Munster fans right to be aggrieved over RG Snyman fiasco

It was early March of this year and one of those inconspicuous Friday nights in the URC, when it pops back up on a fallow Six Nations weekend.

Munster v Scarlets at Musgrave Park wouldn't be the biggest draw of the season, particularly during an international block, but it provided one of the moments of the year.

In a game in which the sides combined for 13 tries and 91 points, the highlight of the evening was a substitution.

RG Snyman's Munster return brought the house down in Cork that night. Seventeen months on from his second ACL tear in just over a year, the South African World Cup winner was finally back.

His introduction drew a noise that surpassed any try scored that night. Similarly, his every movement was greeted with cheers; when he came out for the pre-game warm-up, when he went back down the tunnel before the game, when he came back out for kick-off, as well as every time he climbed off his seat to go for a jog down the touchline.

When he returns from his chest/shoulder injury in March of this year, it's unlikely to be greeted as warmly.

The news that the 28-year-old lock is swapping Munster for Leinster next season landed just after 11pm on Thursday night courtesy of the Irish Times, a stop-you-in-your-tracks headline, the kind that would make you drop a coffee cup in slow motion.

While we had known since last month that Snyman would be leaving Munster at the end of the campaign, nobody saw his move to Leinster coming. He'd been expected to re-connect with his former Munster boss Johann van Graan at Bath, before Leo Cullen's side swooped in to keep him in Ireland.

Transfers between the rival provinces have become common enough in the last 10 years, but none have been this controversial. Even when another giant