URC Rd 5: Connacht 12 Leinster 33
No rugby match is ever about one player. But RG Snyman bestrode this game like a colossus. The gamble on his fitness is already looking well placed, for when fit and healthy, as befits a dual World Cup winner, the 29-year-old lock truly is world-class.
His aerial skills and strength in the carry are one aspect of his play, but Snyman’s offloading ability have added another dimension to Leinster’s game. The increased emphasis on tackle height has accentuated his ability to take a double hit and keep his right hand free to play the ball out of the tackle.
His uncontainable offloading was like watching daddy playing mini-rugby with the kids. Often, as with that ridiculous one-handed lineout take in Croke Park, there was an audible gasp when one of Snyman’s offloads were shown again on the big screen.
His nonchalant pick-up and one-handed dot town for Leinster’s third try against Connacht fell into that category, bringing a hushed and, one suspects, slightly awed silence over the 6,117 sell-out crowd. Leinster had less territory and made way more tackles, 176, while somehow being credited with 30 missed tackles.
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But that Snyman finish, on top of earlier walk-ins by Jamie Osborne and Liam Turner, emphasised that, as against Munster a week ago, Leinster may have less of the game in the 40 or so metres either side of halfway, but when it comes to the red zone they are the masters. They also made 16 offloads to Connacht’s eight, and as if to neatly sum up the point of difference Snyman has become, he made eight of those.
“When there’s three tacklers and he still gets an offload away, that’s when you think it’s hard to swallow,” admitted the Connacht lock Joe Joyce. “That’s my opposite number. We’ve lost at home and he’s got man of the match and sometimes it’s hard to accept that there are world-class opponents in your position.
“He’s a special player, he’s a freak,” added Joyce, in the best possible taste, “and he managed to get the ball away all the time tonight, didn’t he?”
Snyman’s beaming smile has also become a feature of Leinster’s last three wins on the spin, for what’s striking is how much he is evidently enjoying himself.
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“Yes, having a lot of fun,” he admitted to reporters afterwards. “Something we spoke about through the week, it’s obviously a tough place to come and play but the main thing is to have a bit of fun out there as well.
“It’s good to be back on the field and everything’s going well at this stage for us. We’re playing well, I’m settling into the group a bit more and it’s good to get ball in hand and just go and live out every little bit of talent I have out there, you know?”
Ironically, a minor leg injury cut short his Rugby Championship campaign with the Springboks, but the silver lining was acclimatising himself sooner with Leinster.
“I think the environment here is quite unique in that there’s so many international players at one club, so the standard would naturally be a lot higher, but it’s good to be in such an environment the whole time. Every week, I think it just brings the best out in everyone.”
Only the most curmudgeonly would not wish Snyman continuing good health after those two cruel ACL injuries in his four seasons with Munster, which also prompted them to release him shortly after the World Cup.
“It was obviously a bit of a difficult time because we really wanted to stay [in the country],” Snyman said of himself and wife Saskia, who works in Ireland. “So when the offer from Leinster came through, it was a nice blessing for us. For a foreign player, playing for Leinster doesn’t happen that often so it’s something special and definitely something that I cherish, because I know not many guys that’s not from here get that opportunity.”
While restricted game time over the last four seasons must make his form for Leinster an impossibly tough watch for supporters in red, Snyman was perfectly entitled to accept Leinster’s offer after being released by Munster.
“That’s 100 per cent the truth but I think the guys understand it very well, the [Munster] players. The way the fans and people on the outside will react is another thing, but you have to embrace that all the same. Obviously, if you do certain things, you expect certain outcomes but it’s embracing it. That’s the thing.”
The booing from some of the Red Army in Croke Park when he was replaced probably emanated in part from that beaming smile after scoring Leinster’s bonus-point try on half-time, and maybe some chiding from Leinster supporters.
It was both understandable and totally unmerited, while evidently water off a duck’s back.
“I guess it was where you were seated. Where I walked off, to be honest with you, I experienced the cheer because I looked up and it was mostly Leinster fans sitting on that side of the stadium. It was all positive. It was only afterwards that some of the guys who were on the other side of the pitch came to me and said, ‘Are you okay? We’re with you’ but to be honest, I very much enjoyed all the reactions from the crowd and how they got involved.”
So what was the try celebration against Connacht about, as if scraping the ball off his bear-like one-handed grip?
“I couldn’t really get the ball out of my hand. I was just trying to get rid of it. I’m very aware of the shot clock,” he quipped.
He’s enjoying himself heartily all right.
SCORING SEQUENCE – 6 mins: J Osborne try, Frawley con, 0-7; 16: Turner try, Byrne con, 0-14; 34: O’Brien try, 5-14; 39: Snyman try, Byrne con, 5-21; (half-time 5-21); 46: Deegan try, 5-26; 65: Forde try, Ioane con, 12-26; 66: A Osborne try, Byrne con 12-33.
CONNACHT: Piers O’Conor; Shayne Bolton, David Hawkshaw, Bundee Aki, Santiago Cordero; Josh Ioane, Ben Murphy; Denis Buckley, Dave Heffernan, Finlay Bealham; Joe Joyce, Darragh Murray; Cian Prendergast (capt), Seán O’Brien, Paul Boyle.
Replacements: Peter Dooley for Buckley, Jack Aungier for Bealham, Niall Murray for Joyce (all 52 mins); Dylan Tierney-Martin for Heffernan, Sean Jansen for O’Brien, Caolin Blade for B Murphy (all 56); Hugh Gavin for Cordero (59); Cathal Forde for Hawkshaw (62).
LEINSTER: Hugo Keenan; Liam Turner, Garry Ringrose, Jamie Osborne, Andrew Osborne; Ciarán Frawley, Jamison Gibson-Park; Jack Boyle, Gus McCarthy, Rabah Slimani; RG Snyman, James Ryan (capt); Max Deegan, Will Connors, James Culhane.
Replacements: Ross Byrne for Frawley (17 mins); Andrew Porter for Boyle, Thomas Clarkson for Slimani (h-t); Scott Penny for Connors (59); Brian Deeny for Snyman (66); Stephen Smyth for McCarthy, Fintan Gunne for Gibson-Park (both 70); Hugh Cooney for Turner (73).
Referee: Eoghan Cross (IRFU).
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