RG Snyman is getting closer to his Leinster debut as the province confirmed he has stepped up his recovery from a foot injury.

Leo Cullen’s side began their BKT United Rugby Champion season with a narrow win over Edinburgh at the weekend and host the Dragons at the Aviva Stadium on Friday night.

The South African lock may come into contention for his first start in blue since making the summer switch from rivals Munster.

“He was in the ‘unit training’ last week and we saw progression today, he was a bit more with the team,” assistant coach Tyler Bleyendaal told RTÉ Sport.

“The challenge this week is it’s a short week. We’ve got one more training now.

“Hopefully he’s out there, he’s trying to make himself available.

“He’s had some bad luck but he’s always really good mentally. He’s applying himself and if he can get through the week he might have a shot.”

Snyman, a double World Cup winner, has been training with Leinster for the last few weeks and team-mate Max Deegan says they are in the process of adding some Springboks lineout tricks to their repertoire.

“It’s particularly interesting to have him in the lineout meetings,” said the 27-year-old back row forward.

“I’m trying to improve my game in the lineout and what he brings from being in the South Africa camp and the way they run their lineouts, players like [Pieter-Steph] du Toit, [Eben] Etzebeth, [Franco] Mostert, these guys, and what they are thinking in different scenarios and situations has been really interesting.

“We’ve kind of brought one or two things in from there because we feel like it makes a lot of sense.

“We are also looking forward to him playing and being that massive man and physical character in the lineout and around the park.

“I can’t wait [to play with him], it’s even great just having him in the changing room, he’s a great guy and great to have around.”

Meanwhile, winger Tommy O’Brien (above) is to be assessed further after coming off early in the 33-31 win with a hamstring injury and may not be fit to travel on the Emerging Ireland tour.

“Tommy’s in for further assessment,” said Bleyendaal, who joined the coaching staff at the end of last season, of the winger.

“It wasn’t great for him to come off early in the match after he finished a nice try for us.

“It will be really disappointing if he’s unable to go on that tour but he has been a good performer for us for a while now and had a bright start to the season.

“Fingers crossed that it’s a good diagnosis.”

The match at the Hive Stadium was Bleyendaal’s first chance to see his backline in competitive action and the New Zealander was pleased with the five-try return, four of which came from the backs.

“We used the ball well and we were well connected that was great to see,” said the 34-year-old.

“We had a few nice kicks which helped relieve pressure and that was great to see in the back line.

“There’s plenty to work on, we’re still trying to develop connections, when to pull the pass, when to play through teams, it’s a little bit of communication, a little bit of connection but I thought the skillsets were pretty good.”

Centre Charlie Tector (above) scored a try and had a hand in setting up two more on his first start for the club.

Bleyendaal said: “It was great for Charlie to get out there, he had great support around him and his work off the ball was particularly impressive, and he was really strong in the contact, attack and defence, a really good first start for him.”

Meanwhile, prop Michael Milne was withdrawn with an ankle injury on Friday and will be further assessed this week, but back row James Culhane will be available for the Emerging Ireland tour after passing all head injury assessments.

Elsewhere, Munster’s Billy Burns (above) will be assessed during the week for a shoulder injury suffered in their win over Connacht.

There is good news for Dave Kilcoyne as he returns to full training this week ahead of Saturday’s visit to Zebre.

Watch Zebre v Munster in the URC on Saturday from 2.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player

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