Kleyn hoping Munster efforts will earn Ireland opportunity

While Joe Schmidt has second-row forwards of the calibre of James Ryan, Devin Toner, Iain Henderson, and Tadhg Beirne at his disposal, injury to any of the quartet could leave a gap in the Irish squad heading for Japan.

The news this week that Henderson is unlikely to play for another three months because of a thumb injury emphatically makes that point.

Jean Kleyn joined Munster in August 2016 and will be eligible to play for Ireland in the World Cup in Japan next September and October.

The 25-year-old, 6ft 8in, 19-stone native of Krugersdorp, South Africa, prefers to let his performances in the red jersey speak for themselves but after extending his provincial contract by three years in September, to at least June 2022, he confirmed that he “would love to play for Ireland”.

This week, Kleyn spoke fondly of how he has embraced life in Ireland since arriving in 2016 following a series of outstanding performances with the Stormers in Super Rugby and in winning the Currie Cup with Western Province.

“I’m here now two years and four months and it doesn’t feel like it,” he smiles.

“Life is brilliant and I’m really enjoying it. I live just outside of Limerick about five or 10 minutes away from work every day. I’ve got a good network of friends. Irish people are among the friendliest in the world so you’re welcome when you arrive and it’s a very sincere welcome.”

‘JK’, as he is known by just about everyone in the Munster camp, is as popular with his teammates as he clearly is with the Red Army.

A laid-back approach to life off the pitch is countered by total commitment once he goes into rugby action with his powerful ball-carrying, line-out expertise and unflinching defensive resistance establishing him as an invaluable member of the squad.

He has suffered his own fair share of injury. Back in South Africa, he missed considerable game-time due to knee, ankle and arm problems, while neck trouble in 2017 and wrist and thumb damage since arriving in Munster have frustrated attempts to produce his very best rugby.

“It has been a tough few weeks,” he admits to his recent thumb injury.

For some reason, I always seem to get injured before this block of matches so I’m very glad to be back and looking forward to being part of the team again. Every game is the game you want to play.

"As rugby players, if you let us, we’d play every week because we’re very competitive and enjoy the challenge.

“Now this week we’re going to Ulster who are on the back of two bonus-point wins in Europe and are in flying form. Their set-piece has been working well and their attack has been going very well.

"But we’ll do our review on them and try to exploit some of the weaknesses and try to plug the holes we saw in our defence last week.

“We’ll probably rest a good few international lads and pick a very hungry team going out to prove a point. If we can get a victory up there, we’ll be rolling into a good week against Leinster and after that against Connacht.”

Munster players will be happy to put last week’s defeat to Castres to the back of their minds and Kleyn is no exception.

“You go and play a European Cup game away from home and it’s always going to be tough. Castres showed up. It was tough watching and a disappointing result.

"I would love to have been involved, the European Cup is the highest level of rugby you can play after international rugby. I find I enjoy playing the French teams because it’s always a little more physical and niggly.

"We could have won but we didn’t and that’s done now. This is a new week with new challenges and we’ll worry about the European Cup when it comes around again.

“You get to this time of year, you see the depth of the squad coming through.

"We’ve got a lot of young players coming in and it’s a very good opportunity for them to put their hands up and say, look, I’m ready to get to European Cup level.

"We’ve got guys like Fineen Wycherley who has had his first two European Cup caps and I thought he did very well and is a very up-and-coming player.”