Quinn Roux understands luckless Munster star Snyman’s pain

RG Snyman of Munster leaves the pitch after picking up an injury during the Guinness PRO14 Round 14 match between Leinster and Munster at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Picture: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

Quinn Roux can relate to RG Snyman's predicament better than most as his fellow South African mulls over a torn ACL suffered just months into his new life in Ireland and only seven minutes into his new gig with Munster.

Johann van Graan feared the worst as soon as his gargantuan lock fell awkwardly to the floor from an early lineout during the province's Guinness PRO14 encounter with Leinster at the Aviva Stadium last Saturday.

The head coach described the issue as “pretty serious” at full-time and how right he was. A club statement this morning confirmed the fact that it was an ACL tear and the 25-year old will now meet a specialist to discuss surgery and a rehab programme.

It's rotten luck and Roux has more than an inkling as to how it will feel.

The Connacht lock had already graduated from the Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool in the Pretoria suburbs when Snyman arrived and he pre-empted the 2019 World Cup winner again, this time by eight years, when he arrived in Ireland to play for Leinster and found himself tormented by injury.

Or two, in his case.

There was the broken collarbone picked up in only his second appearance for Leinster, against Connacht, in September. That was followed by the dislocated shoulder he suffered on his first game back from injury, against Glasgow two months later.

It was another four months before Roux was fit again. Not the start he needed as a 22-year old brought over from South Africa with a view to filling the rather large and daunting holes left in the province's second row by the recent losses of Nathan Hines and Brad Thorn.

His career with Leinster never fully got going after that but he has spent the last six years in Galway where injuries have continued to be intermittent pests: not least in the past year when he has been unable to build on some excellent form and a dozen Irish caps.

“Yeah, I had a good few injuries in my first year at Leinster but I was lucky enough to end up winning two medals (PRO12 and Challenge Cup) at the end of the year and being involved in all that so that was the silver lining for me,” he recalled.

Snyman can only hope for a similar high come next summer.

“If you come over to a new team you really want to impress them, especially with guys like RG who had a massive expectation around him because of what he did at the World Cup.

"So it's hugely disappointing for someone with that quality to get injured after seven minutes and not being able to add the value that is expected of him.

It is hard being injured when you are a new member of the squad.

Munster will hold a media briefing today when Snyman's situation will be an obvious topic of interest. The province are also absorbing the losses to injury of Jean Kleyn, who picked up a neck ligament injury against Leinster, and prop Dave Kilcoyne (ankle).

Both have been ruled out “for the immediate future”.

The situation in their second row is particularly concerning ahead of the weekend's Guinness PRO14 meeting with Roux's Connacht at the Aviva Stadium and the subsequent league playoffs, given Tadhg Beirne had already sat out the Leinster fixture and is only just back in training.

A heavy load is about to fall on the experienced Billy Holland and Fineen Wycherley, the latter having himself returned to training this month after a thigh problem earlier. Thomas Ahern and Paddy Kelly have been training with the seniors of late too. Just as well.

Snyman's misfortune will cause others headaches too.

It remains to be seen if a rejigged Rugby Championship can still be hosted in New Zealand this year given the resurgence in Covid-19 cases around Auckland but Snyman would have been a shoo-in for Jacques Nienaber's Springbok squad, all going well.

It was reported that the former Munster assistant has plans to use an extended South African squad in the competition on the basis that most of his players will have far less rugby under their belts than their Kiwi and Wallaby counterparts.

The South African Super Rugby franchises did not return to play like their cousins on either side of the Tasman over the summer due to the numbers of coronavirus cases, a fact which would only have made European-based players such as Snyman all the more valuable.