Leo Cullen refuses to be drawn on nature of RG Snyman's Leinster contract
Snyman From Rg Learning: leinster’s Experience Jordie Barrett ©inpho/andrew Conan Players Are Players And Gaining picture: Young Like Valuable
Sports documentaries with “inside” access aren’t all they purport to be. Whether it’s the NFL’s ‘Hard Knocks’, Formula 1’s ‘Drive to Survive’, or the Six Nations ‘Full Contact’ series, the attraction is that we get to see a side to professional sport that had always been hidden from view.
It is, as we know, nothing more than a mirage at best, a confidence trick at worst. Sports bodies let us see what they want us to see. Being afforded a proper look under the hood to understand how these people and teams actually operate is another, more guarded, world entirely.
Contracts are a major part of that. None of us ever get to run our eyes over the small print after the ink dries and Leo Cullen was very much of a mind to keep it that way ahead of Saturday’s Champions Cup clash with Clermont Auvergne at the Aviva Stadium.
The Leinster coach probably wasn’t expecting a query as to the minutiae of RG Snyman’s one-year deal at the club, but he got it. The nub of it all was whether there was any stipulation restricting the Springbok’s starts when there were fit Ireland players to consider.
Snyman will start on the bench again on Saturday evening against the Top 14 visitors, having performed a similar role last week away to Bristol Bears, with James Ryan and Joe McCarthy named in the starting second row. Hence the interest at this point in the finer print.
“That's a very private question,” said Cullen. “I don't know if I'd be able to answer that in this forum. There would always be various conversations that would go on in the background, but it's not something I'd be willing to share publicly here.”
An interesting response, all the same.
It’s a debate that isn’t restricted to the former Munster lock. The IRFU has long been keen to keep pathways open to Ireland-eligible talent with blocks sometimes placed on certain prospective signings and contract extensions by the provinces for that very reason.
There are times when these competing needs have spilled into the light. Think, for example, of Ulster’s barely concealed fury when the IRFU insisted back in 2017 that there would be no new deal for the hugely popular and effective Ruan Pienaar.
Snyman’s impact so far has been undeniable.
The man from Potchefstroom has already played six times in blue, scored two tries and impressed every time. Concerns about an appallingly unlucky injury record at Munster have vanished into the air and he is still only 29.
Factor in all those games he has spent on the sidelines while based in Limerick and this is a lightly-raced, unique athlete in the prime of his playing career. Look at it that way and Leinster would be mad not to make moves at keeping him around beyond the summer.
“He's gone well,” Cullen agreed. “He's fitted in well with the group most importantly and we're at that stage of the season when those [contract] conversations are going on. And, if the gang here have something official to tell you they will.”
There is a flip side to the whole debate about foreign players and pathways.
Young players coming through can’t help but benefit from a close proximity to world-class talents regardless of nationality. Cullen took clear joy just this week in seeing the highly-rated teenage, Austrian-born, out-half Casper Gabriel training alongside Jordie Barrett.
Leinster have made five changes here to the XV that accounted for Bristol six days ago and the tie will make for a valuable education in itself for three academy players - Gus McCarthy, Fintan Gunne and Andrew Osborne – who start on the bench.
That said, the primary reason for bringing the likes of Barrett, Snyman and Rabah Slimani to Dublin is not to instruct and inspire. It is to help the province get over the line in the Champions Cup and the URC after three fruitless and frustrating seasons in both competitions.
The Kiwi described himself as an inside-centre who can moonlight at full-back in recent days. It’s in the second of those slots that he starts for the province now for the first time. Quite the luxury when Hugo Keenan, Jamie Osborne and James Lowe are all unavailable.
Here, at least, Cullen was more open with some of the inner workings.
“Jordie was a very attractive part when we go to try and sign him, but it has to work from an NZRU point of view because he has a contract with us, which is built into another contract, which is his primary piece.
“For us to get the sign off from New Zealand Rugby Union we had a lot of these different conversations about ‘what happens with this, this and this’, such as 'where do you want to play him?'. It's, 'listen, probably here, but there will be opportunities that you would hope he would play here as well'.”
As always, needs must.