EXPERIENCED MUNSTER LOCK Jean Kleyn said taking on Leinster in Dublin remains one of the ultimate tests in rugby but the South African is looking forward to another crack at Leo Cullen’s men at Aviva Stadium.
And Kleyn, now in his seventh season with Munster, said the emergence of young Munster locks Edwin Edogbo and Tom Ahern is the future for them and typical of the talent starting to come through and make an impact.
“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 only still young. There is a lot to be seen from him. In terms of depth at lock, we’ve a lot now coming up through the younger ranks, there is a lot to be looking forward to.”
The 29-year old, who has played 116 games for Munster and has been capped five times by Ireland, joined from the Stormers for the 2016/17 season and he fully appreciates the value and importance of the derby clash with Leinster.
“There is a long standing rivalry between us. It is one of the biggest challenges but you know beating them at home is something we all want to do so, look, we’re going to go out and do our best to impose our game and play our best and after that, we’ll see what happens.
“I’d say it’s probably still one of the ultimate tests in world rugby. For us, we’re very focused on ourselves, you always are conscious of the fact that it is Leinster, and it is in Dublin. Leinster in the Aviva, it’s one of the most exciting fixtures to play and the prospect of coming out and putting a performance in like we did against the Bulls makes you really looking forward to it and look forward to the potential of what we can produce.
“Coming home with the win there, will drastically shift what the log looks like. So for us as a team, the Bulls’ game, this week against Leinster and next week against Ulster are 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, and all of a sudden our season doesn’t look the way it looked literally seven days ago,” he added.
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Think Sharks vs ulster will be more of a tasty affair… Pity both on at the same time.. Could they not spread the games out with more on a Sunday say instead of the norm being two games at 1pm/3pm/5pm/7.30…sat
@Stuart Collins: Saturday games suits a lot of people as many supporters would be tied up with club rugby on Sundays
@Patrick O Connell: fair enough. Sharks vs Ulster and leinster vs Munster are arguably the biggest games of the weekend and are both on during the 5pm slot tommorrow.. Surely If doubling up, iether could have been slotted in at 1/3/7 pm as apposed to me now having the flick between both channels at the same time to watch both matches at the same time… :)
@Stuart Collins: yeah its a shame that the biggest game of the weekend is on at the same time as the Leinster v Munster game. The URC actually does a good job avoiding fixture clashes, look at the Prem or Top 14 and there will normally be 4 games in each kick off 3pm Sat, thats over half that weekends games. For URC though different teams like different KO times, depending on geography and demographic. Ulster in a city like Fri 7.30pm KO. Scarlets being more rural perfer traditional sat 3pm KO. Add two teams share with football teams that take up every 2nd Sat. And I think the scheduling is pretty decent. Can’t all KO at prefered times.
@Kingshu: I’m going to assume your “biggest game of the weekend” comment is tongue-in-cheek. There’s no game bigger in the URC than Leinster v Munster. It’s the dominant team since the inauguration of the Celtic League/pro12/pro14/URC vs their biggest rivals, regardless of recent form.
@Kingshu: “biggest game of the weekend” love it :)
@Kingshu: Doesn’t matter anymore, literally every other game in the URC is bigger than Munster V Leinster now.
@thesaltyurchin: nah disagree.. Its bigger than ospreys vs scarlets..
@amusing_musings: Yeah Leinster V Munster is the biggest game this weekend without a doubt (because Sharks V Ulster cancelled). ;)
Needs to step up himself. Another one of them average players we have clogging up system.
For big strong guy, he goes missing in games. Not even good at dark arts or dirty work.
I’d say he hasn’t had man of match performance since joining. Leave the young lads at it now.
@Paddy Waggon: I thought he was motm last week but they gave it to carbery cos it was a big step up from the rubbish he had been playing. I’d imagine the majority of munster fans see kleyn as one of our most important players & rightly so
@Tim Magner: Why tho. What has he done. Specially in big games, he goes totally missing. Get that his strong horse and good in scrum . But just don’t get him. Awful hands to. But that’s just me, what do I know.
@Tim Magner: Probably the best scrummaging lock in the country. Handling skills could be better but he brings serious grunt.
@TL55: I think earlier in his career he had a few handling errors, I think now he has no issue at all. He was nuking lads at the ruck last week, that’s how we got so much quick ball. One of the biggest, most physical packs in the urc don’t get bullied unless a guy like kleyn is hammering them
@Paddy Waggon: you need to be at matches and follow a certain player for a few mins at a time when he doesn’t have the ball ( tv cameras always follow the ball) watch him hit rucks and first up tackles. It’s only when players like Klyen are not playing, you see what is missing.