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URC review: Snyman debut showing gets Leinster up and running, while Munster and Connacht dig deep

Updated / Monday, 7 Oct 2024 16:01
RG Snyman got stuck in on his Leinster debut
RG Snyman got stuck in on his Leinster debut

Three wins from three, 15 points from a possible 15, a double-World Cup winner bedded in, things couldn't be much better for Leinster.

Well, they are the bullet points.

But a closer look at the games suggests Leinster are not purring yet, and that’s no harm.

"We’ll have to get a hell of a lot better," said Leo Cullen after beating Edinburgh by two points on the opening day; "clunky" was how they described the victory over Dragons, while after Saturday’s 35-5 success at Benetton, during which they went 52 minutes without scoring, the head coach admitted they "lost our way a little bit".

The province have always had to juggle their significant resources at various points of the season due to having so many players on the national team, while the current Emerging Ireland tour took 12 players off their roster after round one. The above faults in performances have mitigating circumstances.

Indeed, in the long run, it’s arguably better for Leinster to have to battle for each point they gain.

Some put Leinster’s failure to win silverware for the last three seasons partly down to how easy they found life in the URC regular season.

Prior to last season they finished top of the table four years in a row with no second-place team closer than six points.

They do make a big deal out of how many players they use across the seasons but it can come at a cost.

"It's good in the long run to build good squad depth and keep everybody fresh and refreshed but it does come with a loss of momentum, I would say," Jacques Nienaber told RTÉ Sport last week.

It will be interesting to see if they attempt to streamline this season, using only who they have to when they have to and getting more intense game time into the matchday 23 for the latter stages of Europe.

Meanwhile, after teasing involvement for the last month, Leinster were able to give RG Snyman his debut and the giant lock played 50 minutes in Treviso, and was involved directly in their opening two tries.

"It is so good to be back out there and hit the field running and making my debut with all the other boys returning as well after international duty," said the South African.

"It was really fun out there. The legs are OK, it’s just the lungs that will need a bit of work but it’s probably expected coming back. It’s a work in progress, I’d say."

After a tough week of soul-searching at Munster, the province’s fans didn’t have to wait long in the lashing rain in Cork to see how the team would respond to the harrowing defeat in Parma.

Now, officially the fastest try the league has ever seen, Shay McCarthy’s effort in their 23-0 win over Ospreys was timed at 10:03 seconds, beating Edinburgh’s Dougie Fife against Connacht in 2018 by 0:15 of a second.

After getting something of a reputation as a sunshine side over the last year or so, it was heartening to see them dig one out, holding Ospreys scoreless in the event, during an orange weather warning.

However, their injury list (below) grows by the game and they have called back Sean O'Brien from the Emerging Ireland squad.

Still, Saturday’s game against Leinster in Croke Park will be an excuse-free zone for Graham Rowntree’s side and it looks like it’s going to be an intriguing early-season scene-setter.

Connacht so far this season have been appointment viewing.

They lost a ding-dong battle with Munster in round one by two points and then came back from 27-7 down at half-time to beat the Sharks.

They ran in three first-half tries against Scarlets on Friday night but that’s when the fun stopped.

First-time viewers tuning into the second half of their 24-23 win in Wales would have been wondering what all the fuss was about.

The game was punctuated by 24 penalties, two yellow cards, numerous scrums, resets and free-kicks, while, naturally enough, the majority of the replacements took place in the second half.

The mess at the scrums led referee Marius van der Westhuizen to warn the front rows after an hour: "Gents, the scrums are really poor, there is nothing I can do about it but penalise it."

Pete Wilkins’ side won the game late on thanks to a penalty from the nerveless Cathal Forde but it was a case of getting out of Scarlets with the four points and quickly turning the page.

Jacob Stockdale scores for Ulster

Elsewhere, Ulster will return from South Africa with just a solitary point from their games against the Lions and the Bulls, that picked up after scoring four tries in Johannesburg in round two.

Saturday’s 47-21 loss to the Bulls was predictable but head coach Richie Murphy forewarned pre-season that they expect a year of ups and downs as they negotiate their schedule with a young squad.

Murphy said: "We were outpowered in the set piece but I thought our boys stuck to the game, played some really good rugby at times, were disappointed not to come away with something, probably more likely to get a four try bonus-point than anything else but I’m not disappointed in our boys.

"You can see where we are in our development.

"We had a centre making his first cap (Ben Carson), our international centre pairing of James Hume and Stuart McCloskey are missing, our two international hookers, Rob Herring and Tom Stewart, are also missing so that’s a lot of experience that is outside of our team.

"But we are learning and growing. This experience against such a strong team, teams have come here with stronger teams out there than today and the same thing has happened in terms of being dominated at set piece."

The brightest point for the visitors was the performance of Jacob Stockdale.

The 2018 Six Nations player of the championship has slipped down the Ireland pecking order in recent seasons but rolled back the years to score a trademark try.

The 28-year-old beat nine defenders, made two clean breaks for 68 metres and got an offload in there as well. Andy Farrell will have taken note.

Watch Leinster v Munster in the URC on Saturday from 5pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on RTÉ.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to live commentary with Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1.

Follow the RTÉ Sport WhatsApp channel for the best news, interviews, analysis and features, as well as details of our sports coverage across all RTÉ platforms.

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