Shocked.

Munster head coach Graham Rowntree has confirmed that the province were not aware that RG Snyman was in talks to join Leinster after his move to their arch-rivals was officially confirmed yesterday afternoon.

Snyman is out of of contract with Munster at the end of the season with Munster unable to retain two NIQ second-rows and opted to renew Jean Kleyn’s contract instead.

The giant second-row has played just 10 games for Munster since joining after the 2019 Rugby World Cup and is sidelined once again following a second successive Rugby World Cup win with South Africa.

Rowntree knew of the negotiations with Bath but has admitted it was a “huge surprise” to see Snyman sign for Leinster.

“Yeah, I’m not going to lie, a huge surprise,” Rowntree said.

“Obviously, I wasn’t fully aware of where he was going, I knew there was chat of him going to Bath to see my old mate and his former coach Johann [Van Graan]. There was chat of him going back to South Africa, but I was surprised [he went to Leinster], yeah.”

Snyman isn’t expected to return for Munster until April of next year but Rowntree believes he will be fully committed to the cause when he does after telling him back in November that there wasn’t a contract on the table for him.

“It’s a business, this, isn’t it? I sat down with him in the first week of November, and said there wasn’t a contract for him, unfortunately,” Rowntree added.

“Within a couple of weeks this news is upon us that he’s gone to Leinster. There we go, we deal with it, we row on.

“I have no doubt in his commitment to us to the end of the season. I’ve already seen that in the last couple of days in particular, I’ve no doubt about that commitment. It is what it is.

“I’m not frustrated, no. We can’t determine where he goes. I’m the bloke sitting in front of him saying there wasn’t anything for him. We cant determine where he goes.

“It’s not like we’ve been out-bid by Leinster. We had nothing for him. That’s business. I’m quite able to move on, I have more things consuming my mind at the moment than this. There we go.”