Earlier this season, Leinster senior coach Stuart Lancaster and lock James Ryan were doing a post-match Q&A with the province’s supporters’ club.
Every time Lancaster took the microphone, the room was rapt. The former England head coach has an engaging, amiable nature and a decent sense of humour. He’s not afraid to voice an opinion or two, too.
Ryan did grand but he is, after all, a 21-year-old lad trying to find his feet in professional rugby. Each time he spoke, it was brief and he didn’t start any fires. Job done.
We’ll know more about Ryan in time. His personality will start to come out – as it has with the likes of Robbie Henshaw and Jack McGrath – the more he settles into life with Leinster and Ireland.
Right now, Ryan does most of his talking out on the pitch.
He is a former captain at St Michael’s College and Ireland U20 so he knows all about leading young men. Watch him in action in the PRO12 – live or on TV – and you will hear him bellowing away. He is a 21-year-old that backs himself to make a difference but only barks when he feels he must.
That quality is, no doubt, appreciated by Munster captain Peter O’Mahony – another forward identified as a leader from an early age. Asked if he was confident the 6-foot-8 second row could handle himself against the equally gigantic Argentinean forwards, O’Mahony replied, “Absolutely.
“Young fellas these days are getting quite big. He’s a big man. James has got that intelligent nous about him and, as Joe [Schmidt] says, he gets stuck in when he is asked to.”
As for Schmidt, the Ireland coach recalled witnessing Ryan in Schools Cup action for St Michael’s six years ago and noting the name. Anyone that even witnessed Ryan and his dominant schools team brush opponents aside would have done the same thing.
Argentina will prove an altogether tougher beast than the best Leinster’s schools, and most of the PRO14, can muster but he has, thus far, met each challenge head on. It is early days yet but Ryan is extremely self assured. One only needs to look at how well he spoke when he led Ireland to a World Rugby U20 Championship final in 2016. After Ireland had beaten a very good New Zealand side, he said:
“I’m very proud of all the boys… We spoke before the game about making history and that’s what we did.”
The history is his to make and Ryan is making a pretty decent fist of it.
