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All 3 Irish provinces issue PRO14 semi-final injury updates, Munster confirm Snyman op date
By Online Editors
All three of the Irish provinces through to next weekend's Guinness PRO14 semi-final games have issued medical bulletins, with Ulster the latest to clarify their situation. Munster travel to Dublin on Friday to face champions Leinster while Ulster make the trip to Edinburgh the following night.
That latter semi-final is a fixture where coach Dan McFarland is sweating on the availability of Ireland trio Jordi Murphy, Jacob Stockdale and Stuart McCloskey following blows sustained in the round 15 PRO14 loss last Saturday at Leinster.
Murphy sustained a concussion and is following the return to play protocols while Stockdale and McCloskey both suffered bruising with their fitness for selection set to be monitored during the week.
Before Ulster play in Scotland, the identity of the one definite Irish participant in the PRO14 decider will be known as Leinster face-off with Munster just 13 days after beating them 27-25 in the August 22 regular-season restart match.
That was the game where the Munster debut of RG Snyman, one of the province's two South African World Cup-winning signings, torn his ACL just seven minutes in after he landed awkwardly following the stealing of a Leinster lineout.
Munster have confirmed Snyman, who now faces missing the 2020/21 season, will undergo surgery this week. Their bulletin added that prop Roman Salanoa has returned to full training following an abdominal injury, but Dave Kilcoyne (ankle) and Jean Kleyn (neck) - both also injured against Leinster - are continuing to rehab.
The updates from Ulster and Munster followed Monday's word from the Leinster camp that Rhys Ruddock will be available for selection having come through against Ulster with no issues following his quadriceps injury.
Meanwhile, further assessments were awaited on Tadhg Furlong (back), James Ryan (shoulder) and Dan Leavy (knee) before final decisions are made on their possible involvement.
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Latest Comments
Well deserved for a young talented, bright and humble player.
Go to commentsCane shouldn’t have been one last year, based purely on performances. Lakai is as close to a like for like of swap of Savea you’re ever likely to find, based on his short career so far at least. He has many of the same qualities - very strong ball carrier, great at the breakdown, and an absolute work horse on defence. I feel like he and Sititi could lead the way in the loose at the next WC.
I think we have become obsessed with replacing Kaino with someone exactly like him. Kaino was a perfect foil for the other loose forwards we had at the time. Based on the talent we have around at the moment those players could be made up in the aggregate by three players who are all exception all rounders - Lakai, Sititi, and Savea. Missing some height for sure but Sititi’s defensive work in the line out last year was phenomenal. He gets off the ground so quickly and was able to steal a couple of balls off the top of the springbok line out.
If our young locks coming through can actually stay fit long enough to get selected, it seems inevitable that Va’ai could end up in a hybrid 6/lock role.
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