The Guinness PRO12 final marks the end of the domestic rugby season and the start of the Lions mania.
It also, however, marks the end of Donnacha Ryan’s 13-year association with Munster and the start of an exciting new chapter for the powerful forward.
Munster will be desperate to defeat the Scarlets in Aviva Stadium on Saturday to finish a difficult season with a trophy and give Ryan and Francis Saili the perfect send-off.
In the wake of the tragic loss of head coach Anthony Foley back in October, Munster rallied under director of rugby Rassie Erasmus to top the PRO12 table and reach the semi-finals of the Champions Cup.
WATCH: Donnacha Ryan's last interview at Thomond Park was soundtracked by 'The Fields of Athenry' https://t.co/W5ZToBm4Gq
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In testing times, the core of the squad showed their true colours and central to this was the Racing Metro-bound Ryan.
Speaking on this week’s episode of SportsJOE’s rugby podcast, the Hard Yards, Munster coach Jerry Flannery detailed exactly what the second row has done for the province during a trying season.
“From my point of view, after Axel passed, and I ended up doing more of the forwards work and coaching the lineout, so I worked a lot with Donnacha during the season. He has massive experience and he is always looking to pass that on to the players,” said Flannery, who went on to describe Ryan’s farewell speech to his team-mates.
“We had a send off for some of the players leaving Munster and Donnacha spoke in front of the group and I am always cognizant of keeping the lines running through Munster, keeping the tradition and it being passed on. Donnacha has always been really, really good for that. He spoke to the group and he spoke really, really powerfully,” said the Tipperary man’s former team-mate.
“Every year you go through this thing where players move on or they’re retiring and the younger guys in the group never think that it is going to happen to them but I think after that, a lot of the younger players who would have heard Donnacha talk about his relationship with Munster Rugby and what it meant to him, they definitely would feel more privileged to play and be in a club like Munster and to play rugby for a living.
“That is what Donnacha does – it is not just the technical stuff, he actually passes on that sense of responsibility. That is as important as any technical stuff you can pass on.”
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