BATH BOSS JOHANN van Graan hailed the impact of RG Snyman for Leinster during the Irish province’s 47-21 win in Dublin last night
Snyman was sprung from the Leinster bench early in the second half and showed his world-class ability, scoring two tries and making some sensational offloads.
Ex-Munster head coach van Graan was pleased with the part his Bath side played in what he felt was “some game of rugby” but pointed to the influence of Snyman as key in Leinster finishing strongly after trailing at half time.
“You all know how highly I rate him as a player, someone I signed at Munster and he’s now at Leinster,” said van Graan. “I thought he was phenomenal.”
Sadly for van Graan in his time at Munster, Snyman suffered an ACL injury on his debut in 2020 against Leinster, then re-ruptured the same ligament in 2021, meaning he barely played under his South African boss.
“The two of us go back a long way from when I started coaching him at school,” said van Graan.
“He’s got this ability to get the ball away. He’s got incredible hands and a natural feeling for the game, not to speak about his size and his hitting and his poaching and his lineout. But he kind of makes something happen out of nothing. He pulls in three, four, five defenders around him and I thought he was on fire tonight.
“That’s why I believe he’s one of the best players in the world.
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“He got injured when I was at Munster in the first seven minutes here [at the Aviva Stadium] and he re-did his ACL against the Scarlets, but I think people around the world are only starting to see how good he really is now.
“Fair play to Leinster for getting him and how good is it from his side that he’s got form? He’ll make a big difference for the rest of the season for Leinster. I can’t speak highly enough of him really.”
Van Graan had effusive praise for Leinster as an organisation too.
He believes that Leo Cullen’s side have a better chance of winning the Champions Cup this season than last season.
“Leinster are a very good side, you can see why they’ve got 23 of the 36 guys in the Irish national team. Adding Slimani and Jordie and RG to that, a phenomenal team.
“In my view, Leinster is – in terms of their pipeline – the best in world rugby. What they’ve done with their schools systems getting aligned into their academy. I mean, 23 players going into the Six Nations from this team and you add in some of the best players in the world. Slimani hadn’t played for the French for five-and-a-half years and all of a sudden, he’s back in the French picture.
“I don’t need to say anything more about RG and then Jordie Barrett is one of the best in the world. They are a phenomenal team, they’ve played in the last three finals, they’re unbeaten in the URC, so they can definitely win it.
“I just have to say that last season we went toe-to-toe with Toulouse for 70 minutes and tonight we went toe-to-toe with Leinster for 60 until we conceded that red card, so it’s also about us and where we’ve come from. I’ve got the utmost belief in what we’re doing as a club. We welcome days like today because we’ll learn about ourselves.”
Bath led 21-19 at half time against Leinster after scoring three excellent tries in which they managed to break down the aggressive Jacques Nienaber defence.
Van Graan said Nienaber is “an incredible defensive coach” and cited his influence on the Stormers and Springboks in the past, but Bath were pleased with some of their efforts last night against the Leinster defence.
Bath boss Johann van Graan. Ben Brady / INPHO
Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO
“It forces your attack to make decisions pretty quickly,” said van Graan. “We saw some natural space on the edges. I thought our first try was a great example of it, if you get quick ball and have a nine and 10 who can shift the ball pretty quickly, I thought we planned that in the week and created some good space.
“Tom de Glanville’s [second] try, we move the ball into space pretty quickly and Ollie had a one-on-one and got the ball away. With every defence and attack, there’s positives and negatives. They catch up incredibly well from the inside so you’ve got to give it to them.
“We saw some opportunities, we created some good chances and scored some phenomenal tries, but Jacques’ defence at Leinster is incredible.”
Bath were still in the game and trailing only 26-21 when loosehead prop Beno Obano was red-carded in the 60th minute for his second yellow card.
The first offence was a high tackle, but the second was for a scrum penalty and while van Graan underlined that he’s not a “controversial coach,” the decision clearly wasn’t one he totally understood.
“That was an interesting call in the middle of the pitch,” said the Bath boss.
“That’s tough on Beno. We’ll all stand by him, to get red-carded in that way and then look, it’s very difficult to contain Leinster when you’ve got 14 and they’ve got 15.”
