Munster provide lastest update on Bok lock Snyman

NEWS: Munster have confirmed some long-awaited good news about Rudolph Snyman, reporting that the Springboks lock has finally been reintegrated into team training and is shaping up promisingly ahead of the start of the 2022/23 season.

The 27-year-old 2019 World Cup winner has endured a horrible time with injury since joining the Irish province two years ago.

Snyman initially tore his ACL just seven minutes into his Munster debut away to Leinster at the Aviva Stadium after he crashed heavily to the floor after stealing line-out ball.

That was August 2020 and it was 13 months later when he made a short-lived return to action, making a September 2021 comeback against the Sharks only to agonisingly re-rupture his ACL in his third match back away to Scarlets.

Those setbacks have restricted Syman to a total of just four appearances in two years for Munster and left him unavailable to the Springboks, with whom he won the last of his 23 caps with an appearance in the World Cup final versus England.

Snyman joined Munster along with fellow Springboks player Damian de Allende on a two-year deal. However, rather than the exit of head coach Johann van Grann to Bath being the cue for the lock to join midfielder De Allende in seeking out a different club, Snyman signed an extension and is targeting a return soon under new head coach Graham Rowntree.

A Munster injury update on Wednesday, midway through the squad’s first week of collective pre-season training, read: "There is good news on the injury front as we started the pre-season training programme with RG Snyman [knee] reintegrating to team training."

It was five weeks ago that Snyman took to social media to post a video of him running freely during a solo training session at the Munster high-performance centre in Limerick.

"Moving better and better going into the off-season," he wrote. "Can’t wait to get back out there with the team!"

Elsewhere, the Munster injury bulletin reported: "In further positive news, Diarmuid Barron [elbow], Thomas Ahern [thigh] and Chris Farrell [hip] have all returned to team training.

"Antoine Frisch is progressing well after undergoing a shoulder procedure towards the end of last season and will be in line to return in time for our pre-season fixtures. Continuing to rehab: Liam Coombes [toe], Dave Kilcoyne [neck], Andrew Conway [knee], John Hodnett [knee], Jack Daly [knee]."

By Liam Heagney, @RugbyPass