Jean Kleyn looking forward to ‘probably still one of the ultimate tests in world rugby’

Okay, time passes, and rapidly. That’s a given. But, even so, it’s still a little hard to credit that Jean Kleyn is now in his seventh season with Munster. With that has come changed responsibilities compared to when he first joined from Western Province in July 2016 as a 22-year-old.

“Your role is always evolving in rugby. As the years go, and you might stay and another fella leaves, you do start shifting up in taking that leadership role. And you get guys like Ed [Edogbo] and Tom [Ahern]) and there is a big onus on the older players and more seasoned players to take them under their wing, show the future generations of Munster players what it’s about, what the ethos is, what it is about really.

“I’d say it has changed in here. It’s my seventh season now, I came in young, probably starting to look a bit on the ragged side now,” he says wryly, even if 29 is hardly old by lock standards. “But I’m still enjoying it.”

Irish rugby doesn’t tend to produce such athletic and hard-working players as the 6ft 9in Ahern (22) or as powerful and explosive as the comparatively raw, 6ft 5in, 122kg Edogbo (19). But in his typically considered and generous way, Kleyn is happy to acknowledge their potential.

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“To put it bluntly, I am very, very excited. You look at a guy like Tom, I think he’s obviously a winger with a lock’s body. It’s ridiculous. He’s a backline player in a forward’s body which is always something exciting to see.

“From my perspective, it’s great to be playing with a guy like that because I can do all the dirty work and he can do all the beautiful looking things. He gets the praise in the media, I get the praise on Monday morning. I don’t mind that much.

“A fella like Ed, I think I don’t have to say too much about him. He’s 19 years old, and starting against a team like the Bulls, he had some very dominant carries in the first half. He’s a big hitter, he’s a big boy and he’s still young. There is a lot to be seen from him. At lock, we’ve a lot now coming up through the younger ranks. There is a lot to be looking forward to.”

In his 116 games for Munster, Kleyn has packed down with a variety of secondrow partners, combining with Edogo in the latter’s full debut against the Bulls last week when the two powered Gavin Coombes over the line for the first of his two tries.

Tomorrow against Leinster at the Aviva Stadium tomorrow (kick-off 5.15pm), Kleyn could come up against Jason Jenkins. The latter’s game time last season with Munster was restricted by injuries and the only match Kleyn and Jenkins started together was in Munster’s away win over Ulster last April.

“I’m not shocked at all,” says Kleyn of Jenkins’ impact at Leinster. “I think he’s a class player; fantastic player, fantastic guy. He had a bad run here; he had some niggly injuries.

“The poor fellow couldn’t stay fit for three games in a row and it’s very tough to make an impact when that happens. He’s a good friend of mine, so I’m delighted for him that he’s getting a good run now, that he’s had a good pre-season and gotten into the run of things.

“I had no doubt that he would, just as when he signed here, we thought he’d make a big impact here as well. Towards the end of the season, you could see glimpses of what he can bring, and I think it was on the back of that, that he ended up going to Leinster. He’s a good fella and a good player, but it doesn’t change the picture for us.”

Kleyn describes Munster’s task as “probably still one of the ultimate tests in world rugby”.

But after last Saturday’s bonus point win over the Bulls he sees this game and next week’s visit of Ulster to Thomond Park as “massive weeks for us because they are three of the top teams, and we could knock them down a few points each and bring ourselves up and the log starts looking drastically different. All of a sudden our season doesn’t look the way it looked literally seven days ago”.

Kleyn was part of a winning Munster side when he first came up against Leinster in December 2016 and has been part of two more victories against their nemesis, at Thomond Park again in 2018 and the Rainbow Cup win in April last year.

But he’s also suffered eight defeats, including three at the Aviva, where Munster have won once in 13 visits against Leinster.

“I think a lot of it is just shifting the mindset around it. The young blood coming in, they don’t have that mental hurdle to overcome because they don’t have this long-standing record of losing matches. So, I think having those guys is actually a massive boost to the team.

“here’s no restriction, there’s no crutch. To them it’s just another game playing against a good team and I think for us as the older generation as such, we can learn from them and just go out and play the best game we can play.

“You can’t approach it as this massive mountain you have to climb because if you do then you’re never going to want to do it. The best way to look at is just: ‘we’re focusing on us. We’re building something that’s going to be great’.“We need this, not just from a log standpoint but for all of us as players we need this in terms of where our season is going, and our belief as well.”