‘Anybody would want to captain Ireland’
Ryan channels his World Cup disappointment into Leinster’s Euro vision
JAMES RYAN has captained every team he’s ever been a part of and many believe the next step for the brilliant 23-year-old is to take over from Rory Best as the Ireland skipper.
It seems a matter of time before the lock becomes the leader and, while he’s not banging down Andy Farrell’s door looking for the job, he is open to the idea.
Since he made his debut in 2017, Ryan has been a pivotal figure for club and country and last summer he was added to the leadership group at international level.
There, he rubbed shoulders with the men most see as his rivals for the job, Johnny Sexton and Peter O’Mahony, and he stood among them as an equal.
He may not get the nod this time, but it seems inevitable that he will one day lead the team at international level.
“To be considered is an honour,” he said. “I mean I think anybody would want to captain their country, you know. I’m not going to dance around it but it’s something... as I said, it’s a honour to be considered but not something that I’m really thinking about.
Form
“With the block we have coming up, with the form other guys have shown it would be a bit foolish to be thinking about anything but Northampton.”
Although he suggested that Sexton or O’Mahony would perhaps be next in line, Joe Schmidt this week said Ryan had what it takes to lead the team having fast-tracked his international debut and included him at the leadership top table in Japan.
What, we wonder, is the benefit of being part of the Ireland leadership group and has it improved him as a player.
“Yeah, having that bit of experience, learn off guys like Besty and Johnny and other leaders in the group,” Ryan (below) said.
“You learn off that and maybe you feel more comfortable speaking then when it’s your time to speak. As I said, it’s an honour to be considered but it’s something I’m not thinking about.
“The leaders of the team have to drive everything really, especially as the week tapers off, probably the coaching will be done early in the week and as the Saturday approaches; the Thursday
and Friday, you want the leaders of the team to drive everything. “That’s one part of it. The coaching team, in alignment with the leadership team, would make decisions on everything really from what time do you want to train at to what are you doing throughout the game. “I like being part of it, the more part of it, the better. I wouldn’t say it’s stressful.”
Ryan has also been working with Stuart Lancaster at Leinster who has identified the need to help his players find their voice in the dressing-room. “Probably a lot of the guys in Leinster are introverts compared to Stuart who is coming from England,” the second-row explained.
“Over the last couple of years he’s been big on encouraging lads to have a viewpoint, have an opinion on things and to voice those opinions at meetings and certainly when you are on the pitch if you are quiet going off it’s not the place to be quiet when you are out there.
“He has always been big on myself and everybody else finding their voice. I think it’s something that . . . a lot of us have grown in that respect in the last couple of seasons.
“I think it comes more naturally to me on the pitch. I don’t think it came as naturally to me coming in originally off it but I think that I’ve played a few seasons now I probably feel more comfortable. I do feel more.”
As one of the leaders in the team, Ryan took the World Cup loss hard.
Back in blue, he’s channelling that disappointment into his Leinster performances.
“I wouldn’t say I have buried the hatchet on it, but it’s kinda in the back of my mind now,” he said of Japan. “I suppose it is easier coming into an environment like this when things are going very well. One of the great things about northern hemisphere rugby is you have got to turn the page really quickly.
“It’s been really good. You come back in, obviously the lads had a very good start to the season so it’s up to the guys active this week and next week to carry on that form.
“It’s so competitive at the moment in training.
“Hopefully we can use that competitiveness as a competitive advantage for us because there’s a squad here that you could pick any of these players. They are all doing a job so it’s great.
“That competitiveness and we are happy enough with the start to Europe.
“It wasn’t perfect, but heading into December unbeaten, it’s not a bad place to be.
“Other guys were selected last weekend (against Glasgow) and we saw the result just gone there, the first time we have won in Glasgow in seven years, so the guys selected this week, definitely the onus is on them to carry that form.”
That chance comes this lunchtime at Franklin’s Gardens where Leinster meet Northampton Saints as Ryan gets another chance to get Japan out of his system and remind everyone of those leadership credentials.
‘It wasn’t perfect, but heading into December unbeaten, it’s not a bad place to be’