The Springbok second row, who played for Ireland in the last World Cup, has experience of some bad-tempered clashes between Munster and Glasgow
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.
"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. 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.
"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. "I spoke to Paulie 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.
"He had repeated ACL 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 was always positive, always tried to add - even though he was two years out of rugby.
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