Munster fear RG Snyman may have suffered 'significant' injury in victory over Scarlets

Snyman has missed a large part of the past 18 months with a serious knee injury and then undergoing skin graft surgery after getting burned in a fire pit incident

Sun, 10 Oct, 2021 - 17:22

Steffan Thomas

An understrength Munster side thrashed the Scarlets 43-13 in Llanelli but their win was soured by a potentially "significant" injury to South African second-row RG Snyman.

Snyman has missed a large part of the past 18 months with a serious knee injury and then undergoing skin graft surgery after getting burned in a fire pit incident. And after limping off in Llanelli, Munster look set to be without their marquee forward signing for another lengthy spell.

“It looked like it might be significant but I’m not going to comment on it until he’s gone for a scan,” said Munster head coach Johann van Graan.

“He’s a very important squad player for us in terms of what he brings. Hopefully, we get some good news but it’s difficult to say at this stage.

“After speaking to him in the changing room I’m pretty worried about it.

“If it turns out to be serious, he’s a phenomenal man and he will get through this. The battles that he’s gone through over the last 15 months not a lot of human beings can do that.”

Eyebrows were raised when Munster head coach Johann van Graan made 11 changes from the side which comprehensively beat the Stormers last weekend, with many front-line players rested. The Scarlets on the other hand welcomed back the majority of their British & Irish Lions contingent with Ken Owens, Gareth Davies, and Wyn Jones returning, but it didn’t bother Munster one jot. The Irish province totally outplayed the Scarlets outscoring Dwayne Peel’s side by six tries to one.

“We are very happy to get the win and especially the five points,” said Van Graan.

“We came here with a specific job in mind, and I think we executed our game-plan really well. It was really pleased with the way we defended, especially close to our line.

“We only conceded one try from a broken-field chip. I thought we scored some very good open-field tries and some excellent set-piece tries.

“I felt we deserved our lead at half-time and in the second half we spoke about consolidating and we kept going. I thought we did that really well.

“We coach these players every single day and we’ve been working on this project for the last five years. We are improving every single season and it doesn’t matter who takes the field they’ve got a responsibility to the shirt and to come away to Parc y Scarlets and get a five-point bonus point win was excellent.”

Munster’s forwards dominated the vast majority of the first half, and it took them a mere four minutes to score their first try with No.8 Jack O’Sullivan slicing through the Scarlets defence to touch down under the posts.

And Munster were soon over for their second when Calvin Nash raced past Evans, before drawing his man to put Liam Coombes over, with Ben Healy adding the extras. Then out of nowhere, the Scarlets hit from distance. An up-and-under from Matt Gallagher went loose before being gathered by Sam Costelow who raced through a gap before putting the Munster defence on the back foot with a smart cross-kick through. Scarlets full-back Johnny McNicholl won the foot race to touch down for a try which Costelow converted.

But the Scarlets defence was at sixes and sevens all afternoon, and Munster were able to find holes with ease. A terrific pass from Healy sent Nash clear with the wing acrobatically finishing at the far right-hand corner to give Munster a 22-13 lead at the interval.

Munster claimed the bonus-point try five minutes into the second half when loosehead prop Jeremy Loughman powered his way over from short-range. The Scarlets defence was a shambles with Coombes and player of the match Chris Cloete scoring late tries to seal the win.

Scorers: Scarlets: Try: J McNicholl 29; Conversion: S Costelow 30; Penalties: S Costelow 17, 34. Munster: Tries: J O’Sullivan 4, L Coombes 23, 59, C Nash 37, J Loughman 45, C Cloete 62. Conversions: B Healy 5, 25, 46, 60, 63; Penalty: B Healy 11.

Scarlets: J McNicholl; T Rogers, J Davies, S Williams (J Williams 27), S Evans; S Costelow (D Jones 65), G Davies (K Hardy 56); R Evans (W Jones 45), K Owens (R Elias 45), S Lee (W John 46), A Shingler, L Ashley, B Thomson, D Davis (E Evans 45), S Kalamafoni (T Price 50).

Munster: M Gallagher; C Nash, L Coombes, D Goggin, S Daly; B Healy (J Crowley 65), N Cronin (P Paterson 66); J Loughman (J Wycherley 64), D Barron (K O’Byrne 63), S Archer (S Archer 52), T Ahern (RG Snyman 52) (J Daly 62), F Wycherley, J O’Donoghue, C Cloete (A Kendellen 70), J O’Sullivan.

Attendance: 6,336.

Star man: Chris Cloete (Munster).

Referee: Ben Blain (Scotland).