'Knife in the back' animosity between Irish and Scots magnified at Test level

Jean Kleyn claims there is a "knife in the back" animosity between Irish and Scottish teams - and says that feeling is even heightened at Test level.

Kleyn, who played for Ireland at the 2019 World Cup and then against them for South Africa almost a fortnight ago, has a lot of experience of playing against Scottish teams for Munster.

The Reds and Glasgow, in particular, have developed a strong rivalry that has boiled over at times.

"There’s a high level of attrition," Kleyn said. "There’s a little bit of animosity between the Irish and the Scots and there always has been, especially from a rugby perspective.

"At club level, you look at teams like Munster and Glasgow there’s always been this underlying - I wouldn’t call it hatred - but there’s a little bit of knife in the back.

"There’s a real combative thing about it. For Ireland and Scotland, it’s even more so. It’s very much magnified at international level.

"Everything’s a little bit closer to the bone and everything’s a little bit more real. I think it’s going to be a serious match."

Asked for a prediction for Saturday's crunch Stade de France pool clash between Ireland and Scotland, Kleyn laughed: "We’re probably going to see Ireland win, but just because the Irish beat us last week I’d say I’d like to see Scotland win over them.

"No, realistically speaking, we’ll probably see Ireland come out victorious there. They’re a very good team at the moment."

Kleyn, who won the URC with Munster last season, was again asked about switching allegiance to the Boks in the summer under new World Rugby rules.

"It was a great honour and a pleasure to play for Ireland in 2019," he said. "I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was something I will always hold with me.

"Now being offered this opportunity which, honestly I never thought would come along, especially after representing Ireland in 2019 - besides that point I didn’t ever picture myself as being good enough for some reason.

"It’s been one of the greatest honours of my life to now represent the Springboks after having represented Ireland as well.

"I spoke to Paulie (Paul O’Connell) before my call-up to the Springboks and they said I had a good season and had I been involved earlier on they might have gone for me, but I think at that stage we’d all sort of made up our minds - they’d decided what they were going to do and I’d decided what I was going to do.

"When you have a good season everyone looks at you a little bit differently. I’m just fortunate that Rassie (Erasmus) and Jacques (Nienaber) looked at me in a way that got me here."

The 31-year-old also paid tribute to his Munster and Springbok second row colleague RG Snyman, who is playing at this World Cup after suffering two ACL injuries while with the province.

"He had repeated ACL (injuries) which is pretty much a death sentence to most rugby players," said Kleyn. "In that time he had some family loss, which was terrible, and the accident with the fire as well. He went through an incredibly tough time.

"He’s a good friend of mine. I can’t tell you just how impressed I was with his outlook on life.

"He was always positive, always tried to add - even though he was two years out of rugby. If you speak to anyone at Munster they will give you testament to the impact he has had at the club, and he’s only played 10 games or something, of which most of them were this season.

"He’s as headstrong a guy as I have ever met and probably likely will ever meet. Credit to him, he went through absolute war and came out on top.

"You could see at Munster the impact he had when he came into the team towards the end of the season. Without him we wouldn’t have seen the result we saw because he was instrumental in all the games leading up to and in the final.

"You can see that as well in being called up to the Springboks after virtually not playing rugby for three years. That takes some doing."