Former Ulster and Ireland international Andrew Trimble joined Joe Molloy on Monday Night Rugby to discuss RG Snyman's loss.
For the second year in a row, Munster will be without RG Snyman.
The South African lock re-tore his ACL at the weekend. It was a non-contact injury on a kickoff after playing just nine minutes in the game, Snyman is yet to play 80 minutes of rugby total for Munster. Since his contract is up at the end of this season, he may never play 80 minutes of rugby total for Munster.
Andrew Trimble joined Monday Night Rugby to discuss the impact Snyman's absence will have.
"I think Munster supporters are going to be absolutely devastated," Trimble said.
"From a Munster perspective, it's worse for them that they got a reminder of how good he is. You could see the impact he has on that pack. You saw the try he scored against the Sharks and he just looked so dominant.
"It's frustrating from their point of view they get a reminder of how good he is then someone snatches it away."
There's no such thing as a good injury but Trimble recalls during his own career when he had short-term injuries there was almost a sense of enjoyment to it. If he had to take three weeks off during the season he could just focus on something else and let his body recover.
For Snyman, suffering a second ACL tear so quickly means he's just got the horrible experience of another year in rehabilitation with no rugby on the horizon.
"There's no novelty factor to this. He's just staring down a long, bleak, miserable corridor for a year. This will really test him."
Munster built this team in the South African style. They have two big centers to overpower opponents and Snyman's presence in the pack was there to drive the best teams in Europe backwards. But now that Snyman is missing, Trimble believes that Munster will be forced to adjust how they play.
"Munster just can't be anywhere near as direct. They can't score the sorts of tries that he scored against the Sharks a couple of weeks...you've got that luxury when you've got big physical specimens like Snyman but you maybe have to rethink things or be a little bit more creative without someone like that."
Fortunately for Munster, Niamh Briggs spoke to Monday Night Rugby last week about how Munster are capable of playing more expansive rugby.
"I feel like there's something different this year," Briggs said.
"We've seen them play to the edges a little bit more than we've possibly seen them before. Zebo's second try in Round 1 shows that they're probably looking to move the ball a bit more. They're looking to play in around that tight. They're not really looking to run into bodies anymore.
"They're more running into spaces around bodies which I was critical of last year. I felt like they didn't offer enough in terms of the ball carrying."
Losing Snyman will at the very least offer more game time for the likes of Thomas Ahearne and Munster's other young, emerging forwards. But that is a small silver lining.
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