7:04. Seven minutes, four seconds.
The clock, on the scoreboard, stood still as both RG Snyman and Dave Kilcoyne received treatment on the Aviva Stadium pitch. Both men had waited months upon months for rugby to return and had lasted less than 10 minutes into their first game back.
Neither man was able to play on. They were next spotted (on our TV screens) with an iced-up knee and in a moon-boot. Snyman had torn his Anterior Cruciate Ligament and Kilcoyne had damaged his ankle. The Munster and Ireland prop will be hoping to get back playing again soon. Snyman’s season is over already, though, and he will miss a chunk of 2020/21.
Munster fans has justifiably high hopes for the World Cup-winning Springbok. Clips would be shared widely of Snyman running amok in Japan’s Top League and of him doing damage for the Bulls (in South Africa) and in a Springbok jersey. His training sessions in Limerick – first in small pods, then in larger sessions – only cemented how smartly Johann Van Graan had recruited.
All eyes were on Snyman in his debut. He was sprung from the kick-off as he narrowly missed receiver Robbie Henshaw, he scrummaged well and, on seven minutes, he pounced to steal a Leinster lineout. It was a case of ecstasy to agony in seconds as the giant lock landed awkwardly and tore his ACL. 7:04 on the clock and that was all she wrote.
RG Snyman steals lineout ball ahead of Leinster’s Caelan Doris. (Credit: Sportsfile)Munster backs coach Stephen Larkham said, this afternoon, that the province would not seek a ‘short-term’ replacement for Snyman. They have Tadhg Beirne and Fineen Wycherley available for the Connacht game and Thomas Ahern, Paddy Kelly and Gavin Coombes got mentions too.
Munster hooker Niall Scannell was on the pitch when Kilcoyne and Snyman both hobbled off and he was understandably gutted. However, Scannell noted how Snyman’s attitude to the setback – one that may keep him out for up to nine months – was remarkably upbeat. He says:
“I texted RG on Monday and he told me the news, which was just really disappointing for him.
“I know the man is a monster and we’ve seen over pre-season that he’s a physical freak, but he’s a young man as well. And someone like me in the squad, who is getting kind of senior now, you’ve just got to recognise that as well. He’s come from halfway across the world. He’s a young guy who waned to put his best foot forward for Munster and now this has happened to him.
“You’d probably have to look after him more as a mate, at the moment. You can’t do anything for him as an athlete. He seems like such a positive guy, anyway. I’ve only known him a couple of months, but that’s great to see. He doesn’t seem to down about it and he’s going to tackle this.
“He was in the building for the first time today and we got around him, and consoled him, but he seemed so positive, which was brilliant. I just hope his rehab goes according to plan but obviously, as you know yourself, it’s just a disaster for him. That’s what I’d most focus on – he’s a young guy that was settling into the club and prove himself, and he was certainly doing that in the pre-season because some of the things I’d seen him do in pre-season were athletically freakish.”
On that gung-ho charge at Henshaw, last Saturday, Scannell remarked that ‘if Henshaw hadn’t stepped, I don’t know what would have happened to him’.
Scannell is now hopeful that Snyman can pass on some of his nous to the younger generation of Munster locks in the coming weeks and months.
