YESTERDAY, WE BROUGHT you news that 18-year-old South African tighthead prop Keynan Knox has linked up with Munster’s academy and it now transpires that another young South African player has joined the province’s ranks.
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Outside centre Matt More moved to Ireland late last year around the same time as Knox, having finished school in South Africa in December.
19-year-old More is also rated as a fine talent within South African rugby circles, having excelled for St. Andrew’s College in the Eastern Province region.
More played for the Eastern Province Country Districts provincial side at the 2016 Craven Week during his penultimate year in school, impressing at the famous underage competition, while he also received a call-up to the Eastern Province U19 team.
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This year, More was not eligible to play for the Eastern Province side at Craven Week, but he helped St. Andrew’s to a superb season in which they lost just two games.
A pacy, intelligent presence in midfield, 97kg and 6’2″ More scored a record-breaking 29 tries for the school in 2017, meaning he dotted down a remarkable 45 times in 43 games over the course of three years for St Andrew’s 1st XV.
It’s understood that a number of professional sides in South Africa were interested in More, including the Bulls, but he has instead made a move to Munster and is now training with the province’s academy alongside tighthead prop Knox.
More, who is also capable of playing at fullback, is not Irish-qualified. However, both More and Knox are understood to have arrived in Ireland in 2017, meaning they would potentially be able to complete a three-year residency period before the altering of World Rugby’s regulation to five years on 31 December, 2020.
With the two South Africans not being contracted to Munster’s full senior squad, they will not be counted among the province’s batch of NIQ players in the shorter term.
Qualifying the players for Ireland under the residency regulation is understood to be far from the thoughts of Munster at this point, as they assess the quality and potential of both young men.
- Clips via School Sport Live.
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