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young stalwart

Ringrose still soaking up information as he lines out for 11th straight Ireland Test

The Dubliner has been impressed by Japanese culture, but is wary of their Kiwi-esque style ahead of his final match of the season.

John Fallon reports from Tokyo

IT WAS ALWAYS obvious in recent years, as he emerged as an underage, star that Garry Ringrose was going to break through to the Irish team — and having made his debut last November he hasn’t missed a game.

A general view of Garry Ringrose's Ireland jersey ahead of the game Ringrose was an unused replacement when Ireland shocked New Zealand in Chicago. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO

He reached double figures last week in the 50-22 win over Japan and will play his 11th in a row tomorrow when Ireland wrap up the season with the second test against the Brave Blossoms at the Ajinomoto Stadium in Tokyo.

That’s where the opening ceremony and the first game will take place in the 2019 World Cup when Ringrose will be expected to be a key figure, but for now he is just enjoying chalking up the game-time minutes.

Indeed, he has played 80 minutes in eight of his games to date with Ireland, going off with 11 minutes left against the All Blacks in Dublin and then last week departing late in the game again against Japan.

The 22-year old may have missed out on the Lions this time round, but he has enjoyed this summer tour through New Jersey and Japan.

Garry Ringrose Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO

“A pretty incredible experience. I’d never been to New York before and certainly haven’t been to Tokyo before. Whatever about the States which we’d all be a little bit familiar with I hadn’t an excuse to get out to this side of the world so adapting to the culture and even preparing for the opposition we’re playing – it’s all a big learning curve for everyone – coupled with a lot of new faces getting new caps over the last few weeks so it’s been a pretty exciting experience if that makes sense.”

He should be back in two years with Ireland for the 2019 World Cup and has found it beneficial to get a feel for the place and become acquainted with how the Japanese live.

They’re incredibly respectful to each other, even greeting, being polite and smiling –whether it’s a binman or even the owner of the hotel they all treat each other the same. It’s incredibly tidy everywhere. I haven’t seen a scrap of dirt. So, it’s a little bit different: a lot more clean-cut than Dublin.

“That and the way the Japanese play – I think because they’re quite close to NZ certainly a lot of their playing style is adapted, in my opinion anyway, from the way the All Blacks play. They’re incredibly dangerous and I think they showed that in the last 20 minutes what they’re capable of.

“I can imagine they’ll be looking forward to playing on Saturday – a lot of them if they had the option to play (again) straight after the game they would have taken it because I think they would have been slightly disappointed in some of the areas and how they delivered.

Garry Ringrose Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO

“Looking at the analysis of their players – individually how strong they are and then collectively how strong they can be I think they’ll be coming out all guns blazing,” he said.

Ringrose scored his third Irish try last week in the 50-22 win over Japan, and a week earlier landed a brilliant conversion from the left touchline in the win over the USA. It was another illustration of the range of skills he possesses, and being ready to deliver when the opportunity arises.

Garry Ringrose kicks a conversion Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO

“I kicked a bit in school, and then I was focusing a lot of my time into areas I can improve on, relevant to the 13 position.

“With Leinster I keep ticking away on general skills like that, there’s so many world class kickers at Leinster I haven’t been needed to kick. And then just the way things panned out, with Rory Scannell on the bench and Joey (Carbery) picked up a knock and he was down, so I was next in line because with Joe there’s rarely a stone left unturned and he needs everyone to be ready for any sort of circumstance so in that instance I was prepared over the last couple of training camps to be able to step up and kick it,” he added.

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