RG Snyman pushes his chair back from the table, his 6ft 9in frame requiring an aircraft exit seat kind of distance. The twice World Cup winner with South Africa may look one of the meanest players in the Champions Cup, with the Viking hair and tattoos, but there is an easy-going manner about the Leinster lock.
With James Ryan injured, Snyman has been getting his starts with Leinster. More importantly, the Springbok is enjoying a season where health matters are not the primary concern.
For Snyman, it has been a glorious spell and far from his Munster experience, where his first appearance lasted seven minutes after suffering an ACL injury. The infamous exploding Munster barbecue in 2020 caused substantial burns before another ruptured cruciate ligament conspired to limit his appearances for Munster to just 20 between 2020 and 2024.
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Settled in Ireland, Snyman was expected to stay with Leinster for one year but signed an extension last month that will keep him contracted throughout 2025-26, an agreement he gladly accepted. He turned 30 in January, which means a third World Cup medal in 2027 is not beyond the realms of possibility.
“Yeah, I’ve had a great season so far in terms of having fun and getting back to playing, getting some good minutes going and I’m really enjoying the environment,” he says. “I feel like this is where my game will continue to improve and continue to go well. So yeah, I’m very, very happy to stay on.
“So, please keep me honest if I start getting an accent. They’ve been looking after me very well. Honestly, just being in the team every week, being out at training, being able to get out on the field every weekend is great. It’s a little bit of a change of pace, I guess, for me, but it’s brilliant, and I’m really having fun.”
Before his spell in Munster, Snyman spent two seasons with Japanese team Mie Honda Heat either side of the 2019 World Cup. Moving around, experiencing different cultures and rugby styles, has been an important part of his journey from the Afrikaans-speaking region of Potchefstroom, where he grew up.
The variation of seeing and playing rugby with different coaches and players on different continents has given him additional tools to add to his imperious lineout ability and offloading game.
[ RG Snyman signs one-year extension to stay at LeinsterOpens in new window ]
“I think you analyse different teams, you play a different style of rugby and that obviously all contributes to the player I am now,” he says. “The biggest thing I found was working under different coaches and working with multiple people throughout seasons, like at the start when I did Japan over the Currie Cup season, I had a set of coaches at the Bulls and then a set of coaches in Japan, and then a set of coaches at the Boks.
“So, within one season, you kind of work under three different styles of coaching. You learn to be quite adaptable then and you obviously get three different perspectives around the game. I feel like that was definitely beneficial to me.”
There is also a dividend for Leinster, not only in the individual abilities of the people involved, but the exchange of ideas in the rainbow coalition of New Zealand coach Tyler Bleyendaal, All Black back Jordie Barrett, French prop Rabah Slimani and Māori scrumhalf Jamison Gibson-Park.
“It’s definitely something I’ve come to learn here in Ireland,” he says. “It’s very ... can’t think of the English word ... structured. Guys are a lot focused on that and then you kind of go into that pattern a little bit more.
“Obviously I’ve been in Ireland a little bit longer now and then when a guy like Jordie comes in, he looks at things a little bit differently as well. Even when Tyler comes in, he coaches a different style.
“So, he has maybe a bit more of a ‘look up, play what you see in front of you’. Or something like that. It’s only an example I’m using now, but I just think if you bring all those conversations and all of those points of view to the table, it makes the squad we have now, it obviously brings the best out of all of us.”
Young forwards have been punching through, the likes of Diarmuid Mangan and Alan Spicer, in advance of the visit of Glasgow to Dublin on Friday.
“I was excited to see Spicer make his debut. He’s obviously another big lock,” says Snyman. “Glasgow’s a very good side, very well coached and I think that the things they do on attack, there’s not many other teams that can replicate that or even come close.”
A little like the Leinster lock.
