LAST UPDATE | 30 Jan

MUNSTER LOOK SET for a big boost heading into the business end of the season with double World Cup winner RG Snyman set for an early return to action in the coming weeks.

There were fears that Snyman, who was 29 on Monday, would miss the bulk of Munster’s season after undergoing surgery for a chest/shoulder injury picked up winning his second World Cup medal.

An updated return date of March emerged over Christmas but Munster head coach Graham Rowntree today said they hope to have the 6’9” lock back in February, either against Scarlets on the 16th or in the friendly away to Harlequins a week later.

Snyman, who is joining Leinster in the summer after an injury-ravaged spell that has seen him play just 10 games since his debut in 2020, has not played for Munster since coming on in the URC final win over the Stormers last May.

“He trained today,” said Rowntree. “His return is going to be a bit sooner potentially than the Zebre game. I think we’ll see him in February, exactly when I’m not sure. He’s certainly encouraging me, he’s doing a lot more in training.”

Rowntree said they have all come to terms with Snyman’s shock move to Leinster next summer and that it’s now a matter of what he can do for Munster for the remainder of the season as they try to defend their URC crown as well as meet Northampton Saints in the last 16 of the Champions Cup.

 “What’s done is done, this is business,” added Rowntree. “He’s made his decision, I’m interested to see what he does for Munster for the rest of the season.

“I’m sure he’ll give it his all. He’s been thoroughly professional and diligent around the group since his news broke and I expect nothing less from the guy, he’s been quality for us.”

Snyman moved to Thomond Park in the summer of 2020 but two long-term knee injuries have kept him sidelined for the majority of his time in Limerick. .

To date, Snyman has played just 10 games for Munster and the 29-year-old told the Rugby Pod that his Munster teammates were understanding when he informed them in December that he would soon be moving up the M7.   

“That was a bit of a tough one, especially breaking it to the guys and telling them, it was a tough thing for me to have to do but in the end no one was really upset with me about it, no one in the building,” he said. 

“The guys were actually very understanding of it and I guess it’s very professional on their side too to understand it because it could have gone the other way and, yeah, I think that would have been difficult for me.”  

It was put to Snyman that there was talk of him possibly going to Bath or, similar to a lot of South African players, Japan, so was the presence of Jacques Nienaber at Leinster key to him staying in Ireland?    

“The fact that Jacques is there played a big role for me going to Leinster,” he said. “We’ve really enjoyed our time in Ireland, myself and my wife, and she’s got a job here.

“We’ve really come to like it here so it was a difficult decision to make but it was an easy one for the two of us, to be able to stay in Ireland and just head up the road to Dublin and go and play with Leinster, and obviously Leinster, their reputation speaks for itself, and then you throw the fact that Jacques was there on top of that and it only makes sense. It was a bit of a tough one telling the boys.” 

On Nienaber, he said: “In certain cases you get great coaches who understand the game really well and they push that side of things, but they miss maybe a bit of the human element of things.

“And on the other side you sometimes get coaches who, you know, they just want to be your friend but they lack a bit of the rugby knowledge and I think that’s where Jacques is such a special guy.

“He actually looks at the individual as well as trying to better the guy as a rugby player. And I think that’s why guys have so much respect for him, because you don’t feel like you’re just another number to him. He actually looks at you and he makes you believe in what he does and what he stands for, you know, and that just brings the best out of everyone.”