going to have to work and perform to get into that starting team. But he’s been brilliant. He’s very good with his craic and he brings good balance to the squad.
“On top of it all if you saw some moments on Saturday when red played grey (in-house match), he certainly hasn’t lost his magic ball in hand, so again, like a whole host of other lads, we are really looking forward to seeing how he goes.”
Munster head to play Exeter Chiefs on Saturday in what will now be their only full-on pre-season clash after their game last weekend against Bath fell victim to a Covid outbreak with the Premiership side, and they will open their United Rugby Championship campaign against the Sharks on September 25 at Thomond Park.
Van Graan said the returning internationals would be integrated in due course as he tries to build on a campaign last season which saw them win 20 of their 25 games but still end another campaign without silverware.
“Obviously there are guys in different categories. Some guys played more Test rugby and rugby than others. The big group of returning internationals will be available for the first round of URC and there are one or two guys filtering in later.
“And then, obviously, Conor (Murray) and Tadhg (Beirne), being our Lions players, together with Damian de Allende are not back. Conor and Tadhg are on their off-season break and they will be available for the later rounds and Damian will finish the Rugby Championship before he will join up.”
Van Graan said the return of RG Synman, who suffered a cruciate injury on his debut over a year ago, was complicated by the burns he and another few players suffered in a house BBQ at the end of last season, but he’s hopeful the Springbok will be back next month.
“He will potentially be available sometime in October, not necessarily the start of October. We have no pressure on RG. He is also working very closely with the Springboks as well to make sure both parties look after him very well.
“Whatever set-backs he has had, he has kept his head down and he is currently working very hard with our medical and athletic performance team to get back to the pitch. He will start filtering into some small bits of rugby training and as soon as he’s ready I can’t wait to let him play his first game of the season for Munster whenever that will be,” added van Graan.
