Kick in the…

Ronan O’Gara hasn’t held back in blasting RG Snyman’s move to Leinster from provincial rivals Munster next season, branding it one of the worst things to ever happen to an Irish province.

Snyman has been sidelined for much of his four-year spell with Munster, with the province sticking by him following his first serious knee injury, awarding him a new contract while he was still rehabbing, before he injured his ACL again.

He played a key role in Munster winning the United Rugby Championship last year before missing much of this season again through injury.

He has returned in the last few weeks, making a real difference in Munster’s recent rise in the URC but the southern province were unable to keep a hold of him for next season due to NIQ and financial reasons.

Munster have admitted they were completely blindsided by his move to Leinster and O’Gara says it is a “kick in the bollox” for Graham Rowntree’s side.

“The transfer of RG Snyman from Munster to Leinster is only going to feed the sense of injustice down south,” O’Gara wrote in his Irish Examiner column.

“That a programme already weighted towards the capital can create, partly through central contracting, a financial situation where Leinster have the wherewithal to nab one of Munster’s biggest assets is – not to put too fine a point on it – the biggest kick in the bollocks I can remember for a province since the game went professional in this country.”