Andrew Porter on RG Snyman: 'He's like the bigger Viking, I'm the smaller Viking'
Andrew Porter during Leinster training. Pict: ©INPHO/Tom Maher
RG Snyman’s Leinster career stretches to just 51 minutes so far and, if he has the chance to confirm himself as a fan favourite this Saturday against his old Munster teammates at Croke Park, then Andrew Porter is already a paid-up admirer.
Porter was all in even before Snyman’s debut away to Benetton last week and it’s not hard to imagine why. Snyman has modelled his look on characters from the Assassin’s Creed and God of War: Ragnarok video games. Porter wouldn’t look out of place in either.
Musical tastes make for more shared ground. Porter’s heavy metal leanings for the likes of Pantera and Metallica is taken even further by the South African who professed a love for Mongolian throat singing during the last World Cup.
“Myself and RG have a lot more in common than I thought,” Porter smiled. “Music tastes! He’s like the bigger Viking and I’m the smaller Viking. He is an incredible lad, a well-decorated rugby player with two World Cups.
“He has an incredible rugby IQ, he’s incredibly smart and a bright rugby player as well. He is bringing something very special to this team. You are bringing a different perspective and with his physical attributes that’s a good advantage to us.
“It adds more beef to the pack. He is a great bloke on and off the field and everyone knows how skilful he is. He’s not one of those players to shove the ball up the jersey, he can throw it around as well.”
That offloading game was embedded into Snyman’s psyche by his father who stressed that the ball should never be allowed to die. It’s a powerful weapon in a man standing 6’ 9” and weighing in the region of 20 stone.
Porter isn’t exactly a lightweight himself.
His input for Leinster and for Ireland has been of enormous value ever since he emerged on the scene eight years ago. The 25 games he played for club and country last season only paint the most incomplete of pictures.
He has actually played more than that in five of the previous seven campaigns – the peak being 29 runs in 2018/19 – but Porter is routinely asked to clock in for longer shifts than your average prop.
Think, for instance, of the 92 minutes he managed against Toulouse last May. That in mind, he returned from South Africa in the summer in remarkably good nick.
“My finger was half hanging off from the first Test. Sure I got that operation done the night of the first Test, to try and put me back together again. That was really the only thing. Given the length of the season you are carrying knocks towards the end.
“They pile up after a while and you try to manage yourself and try to bring the best of yourself in those end-of-season games and on tour. Coaches know how to train smart at that stage, they know they don’t have to be flogging you.
“It’s a case of looking after you. You do look forward to your time off when the season is that long. I definitely enjoyed my time off on the beaches of Sardinia but ready to get back into it now and rearing to go.”
That finger is worth lingering on, although not for the squeamish.
“I had pictures of it. I dislocated it and it was hanging off, pointing sideways. I think I caught it on someone’s shorts and I knew it was dislocated before I even looked at it because I have dislocated the rest of my fingers, that is why they all look mangled.
“It was down there [at right angles] when I looked at it and then I could see the whole inside of my hand. Everyone back home thought I had broken my arm because I was looking down in shock. I had never seen the inside of my hand before.
“It was more the shock, it wasn’t that sore. I opened my hand and it snapped back up, back into position. I went off, got three stitches, they taped it up and came back on. I was in surgery that night to get it cleared up, stitched up again and then played the next week.”
All those games and minutes seem like no bother to him. Porter can joke about what all this might do for his longevity but follows it up by lionising the IRFU’s player welfare system and the medical staff that keep them in such shape.
Still only 28, he probably hasn’t reached what is considered the peak years for a prop but, if there is still the prospect of many years still to come, then he is aware that occasions like Saturday’s against the old enemy at GAA HQ don’t come around too often.
“It’s hard not to think of the game in 2009. Being at that, it’s hard not to relive those memories. I remember being in the stands watching that, so it is even more special to be playing in it. You never know how many games you are going to play in Croke Park.
“It’s such a special stadium and you have to seize the opportunity when you do given the history and the cultural importance of it to the whole of Ireland. It’s incredibly special as a stadium and a privilege to be able to play there.”
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