It was on CJ Stander's home debut back when it was still the RaboDirect PRO12 that Keith Earls realised Munster had signed a real player.
Yesterday, after confirmation came that Stander is leaving it all behind at this season's end, Earls described the 30-year-old as Munster 's best overseas signing and "right up there" with the best ever recruited.
Isa Nacewa is at the top of that tree but then Nacewa wasn't able to become eligible to play for Ireland, while Stander reached the half century of caps for his adopted country in the victory over Scotland last Sunday.
His next Ireland cap will be his last and soon he will return home to South Africa, where he will rejoin his wife Jean-Marié and daughter Everli, on the family farm.
"Probably the toughest decision he'll ever have to make, but you can completely understand it regarding family, etc," said Earls, who himself recently signed a new IRFU deal.
"He's been over here 10 years now and has given a lot. A lot of people over the lockdown have sat down and thought about a lot of things.
"When he got home for a while, his daughter growing up around the grandparents was massive for him.
"So look, he's 31 next month and the fact he's so young, he's not injured and the professional he is, a lot of people are going tothink he's crazy.
"But knowing CJ, his family comes first. Who knows, if he's five months down the road retired, maybe he'll get an itch for it again and come back to us, but highly unlikely!".
Earls laughed while recalling how it took time for him to understand the new recruit from the Bulls, who joined as a 22-year-old in 2012, and vice-versa.
"It was shocking," he smiled. "The two of us couldn't communicate between his Afrikaans and my Moyross accent, so we had someone in between us chatting.
"But he's not messing when he says that his English has come on, for sure!
"He found it tough to get in at the start. He came over quite raw. We had Rob Penney coaching at the time, who was trying to play a certain kind of game and CJ, it took him a bit longer to adapt.
"We played Glasgow in Thomond Park in the Rabo at the time, he made an outrageous length of the field break to score a try.
"I was like 'Jesus, this fella is the business'."
Stander scored two tries that night, including that lung-busting 80-yard dash to the Glasgow line.
Earls also recalled how Stander took over the captaincy when Anthony Foley was made head coach and Peter O'Mahony had a long-term injury.
"You could see his qualities there and you wondered could this fella go all the way," he said.
"Now he has 50 caps for Ireland, he's rarely injured, unbelievable professional, always up there for highest carries, turnovers, etc.
"We knew when he started becoming a student of the game that he was going to be top class."
Stander has played over 150 times for the province now and Earls said he will be forever remembered.
"The off the pitch stuff, he's always bringing the energy win, lose or draw, he's trying to find how he can better between his recovery, small things like that," said the 33-year-old.
"A lot of fellas would be looking at him, he leads with his actions. Off the field there isn’t anyone in the country who has a bad word to say about CJ.
"He’s so open minded, so caring to the people. The Munster and Ireland jerseys mean a lot to him and he knows how much they mean to Irish people as well.
"He’s come over as South African but he’s definitely leaving as a Munster and Irish man."
As for Earls, he's still in the Test game and looking hungry for it, on the basis of his performance against Scotland last weekend.
However he admits that his form in the opening Six Nations games were not up to his usual standard.
"My involvements in games have probably gone down in the last few weeks," he admitted.
"I don’t know if it because of winter rugby, lashing rain and it’s not great to be a winger in this country when it’s raining!
"My game has to adapt now as well. You probably see me more as a defensive winger these days, which I’m trying to work on.
"It would be nice to get some ball in attack as well and we’re not far off it. There are just one or two small things letting us down.
"Hopefully if selected this weekend we might get a little bit more."
