RG Snyman’s candid assessment on his reunion with Jacques Nienaber at Leinster
Double Rugby World Cup-winning second-row RG Snyman has opened up about his time with Irish heavyweights Leinster and being reunited with the province’s senior coach Jacques Nienaber.
Snyman made a shock move from arch rivals Munster during the off season and made his Leinster debut earlier this month against Benetton in Treviso.
The 29-year-old started that match and was also in Leinster‘s run-on side for their next two fixtures against Munster and Connacht, scoring a try in each of his last two appearances.
Snyman had a four-year stint at Munster but spent two significant periods on the sidelines during that time due to separate anterior cruciate ligament injuries.
Settling in nicely at Leinster
Despite those serious injuries, he is happy with how he has settled in at Leinster, who are currently at the top of the United Rugby Championship standings with a full house of 25 points amassed from their five matches played so far.
“The body’s feeling pretty good. I was quite sore after the Munster game,” he told RT? Sport. “It was a tough game, you know.
“It’s a game played at almost Test match level. A little bit sore after that, but the guys managed to get us back into good shape for last weekend’s game.”
After seeing 50 minutes of action in the clashes with Benetton and Munster before being replaced, Snyman had a 67-minute stint on the field against Connacht on their artificial pitch at The Sportsground in Galway.
He admitted that due to his injury record, he approaches matches on artificial pitches with some apprehension but once he takes to the field, he settles in quickly.
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“Yeah, you do (have some trepidation ahead of games). But once you step onto the field and once you get going, then it’s all systems go. You don’t really have time to think about what type of surface you’re playing on then.”
He revealed that he is enjoying his time with Leinster, particularly having a run of successive matches under the belt.
“The more games I get, the happier I am at this stage. It’ll be great.”
Snyman and Nienaber had great success in the international arena with the Springboks – winning back-to-back World Cups and a British & Irish Lions series together – and the behemoth lock admitted that he is delighted to be reunited with the coach.
“It’s great to be back working with Jacques,” he said. “It’s someone that I very much look forward to working with again because it’s just the way he goes about things and the way he inspires the team and talks to everyone.
‘He certainly gets the best out of me’
“He has a way of getting the best out of everyone. I know from obviously working with him in the past, he certainly gets the best out of me as well.
“So I’m very happy to be working with him again.”
Nienaber joined Leinster after the Boks’ World Cup triumph in France last year and Snyman said it was evident that the coach’s influence had already made an impact on the side when he arrived there.
“I think the work he’s done previous to me getting here has been great,” he said. “It feels like I’m slotting into a familiar system, but it’s not really that I have to tell anyone or that I have to give a lot of input.
“I think the guys really bought into it early. There’s not really much I can add other than stepping into a familiar system and pulling my weight there.”
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