He is, looks like they’d prefer to keep him than Carbery at this point. Picking him ahead of Carbery and he on the way out the door is some statement. Carbery an enigma. Conway back will be an addition too. The depth they have at second and back row would match anyone.
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Pa Campbell will hopefully kick on as well.
Carberry looks a white elephant now.
If Ryan is comingback that is huge
Best performance by a Munster side in a long time.
Connacht’s Heineken Cup hopes resting on Cian Prendergast’s brother
Rowantree has them putting
Anyone do the honours here please
Hail to the Chief – How John Ryan bounced back from the brink
independent.ie | April 22, 2023 02:30 AM
Expand Close John Ryan has played a part in every Super Rugby game for the Chiefs this season. Photo: Getty / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp John Ryan has played a part in every Super Rugby game for the Chiefs this season. Photo: Getty
He had been warned the Haka was coming and did his best to prepare accordingly.
“I was practising in my garage in the house, just getting all the moves right,” he says with a chuckle, speaking from the town of Cambridge on New Zealand’s North Island where he and his young family call home.
“I couldn’t get the wording right, the wording is too hard, but I will get it the next time we do it; hopefully when we win the Super Rugby title.
“I did say: ‘Am I allowed to do the Haka, I’m Irish?’ – they said of course, you’re a Chief now.”
They had just dispatched the Waratahs, just as they’ve beaten everyone else in Super Rugby this season and after a decade of semi-final and final heartache with Munster, Ryan is beginning to believe that his luck might turn in Waikato.
Why wouldn’t it?
After all, you could barely script the last year and a half of his life; from being released by Munster and signing a three-year deal with Wasps who went bang early in the season.
He returned to Ireland to contemplate his future and probably would have retired but for an injury crisis at Munster that opened the door to a short-term contract.
He’d already committed to playing for the Barbarians in November. Chiefs coach Clayton McMillan and manager Martin Vercoe were working with Scott Robertson and Ronan O’Gara and came away impressed with Ryan’s ability and attitude.
When All Black tighthead prop Angus Ta’avao went down injured in pre-season and the Chiefs needed an experienced No 3 at short notice, McMillan picked up the phone.
Ryan was back in his comfort zone with Munster and had played a big part in their mid-season revival, while his wife Zita was expecting their third child in January. They initially politely declined.
However, when McMillan called a second time they concluded that it was too good a move to turn down and, when his short-term contract expired, he was off to the far side of the world with Zita, Felix, Gaia and baby Rex following later.
Munster had been impressed enough with his work during his second spell that they offered him a deal for next season and so he has gone from the brink of retirement to having his future mapped out.
“It just snowballed,” he says. “The opportunity to play Super Rugby was a huge draw.
“My wife’s on maternity leave, she obviously had to bring three kids down. Her sister and her sister’s boyfriend helped, but the club made it easy for us.
“Nothing was a problem. When we got here, there was a phone on the table, there’s a car in the driveway and it was because they had all that ready, because I was straight into it.”
Within a week of landing, he was part of the squad that beat the Crusaders on opening weekend and he’s either started or come off the bench each week; starting yesterday’s 50-17 win over Fijian Drua to make it eight wins out of eight.
Although he’s a 24-cap international who was part of the Grand Slam-winning squad in 2018 and played at the 2019 World Cup, Ryan says he has a bit of “imposter syndrome”.
Whether with the Baa-Baas or rubbing shoulders with Sam Cane, Brodie Retallick and McKenzie on a daily basis, it’s taking some getting used to.
“Genuinely, I’m still pinching myself,” he says. “It’s kind of mental to be not even a season through a three-year contract with Wasps and I’m down here in New Zealand playing with the one of the best teams in Super Rugby, with some of the best players.
“I’m trying to enjoy it day by day. Sometimes you get imposter syndrome, but I’m loving it.
“It does allow you to stand back every now and again and kind of appreciate what’s happening. You appreciate that, no matter how tough the last 18 months was, it’s actually worked out quite well for me and my family.
