RG Snyman seems set to make his Leinster debut when Leinster face Benetton at the Stadio Comunale di Monigo on Saturday (5.15pm, Irish time). The double World Cup-winning Springbok international has recovered from a foot injury and took a full part in Monday’s training session.
Leinster senior coach Jacques Nienaber explained the circumstances that pertain to Snyman’s selection. “When we started his return to play date, if everything went 100 per cent and according to plan, we hoped that we could get him back for last weekend [for the Dragons match].
“From a medical point of view, they thought [to] give him a little bit more time [to] see how he copes. He was in the majority of the training last week and he was comfortable. They just wanted to gradually progress his load. He is in full training this week and trained well [on Monday].
“Hopefully the medics give us the all-clear. From a coaching point of view, he needs to fulfil our needs in terms of quality of training and what he brings in the training and then he needs to fulfil their needs in terms of the fact that he doesn’t get [fatigue] symptoms; then we can pick him.”
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James Ryan has started Leinster’s first two games and is unlikely to be asked to back up a third time, while young Conor O’Tighearnaigh is away with Emerging Ireland. Brian Deeny came on against Edinburgh and partnered Ryan against the Dragons, a game in which Joe McCarthy made a try-scoring cameo off the bench in his first appearance of the season.
Ryan Baird is an option for the secondrow if required, one of a plethora of Ireland squad members that will be available for the trip to Italy. Nienaber offered an interesting take on the “prodigals”. “This weekend, if we do get the majority of the internationals back, it will also be clunky.
“They haven’t played rugby for eight weeks. They won’t come in and play at the same level as against South Africa in Durban. If that performance from Frawls [Ciarán Frawley] in South Africa was an eight or nine-out-of-10 performance, then there is a good possibility that they will rock up with a six-out-of-ten performance [in Italy].
“We spoke about that as coaches this morning. That is the reality. You just have to go through that.” He made the point that there is an obvious bedding-in period in early season with a mix-and-match process in personnel, 33 used in just the first two matches, and that backs’ coach Tyler Bleyendaal will need some time to get players used to his ways.
“There are changes when new coaches come in. Last year with me coming in, the defence changed from what it looked like beforehand. Obviously with Tyler coming in, the attack will change from what it looked like beforehand. It doesn’t look like it yet, but it is in the process of being built.
“There have been two massive changes in terms of how you defend and how you attack that have happened in the last 10 months. That’s a big change for the squad.”
The presence of Leinster captain Caelan Doris in the coaching box for the Dragons victory was by design. It is something that Nienaber occasionally pursued at the Springboks with Siya Kolisi, Lood de Jager, Duane Vermeulen and Willie Le Roux.
He explained: “I think it’s good for him [Doris], and he was the first one, but we would probably like to have more players with us, it just gives them a different idea of how we see the game and how tense we are.
“Sometimes it looks perfect up there but it’s [a] nervous [environment]. You’re trying to find solutions, sometimes you disagree and sometimes you agree, so I think it’s just good for a player to have that transparency, to see how it operates; it’s not calm.
Nienaber was asked if Doris had more than a watching brief. “There’s certain things that he must look at so he’s not just sitting there to fill a seat; what I mean is it’s not for show.
“[We said to him] ‘listen, you’ve got to contribute, your role is you’ve got to look at this and we want feedback on it.’ There was a tactical thing that we wanted to change at half-time and asked for his feedback.
“Obviously as a player you get a certain sense of where the game is going, but up there you see it a lot different, a little bit more from our view, and it’s great to get his [view].”
Michael Milne came through the match without any adverse reaction to his ankle and is available for the Benetton, but Dan Sheehan, John McKee, Jack Boyle, Paddy McCarthy and Tommy O’Brien are all unavailable through injury.
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