Jean Klyen has signed a deal to leave Munster after 10 seasons in red. He will be heading to join up with Gloucester next season. He has played for Munster over 160 times and will look to add to that before the end of the campaign.
Munster did offer terms but Gloucester have offered a better deal and will have the World Cup winner in harness for the 2026/2027 season.
Kleyn made his debut for Munster in the 2016/2017 campaign and went to the 2019 World Cup as a Irish squad member, eventually winning 5 caps before other players got ahead of him in the pecking order and with the new regulations around capping players by World Rugby.
He wasn’t capped by Ireland for a period of 3 years and so he was called up by South Africa and was an integral part of the squad that won the 2023 World Cup on French soil.
He didn’t really have many chances to play with RG Snyman during his time with Munster and he of course moved to play with Leinster at the beginning of last season. Kleyn has certainly helped develop the likes of Edwin Edogbo, Evan O Connell over the past while as injury ruled him out for large periods over the past few years.
Munster will look to promote from within but may also go into the market to see who might be available and looking for a fresh challenge to come and play there rugby with Munster in the URC. Munster is still an attractive proposition to lots of players.
Munster may look to bring in an non Irish qualified player as they have seen Snyman and now Kleyn leave for new challenges. Interesting times ahead now for Munster in their quest to bring in a replacement of equal quality to Kleyn.