Munster boss Graham Rowntree explains how he will react when he reunites with RG Snyman
Graham Rowntree admitted in December that it was a "huge surprise" to learn that RG Snyman was moving to Leinster. The World Cup winner will face Munster at Croke Park
It took him a while to get up and running after his latest injury set-back but RG Snyman is delivering the goods for Leinster.
Munster were sore to let him go in the summer but due to finances it came down to a choice between holding onto Snyman, who suffered two ACL injuries during his time with the Reds - including on his debut against Leinster - or keeping his South Africa team-mate Jean Kleyn.
In the end, Munster boss Graham Rowntree admitted it was a "huge surprise" to learn that Snyman had agreed a summer move to Leinster before Christmas and, after recovering from a foot injury, the 29-year-old World Cup winner started on his debut for the Blues against Benetton last week and got 50 minutes under his belt.
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He is expected to start against Munster on Saturday and Reds boss Graham Rowntree says he bears no grudges about losing the giant lock to his team's biggest rivals.
“I can’t wait to see him," said Rowntree. "A great man. I’ll shake his hand. That was business and he’s entitled to do what he wants and spend his career where he wants to. I look forward to shaking his hand.”
Meanwhile, Munster are expecting more of the same but also a different twist from Leinster at Croke Park. Rowntree has seen how the Blues have stuck to their guns at the start of the season with Jacques Nienaber's blitz defence.
"Stephen's Day in the rain last year, you could see the swarming, choking defence that Jacques had brought in," said Rowntree. "That's continued. On some occasions to a lesser degree, they're never off their feet. They're back to their feet, challenging the ruck, their work-rate."
But he is also aware that the arrival of ex-Munster No.10 Tyler Bleyendaal as Leinster's new attack coach in place of Andrew Goodman has added a new dimension to his side's fierce rivals.
"I can see Tyler, his imprint, on some of their phase attack, some of their plays," said Rowntree. "They're very good off launch. You don't want to give them a load of lineouts, because they're very good.
"It comes down to penalty access, they love mauls and breaking out of mauls. They've got great ways of challenging you around lineout, around that outside centre channel.
"Yeah, so it's going to be a hell of a challenge. If you're not going to get yourself up for this at Croke Park, when are you?".
Munster have plenty of experience of facing the blitz defence and, for 50 minutes in the Champions Cup at Exeter last season, they managed to effectively use the space that opens up playing that system.
"You have your 9 and your 10 to have the licence to take that space when they see it," said Rowntree. "They’re good at showing you space but then beat you back to it, Leinster more than any other team really, their scramble, the speed at which they can scramble back and work for each other is very impressive.
“There’s not many weaknesses in their game. You can over-obsess the opposition. We’ve got to get our game going, you know, how we’re going to get our ruck, our strike plays going, our scrum, our maul going, you need those factors in the game. And you have to be respectful of the opposition in those factors.
“That takes a lot of work in the week but you’ve got to respect what they’re bringing as well, and the opportunities they’re bringing.”
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