EXPERIENCED MUNSTER LOCK Jean Kleyn said taking on Leinster in Dublin remains one of the ultimate tests in rugby but the South African is looking forward to another crack at Leo Cullen’s men at Aviva Stadium.
And Kleyn, now in his seventh season with Munster, said the emergence of young Munster locks Edwin Edogbo and Tom Ahern is the future for them and typical of the talent starting to come through and make an impact.
“You look at a guy like Tom, I think he’s obviously a winger with a lock’s body, it’s ridiculous! He’s a backline player in a forward’s body which is always something exciting to see.
“From my perspective, it’s great to be playing with a guy like that because I can do all the dirty work and he can do all the beautiful looking things. He gets the praise in the media, I get the praise on Monday morning! I don’t mind that much.
A fella like Ed, I think I don’t have to say too much about him. He’s 19 years old, and starting against a team like the Bulls, he had some very dominant carries in the first half. He’s a big hitter, he’s a big boy and he’s only still young. There is a lot to be seen from him. In terms of depth at lock, we’ve a lot now coming up through the younger ranks, there is a lot to be looking forward to.”
The 29-year old, who has played 116 games for Munster and has been capped five times by Ireland, joined from the Stormers for the 2016/17 season and he fully appreciates the value and importance of the derby clash with Leinster.
“There is a long standing rivalry between us. It is one of the biggest challenges but you know beating them at home is something we all want to do so, look, we’re going to go out and do our best to impose our game and play our best and after that, we’ll see what happens.
“I’d say it’s probably still one of the ultimate tests in world rugby. For us, we’re very focused on ourselves, you always are conscious of the fact that it is Leinster, and it is in Dublin. Leinster in the Aviva, it’s one of the most exciting fixtures to play and the prospect of coming out and putting a performance in like we did against the Bulls makes you really looking forward to it and look forward to the potential of what we can produce.
“Coming home with the win there, will drastically shift what the log looks like. So for us as a team, the Bulls’ game, this week against Leinster and next week against Ulster are massive weeks for us because they are three of the top teams, and we could knock them down a few points each and bring ourselves up and the log starts looking drastically different, and all of a sudden our season doesn’t look the way it looked literally seven days ago,” he added.
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