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Van Graan hails 'phenomenal' Snyman impact for Leinster
BATH BOSS JOHANN van Graan hailed the impact of RG Snyman for Leinster during the Irish province’s 47-21 win in Dublin last night
Snyman was sprung from the Leinster bench early in the second half and showed his world-class ability, scoring two tries and making some sensational offloads.
Ex-Munster head coach van Graan was pleased with the part his Bath side played in what he felt was “some game of rugby” but pointed to the influence of Snyman as key in Leinster finishing strongly after trailing at half time.
“You all know how highly I rate him as a player, someone I signed at Munster and he’s now at Leinster,” said van Graan. “I thought he was phenomenal.”
Sadly for van Graan in his time at Munster, Snyman suffered an ACL injury on his debut in 2020 against Leinster, then re-ruptured the same ligament in 2021, meaning he barely played under his South African boss.
“The two of us go back a long way from when I started coaching him at school,” said van Graan.
“He’s got this ability to get the ball away. He’s got incredible hands and a natural feeling for the game, not to speak about his size and his hitting and his poaching and his lineout. But he kind of makes something happen out of nothing. He pulls in three, four, five defenders around him and I thought he was on fire tonight.
“That’s why I believe he’s one of the best players in the world.
“He got injured when I was at Munster in the first seven minutes here [at the Aviva Stadium] and he re-did his ACL against the Scarlets, but I think people around the world are only starting to see how good he really is now.
“Fair play to Leinster for getting him and how good is it from his side that he’s got form? He’ll make a big difference for the rest of the season for Leinster. I can’t speak highly enough of him really.”
Van Graan had effusive praise for Leinster as an organisation too.
He believes that Leo Cullen’s side have a better chance of winning the Champions Cup this season than last season.
“Leinster are a very good side, you can see why they’ve got 23 of the 36 guys in the Irish national team. Adding Slimani and Jordie and RG to that, a phenomenal team.
“In my view, Leinster is – in terms of their pipeline – the best in world rugby. What they’ve done with their schools systems getting aligned into their academy. I mean, 23 players going into the Six Nations from this team and you add in some of the best players in the world. Slimani hadn’t played for the French for five-and-a-half years and all of a sudden, he’s back in the French picture.
“I don’t need to say anything more about RG and then Jordie Barrett is one of the best in the world. They are a phenomenal team, they’ve played in the last three finals, they’re unbeaten in the URC, so they can definitely win it.
“I just have to say that last season we went toe-to-toe with Toulouse for 70 minutes and tonight we went toe-to-toe with Leinster for 60 until we conceded that red card, so it’s also about us and where we’ve come from. I’ve got the utmost belief in what we’re doing as a club. We welcome days like today because we’ll learn about ourselves.”
Bath led 21-19 at half time against Leinster after scoring three excellent tries in which they managed to break down the aggressive Jacques Nienaber defence.
Van Graan said Nienaber is “an incredible defensive coach” and cited his influence on the Stormers and Springboks in the past, but Bath were pleased with some of their efforts last night against the Leinster defence.
“It forces your attack to make decisions pretty quickly,” said van Graan. “We saw some natural space on the edges. I thought our first try was a great example of it, if you get quick ball and have a nine and 10 who can shift the ball pretty quickly, I thought we planned that in the week and created some good space.
“Tom de Glanville’s [second] try, we move the ball into space pretty quickly and Ollie had a one-on-one and got the ball away. With every defence and attack, there’s positives and negatives. They catch up incredibly well from the inside so you’ve got to give it to them.
“We saw some opportunities, we created some good chances and scored some phenomenal tries, but Jacques’ defence at Leinster is incredible.”
Bath were still in the game and trailing only 26-21 when loosehead prop Beno Obano was red-carded in the 60th minute for his second yellow card.
The first offence was a high tackle, but the second was for a scrum penalty and while van Graan underlined that he’s not a “controversial coach,” the decision clearly wasn’t one he totally understood.
“That was an interesting call in the middle of the pitch,” said the Bath boss.
“That’s tough on Beno. We’ll all stand by him, to get red-carded in that way and then look, it’s very difficult to contain Leinster when you’ve got 14 and they’ve got 15.”
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