Craig Casey 'can't really blame' RG Snyman for wanting to remain in Irish rugby 

NO HARD FEELINGS: Munster’s RG Snyman, Craig Casey and Jean Kleyn celebrates with the URC Trophy. Pic: ©INPHO/James Crombie

RG Snyman’s decision to sign for Leinster next season may have caught his Munster co-workers by surprise but team-mate Craig Casey bears the South African lock no malice.

The double World Cup-winning forward will depart Munster after four injury-blighted years with the province after being told by head coach Graham Rowntree last month there would not be a contract for him next season now his fellow second row Jean Kleyn had become a Springbok international.

Kleyn had previously qualified for Ireland on residency and was capped by former national boss Joe Schmidt at the 2019 World Cup. 

After four years out of the Test picture he was snapped out up by the land of his birth and joined Snyman in South Africa’s successful title defence in France this autumn. Unfortunately for Munster that made Kleyn, like Snyman, a non-Irish qualified players (NIQ) and the URC champions could not keep both beyond the current campaign.

Leinster, with former South Africa head coach Jacques Nienaber now on the coaching ticket, wasted little time in persuading Snyman, 29 next month, that he could remain in Irish rugby and made the announcement they were signing Snyman on Tuesday.

"I was surprised,” Casey said yesterday as Munster looked ahead to their St Stephen’s night derby clash with Leinster at Thomond Park. 

“At first there was a bit of surprise but then, I suppose, you've got to see the human side of it as well.

"Him and his wife had settled well here in Ireland and in fairness he's happy out here, so you can't really blame him on the human side.” 

Snyman’s desperately unlucky injury profile, which has restricted him to just 10 appearances since joining from Japan’s Honda Heat in the summer of 2020 and will keep him sidelined until March, means he has been spared much of the slagging he might have expected from the Munster team-mates he will leave behind at the end of the season.

Casey confirmed the mickey-taking had been kept to a minimum, though he raised a metaphorical eyebrow at the timing of Leinster’s signing announcement.

"Ah, a tiny bit to be fair but I suppose RG is on a separate programme at the minute with the rehab so you don't see too much of him, he's not in and around the squad training and stuff like that.

"He's doing his own thing and getting back on the field so hopefully he can have a big impact for the rest of the season with us and I think that's his goal at the minute, and that's all he's focused on.

"I know he said that in his statement yesterday, he's focused on finishing the season on a high, so that's his goal and we'll be happy to send him off well, hopefully.” 

As for the upcoming derby, Casey added: "It does it need more spice than it already has? I don't think it does, really, to be honest. I don't think that will be carried onto the pitch at all.

"For the week to be announced as well, he timed it well to announce it! But it won't add any more spice than there already is, I don't think.

Casey was not the only Munster colleague caught on the hop by Snyman’s announcement. Graham Rowntree too admitted he was surprised by the lock’s decision.

The head coach admitted had been taken aback by the revelation but did not blame the player for joining Munster’s oldest and fiercest rivals.

“Yeah, I'm not going to lie, a huge surprise,” Rowntree said.

“Obviously I wasn't fully aware of where he was going, I knew there was chat of him going to Bath to see my old mate and his former coach Johann (van Graan). There was chat of him going back to South Africa, but I was surprised, yeah.

“It's a business, this, isn't it? I sat down with him in the first week of November, and said there wasn't a contract for him, unfortunately. Within a couple of weeks this news is upon us that he's gone to Leinster. There we go, we deal with it, we row on.

“I have no doubt in his commitment to us to the end of the season. I've already seen that in the last couple of days in particular, I've no doubt about that commitment but it is what it is.” 

 Asked if he had been left frustrated that having been forced to release Snyman under IRFU guidelines around NIQ quotas and yet the 6ft 9ins lock had been allowed to sign for another province, with the governing body providing the green light for the move, Rowntree replied: “I'm not frustrated, no. We can't determine where he goes.

“I'm the bloke sitting in front of him saying there wasn't anything for him. We can’t determine where he goes. It's not like we've been outbid by Leinster. We had nothing for him. That's business.

“I'm quite able to move on, I have more things consuming my mind at the moment that this. There we go.” Bordeaux-Begles’ apparent interest in signing fly-half Joey Carbery next summer appears to be another issue on the head coach’s desk right now. Carbery, signed from Leinster in 2018 but having lost both his place in the Ireland squad and occupancy of the Munster number 10 jersey to Jack Crowley in the last 12 months, is out of contract at the end of the season but Rowntree yesterday was reluctant to further that particular line of conversation.

“Look, you’re not catching me on that one,” Rowntree said. “There’s always lots of contract negotiations ongoing. It would be inappropriate for me to comment on an ongoing negotiation.”