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Gerry Thornley: Nienaber’s influence all over Leinster’s interest in RG Snyman

Munster will now fear that history will repeat itself after Jason Jenkins move

RG Snyman of South Africa and Munster. Photograph: Steve Haag/Gallo

Gerry Thornley's face
Gerry Thornley
Fri Dec 15 2023 - 18:00

The more one thinks about it, the more the prospect of Leinster signing RG Snyman makes sense, and the more it signals Jacques Nienaber’s immediate influence. This in turn also demonstrates how willing Leo Cullen is to afford his coaches full scope for their abilities, so comfortable is he in his own skin.

It’s a skill that not all head coaches or Directors of Rugby are adept at, albeit this was perhaps truer in the earlier stages of professionalism, in the Noughties, as the addition of specialist assistant coaches became more commonplace.

Tomorrow’s Champions Cup meeting with Sale Sharks at the RDS is only Nienaber’s third game with Leinster since the two-time World Cup winning coach – he was defence coach in the 2019 triumph and head coach this year when the Springboks retained their crown – landed in Dublin. But it’s clear that, true to his word, Cullen has given Nienaber full rein to bring in new ideas.

The clearest early sign of this was the selection of Will Connors at openside for their opening Champions Cup grudge match in La Rochelle. In Leinster’s preceding seven competitive games this season, Connors had seemingly been third in the pecking order behind Scott Penny, who had been an ever present and started four of those matches at openside, and Josh van der Flier, who returned from his post-World Cup break to start the games against the Scarlets and Munster.

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Picking Connors ahead of the 2022 World Player of the Year was somewhat leftfield. Remarkably, Connors had only started one Champions Cup game before, namely the rearranged quarter-final defeat by Saracens in September 2020. It was vindicated by Connors’ unrivalled chop-tackling technique and line speed, which did so much to prevent Will Skelton from building up a head of steam.

Welcome back, Pieter Steph du Connors!

Admittedly, Connors hasn’t made the squad against Sale but as with van der Flier’s previous reinvention, it may well have had the desired effect on him too, and he has been reinstated.

Eyebrows were raised and there were mumbles of complaint outside the organisation when Nienaber’s post-Rugby World Cup commitments with the SARU delayed his arrival until after, say, Jean Kleyn and Steven Kitshoff had returned to Munster and Ulster.

But ala Marcelo Bielsa having watched all Leeds United’s 46 League matches from the previous season in a few days when initially offered the Elland Road job, Leinster’s coaching staff and players have been impressed by the extensive research and detail Nienaber had completed before his arrival in their HPC in UCD.

The initial noises emanating from there were also very positive, with the players welcoming his methods and the clear focus on line speed in defence. Ironically, for all their woes, Connacht caused them more problems on a relatively pleasant night in Galway on the Sportsground’s 4G pitch than La Rochelle did, and perhaps the incessant rain compelled La Rochelle to attack narrowly.

Even so, it generates more belief in Nienaber’s methods, and with his heightened status as a two-time World Cup-winning coach, one ventures that if Nienaber recommended the signing of Snyman, then Leinster would have been even more inclined to give this their imprimatur.

Now in his fourth season with the province, those cruel ACL injuries, compounded by a shoulder injury since the World Cup, have restricted Snyman to just three starts in his 10 appearances for Munster, which have amounted to 268 minutes.

There have been glimpses of his significant X factor, not least when fit for Munster’s URC-title charge at the end of last season. But it must have slightly galled Munster fans that even as an impact replacement for South Africa, Snyman has amounted more minutes (425) for the Springboks this year in the Rugby Championship, one warm-up game and the World Cup, than in all his time with the province to date.

But Nienaber would know the player as well as anyone, and not least his capabilities. Furthermore, while Snyman was expected to resurface with Johann van Graan at Bath, the Top 14 or a less taxing return to Japan, clearly the presence of Nienaber was a factor in luring Snyman to Leinster. It also ought to extract the best from a player in whom Nienaber believes the fire still burns.

One hopes that if Snyman resurfaces from his current shoulder injury to play for Munster before departing, the prospect of him turning up at Leinster next season will not affect his standing among his current supporters.

After all, it was Munster’s decision to release him at the end of the season while retaining Kleyn – which was entirely understandable. Equally though, Snyman is entitled to join whomever he wants. This is professional sport.

But Munster will now fear that history will repeat itself, for after injuries restricted Jason Jenkins to just two starts and eight appearances off the bench in one season for Munster, amounting to 248 minutes, he promptly played over 1,000 minutes for Leinster last season and has continued in that trajectory in this campaign.

But if fit, Snyman is an upgrade, with all due respect to the once-capped Jenkins, who has proved a good signing, if not quite to the level required and which Leinster have signed in the past.

All four of Leinster’s previous Champions Cup wins in 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2018 featured a big-name, bruising, experienced, multi-capped lock/blindside, namely Rocky Elsom, Nathan Hines, Brad Thorn and Scott Fardy. Snyman is very much cut from that cloth, and his anticipated signing demonstrates Leinster’s ongoing determination to dine at European rugby’s top table.

Even Ronan O’Gara and Alan Quinlan sounded a little blown away by the prospective signing of Snyman on Off the Ball this morning. Of course, Leinster are rolling the dice, but it could prove a master stroke.