Is there a way to stop RG Snyman?
Well, Sharks lock Jason Jenkins knows it’s a tough ask, but the Durbanites will have to find a way to halt the Springbok giant in Saturday’s United Rugby Championship showdown against Leinster in Durban.
John Plumtree’s team were quite fortunate to hold out for a 35-34 victory over Zebre at Kings Park last weekend, and will have to improve considerably if they hope to knock over the Irish outfit on Saturday (7.15pm start).
And their first target should be Snyman, who was increasingly influential the longer the game went on for Leinster in their 21-20 loss to the Bulls in Pretoria last weekend.
Jenkins will know Snyman well, having played alongside him at the Bulls and Munster over the years.
But the 29-year-old from Pretoria’s departure from Leinster last season saw Snyman moving from Limerick to Dublin, and he will loom large once more at Kings Park on Saturday night.
Asked by Independent Media on Tuesday if there is a secret to keeping Snyman quiet on the pitch, Jenkins said: “No, I think there’s no secret! Everyone here has played with or against him at some point in their career.
“So, we know what type of a threat he poses.
“But all you can do is tackle low and hard – there’s not much else! It’s just another body coming in front of you.
“So, we have to play what’s in front of us. But he’s definitely an incredible playmaker for them, and a physical player. We’re really looking forward to that challenge.”
Jenkins would’ve been disappointed to miss out on the Springbok alignment camp, after moving back to South Africa this season.
But the one-Test-capped second-rower is thriving at the Sharks.
“I wasn’t invited to the Bok camp, so it’s obviously something I still strive for and work towards. But at this stage, my full focus is at the Sharks. I enjoy it so much. Here are different conditions – nice and warm, and the humidity,” the ex-Bulls lock said.
“But I enjoy it thoroughly, and we have a really good group of guys together. You can see this season in terms of the results; it shows that we are in a good place on the log in fourth position.”
Jenkins will hope to come up with another big display against his former team on Saturday, but has urged his team to avoid the mistakes that allowed Zebre to pull off an upset at the weekend.
The fourth-placed Sharks are also chasing the Bulls on the URC log, with the Pretoria side just a point ahead on 45.
Leinster may also call on a few Irish Six Nations stars that were rested last weekend, with one media report stating that veteran prop Cian Healy was already in Durban.
“We don’t need to change too many plans. We’ve had a good two days of training. It’s always nice if you can learn while still winning. Obviously we made it really hard for ourselves, and I think we just need to be more accurate,” he said.
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“We had a good review on Monday morning, and I think it’s small fix-ups that make a big difference at the end of the day.
“I think it’s just to stay with the plans that we have, and to carry it out. I think that’s what we battled with at the weekend – we had a plan in place, but we just didn’t carry it out like we wanted.
“We saw (from the Bulls game) how important it is to control the physical side of the game, and to make the breakdowns slower, as well as the scrums and mauls.
“The scrum won the game for them at the end, so that’s a real focus point for us. We have real confidence in our pack to bring that on Saturday, and that’s definitely a point where we feel we can attack them.
“For us as a pack, we really want to impose that physical element on them, and we know we have that talent in the backline to make that magic.
“But it’s nicer to learn when you still win, and we did get the bonus point. So, this weekend gives us an opportunity to put out a better performance, and hopefully get another win under the belt.”