RG Snyman: Springboks are world champions but Ireland are now world's best
THUMBS UP TO IRELAND: South Africa's RG Snyman after the 2023 Rugby World Cup Pool B match at the Stade de Marseille. Photo credit: Mike Egerton/PA Wire.
RG Snyman looked for all the world like a villain plucked from Hollywood central casting.
The giant Springbok had been asked if he was ready to break some Munster hearts this weekend and the menacing, if theatrical, laugh said it all.
“There’s a lot of my Munster teammates that we’re playing against,” he said at another point, “a lot of Leinster guys that we’re used to coming up against. Looking forward to the challenge, they’re No.1 so it’s going to be a good game.”
The imposing second row bears the look of a man who could slip seamlessly onto the screen for any series or film that features a longboat or a warrior with a horned helmet.
And that’s no accident. His is a look created with Viking mythology expressly in mind.
It’s a fascination that spills into his spare time where he has played the ‘Assassin’s Creed’ and ‘God of War: Ragnarok’ games.
Add in his love of Mongolian throat singing and it paints a picture of a unique individual who isn’t your common-or-garden rugby player.
This extends onto the pitch.
Snyman stands 6’ 9” and weighs in somewhere north of 18 stone but he possesses a skill set that might be more familiar from a lock wearing a black jersey than the green and gold - or the white kit they will wear against Ireland in Paris this weekend.
“Growing up, my dad always told me, ‘never let the ball die’. That’s what I try to do when I get on the field.
"The guys out there help me by running good lines because I sometimes throw a loose one and they’re in the right place to catch it.”
Snyman was a founder member of the Springbok Bomb Squad that did so much to claim the Webb Ellis in Japan four years ago and he has fulfilled the same brief so far in France with inputs off the bench against Scotland and Romania.
On Saturday, all going to plan, he will be one of seven forwards released from the sideline pen by Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber in the hope that they can maintain the sort of intensity that did for New Zealand in Twickenham and Scotland in Marseille.
The Boks have had their issues with injuries but they remain a prime contender for this World Cup.
In Ireland, they meet a side that has had their number more often than not this 20 years and that sits above them on the global rankings.
It’s impossible to over-egg this one.
“What they did up until now is a credit to them, they’re the No 1 team for a reason,” said the 28-year old giant from Potchefstroom. “The brand, the style of rugby, the team they put together, it says a lot.
“The previous two games they’ve played, I think they handled themselves really well, so I guess we are the world champions still, but it’s four years later and they’ve used those four years to get up to that number one spot. It’s going to be a good one.”
Any amount of subplots announce themselves this week. Among them is the style and the strategies.
The Boks say they are a more rounded side than the 2019 version but they still live their lives by the creed that big is better. Their bench split screams as much.
Ireland have evolved under Andy Farrell into a side that can deliver devastating attack plays but they depend to an enormous degree on solid set-pieces, ruck speed/dominance and a defense and discipline that few can match.
In that they still bear plenty of the trappings from the Joe Schmidt era.
Concerns that Ireland just weren’t wired to get the better of the most physically imposing of teams were addressed with their defeat of the Boks last November and by the win against France in the Six Nations but this is the only lab where results really matter.
“We’ve also got that confidence in our style of play and we’ll build on that,” said Snyman.
That he is here at all is no small thing. Two serious knee injuries have played havoc with his game time and ambitions with Munster and South Africa.
So much so that the 80 minutes he played against Wales last month were his first since 2019 in Japan.
He may be out to break Munster hearts this weekend but Snyman knows that he wouldn’t have the chance at all if it wasn’t for those at the club who continued to believe and invest in him at a time when he just couldn’t catch a break.
“It was difficult. I do have to give credit to the medical team at Munster and especially Ray McGinley who is one of the physios who was with me the whole time.
"We spent a lot of time together, but he really worked hard and gave me his best to get me back as soon as possible.
“It took some time, but from the fans’ perspective it’s great to be part of Munster.
"The fan-base is incredible, for them to show such patience and stick with me is something that says a lot about their character.”
It takes one to know one.
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