“That conversation (with Munster) at Christmas 2021 actually might never have happened and I could be sitting back in Munster, plugging away and fighting away, but having no chain reaction in my career.
“I could have been that guy who stuck there forever. The way I was kind of pushed out and I came back and had a big dose of reality and probably played the best rugby I’ve played … I’m pretty happy with it.”
Ryan looked a different proposition when he returned to Munster earlier this season.
“The performances were probably due to a big dose of perspective, the fact that I was almost going to hang up my boots and this came onto my lap,” he concedes. “And to be fair, out of 167 people that lost their jobs at Wasps, I was the one that landed on my feet.
Expand Close John Ryan during Munster rugby squad training at University of Limerick earlier this season. Photo: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp John Ryan during Munster rugby squad training at University of Limerick earlier this season. Photo: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
“I was in my home with my family because I was living separately from them, going back and forth with Zita being pregnant.
“Everything fell into place, I was pretty happy and I was going to be playing week in, week out and that just gave me a bit of comfort and performance followed.”
Trophies aside, the one big regret leaving Munster the first time was that he was on 197 caps and, given he’d signed a three-year deal with Wasps, would be unlikely to join the 200-club.
“That was everything,” Ryan says.
“Genuinely, it meant so much because I committed to signing a three-year deal with Wasp, so I’d come to terms with the fact that it was done.
“When I did get it, it didn’t matter if it was away to Edinburgh, it was incredible.
“Like, I loved it and my family were very happy as well. It was probably the proudest day in red, to be honest.”
While the focus is on the Chiefs, Ryan has been getting up in the middle of the night to watch Munster. Having worked under Graham Rowntree, Denis Leamy, Mike Prendergast and Andi Kyriacou, he’s optimistic for the future and relishing playing their more expansive style.
“It’s only a small little glimpse of what’s to come,” he says of the style of play Munster have employed this season. “It’s not about running into brick walls anymore; finding space … I made quite a few little breaks for Wasps. Maybe that gave me a bit of confidence too.
“Munster’s style of play is opening up. On the wing you see Shane Daly and Calvin Nash coming into the game so much more now. They’re very effective.
“So that’s just a sign they want to play a more expansive game. And I’ve come down here now and they’re playing the very similar style, except far looser with our back three at the Chiefs – they’re so talented.
“Hopefully, I’ll bring something back from here as well.”
He last played for Ireland in 2021, but the management were impressed by his performances when he returned to Munster and a strong Super Rugby campaign could put him firmly in the World Cup picture.
“That’s my own personal goal,” he says. “I’m going to have to go well here. We’re playing quite well, I think I still have to hit my straps here, to be honest. If I play well here and we’re doing well, I feel even no matter what age you are, if you’re doing well in a competition like this, you’ve got to be looked at.
“I’ve not been led on any path by anyone, nobody’s going to approach me and say: ‘listen, if you do well, you get in’. So it’s all off my own back, but look, we’ll see what happens.”
Top of his agenda is a Super Rugby title.
“My little man won’t take off his Chiefs jersey at the moment, we’ll see what happens when he gets back to Munster,” he says. “I’m hoping for a bit of silverware, I’ve been waiting for a while.”
It, and perhaps an Ireland recall, would be in keeping with his comeback story.
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Thank you Bod…gent
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Fair play to him
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The wife, the cat, the dog and what’s a Gaia?
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A bit of classical Greek for a Saturday morning…
So the pony?
The Leinster boys team getting a schooling here in South Africa. Currently 62-7 to the Bulls.
Squeaky bum time for Connacht.
No european cup for Connacht.
That Connacht rugby experiment is daft. It’s a GAA and soccer province, sure they are giving nothing to the international scene except the odd antipodean they recruit. Time to call a halt to it all and give the funding to the women’s game.
They’ve won silverware more recently than Munster
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You make a good point. Time for the IRFU to call a halt to rugby in both provinces and fund the women’s game in Leinster properly.
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