The Munster team, who are in South Africa to play the Lions in the United Rugby Championship, laid a wreath in Cape Town on Tuesday in memory of former coach Greig Oliver.
Oliver died in a paragliding accident on 3 July 2023 in Sea Point, Cape Town after a tandem ride with a pilot went horribly wrong.
According to a report following an Air Accident Investigation into the incident, the 22-year-old pilot had put Oliver through a series of quick dynamic acrobatic turns that “the paragliding canopy was not designed for.”
Unable to free himself
After executing the turns, the pilot was not paying attention to the flight path and the pair collided with another glider, the report said. The collision forced their canopy to collapse, causing them to plunge 250 metres toward the Atlantic Ocean.
The instructor then deployed the emergency parachute, which inflated before the pair hit the water. The pilot released his own harness and swam himself back to safety, leaving Oliver trapped in his harness and unable to free himself.
Overwhelmed with the weight of the chute and rigging while battling waves and a large swell, Oliver was pushed under before getting wedged in nearby rocks.
The 58-year-old was eventually brought to shore by a NSRI lifeboat where medics performed CPR, but the Munster coach was declared dead on the scene.
“This is the first time we’ve been back in Cape Town since Greig’s sad passing,” said Munster scrumhalf Craig Casey. “So we thought it would be a really powerful thing to do, to lay a wreath in memory of him.”
“We also want to think about his family and friends and everyone he left behind who loved him.”
A heartbeat of Munster Rugby
Oliver, a former Scotland international, had an ullustrious coaching career with a focus on junior-level rugby.
After stints at national and club level for Scotland, Oliver moved to Ireland and joined Munster’s coaching set-up in 2011. There he worked with the club’s academy as an elite player development officer.
“A lot of us in the squad loved him to bits and all owe our careers to him,” said Casey. “I know he paved the path for me…he was like a father figure in pro rugby.”
In addition to his role with Munster’s academy, Oliver also held coaching roles with Munster’s A team, and the Ireland under-20 team.
At the time of his death, Oliver was in Cape Town to support his son Jack, 20, who was playing for Ireland at the World Rugby U20 Championship.
“Obviously with Jack being in the Academy as well, it’s unbelivable for us to be able to [lay the wreath],” Casey added.
“It’s difficult to come down here and see where it happened, and you get all the memories flooding back. He really was a heartbeat of Munster Rugby.”