Springboks lock RG Snyman will remain in Ireland going forward after signing a controversial contract extension with Leinster.

The 30-year-old double Rugby World Cup winner has rediscovered some of his best form with Leinster after a horrific injury-hit stint with fellow Irish province Munster.

He managed just 20 appearances for Munster across four seasons before making the switch to Leinster ahead of the 2024/25 season.

Further extensions at Leinster

Snyman has already racked up 14 appearances for Leinster, evenly split between starts and bench appearances, after leaving Munster, who opted to extend Jean Kleyn’s contract, meaning the province was unable to keep two NIQ (non-Irish qualified) players on their books in the same position.

The Bok’s move to Leinster proved rather controversial at the time and even more so when French international Rabah Slimani joined the club with other Irish provinces blocked from signing NIQ players in the front-row.

Leinster have now confirmed that Snyman has followed Slimani in signing an extension with the club but have not disclosed for how long, but one can assume that both internationals have extended for another season.

The double World Cup winner’s extension comes after Leinster’s first defeat of the season, falling to the Bulls, and Jake White’s pleas for Springboks to return to South Africa.

In fact, White name-checked Snyman in particular as he believes the Viking-esque second-rower should be playing for the Bulls and not helping the Irish youngsters with their development.

“I sign guys like RG Snyman to come back here and I do that,” White said when asked how the Bulls become consistent on the road and at home.

“And now you look at me like I’m crazy but look at RG, shouldn’t he be playing for the Bulls?

“Then home form and everything falls into place. We saw that game tonight, the one guy in the forwards that controls everything is RG and the one guy in the backs controlling everything is Jordie Barrett.”

He added: “If you are in a competition where a team like Leinster are bringing in players like Slimani, RG and Barrett – you have to compare apples with apples. We have x amount of players playing overseas and then you have got to pick from within, we don’t have international players I understand that – I’m not saying it’s a good or a bad thing – we don’t sign Kiwis and Fijians.

“So it’s easy to say they missing all their internationals, well let me tell you, if I brought every Bulls player back here, we would also have about 20 internationals, Handre Pollard, RG, Jesse Kriel and so on. The point is there are so many players, the list just goes on and on and on. We have a lot of players playing abroad that would make us so much better.”

Further extensions at Leinster

Deals for NIQ players are always a hot topic in Ireland as many believe that it hinders the development of academy players whose route to the senior squad is blocked by the international.

While Leinster have extended Slimani and Snyman’s contracts, Leo Cullen will lose the services of veteran Ireland prop Cian Healy who is retiring at the end of the season as well as Michael Milne and Lee Barron who are off to Munster.

Jordie Barrett will also return to New Zealand when his loan deal comes to an end while fly-half Ross Byrne has signed with Premiership club Gloucester.

Additionally, Sam Prendergast has extended his contract with Leinster with Alex Usanov signing his first senior deal with the club. Those extensions followed that of Ireland internationals Gus McCarthy, James Lowe, Jamie Osborne, Jack Conan, Luke McGrath, Max Deegan, Jimmy O’Brien and Jordan Larmour.