HE MAY HAVE relinquished the captain’s armband to Johnny Sexton since the out-half’s reintegration back into the Leinster team, but Rhys Ruddock has been one of the driving forces behind his side’s progressive start to the season.
Ruddock has featured in all but one of the province’s eight outings this term and on Saturday continued his exceptional form by steering Leo Cullen’s men to another big European win in Glasgow.
He may not have the armband, but the flanker’s leadership skills and penchant for driving and maintaining standards have given Leinster control on the field. A calm head, and a calm voice.
And then there’s his prodigious form which he has carried through from the back-end of last year when he captained Ireland in all three summer tests against USA and Japan.
Sexton stole all the headlines at Scotstoun, but it spoke volumes that Ruddock was named man-of-the-match. He looks incredibly fit and once again was a real leader for his side, winning five line outs as well as making 10 tackles and carrying nine times.
A sustained run of form and, more significantly, fitness has almost guaranteed Ruddock a berth in Joe Schmidt’s squad for the November internationals, and has certainly put him in the frame for a starting position when the Springboks arrive in Dublin. In his own words, he’s enjoying his rugby at the moment.
“He has been incredibly good and given us go-forward and carries, but more than that Rhys is incredibly controlled on the field,” Leinster forwards coach John Fogarty said.
“His instructions to lads when situations are high tempo or things get out of hand is good. Rhys could step up and be well capable of performing.”
But Ruddock knows competition for places in that Leinster, and indeed Ireland, back row is incredibly intense. Josh van der Flier is out of Saturday’s trip to Ulster, but Sean O’Brien and Dan Leavy are back, and Jack Conan continues to produce week-on-week. And then there’s Peter O’Mahony, Tommy O’Donnell, Jack O’Donoghue and CJ Stander at Munster.
“I feel like the times I’ve been able to get a run of games and stay injury free has led me to play in the way I want to play and that’s kind of been the key,” he says.
“I felt like the end of last season was another period leading into the last few games for Leinster and the tour with Ireland was a period I really enjoyed and I was able to stay injury free.”
But why, having captained Leinster and then Ireland with distinction previously, did Cullen turn to Sexton to take over the duties upon his return to the side in round five against Edinburgh?
Fogarty explains: “I think the captaincy has been good for Johnny. I think it’s been good for Leinster as well. You see Johnny showing a lot of emotion at times but that’s the type of character he is.
“You see him celebrating tries and it’s good to see him in that form. For us, during the week in terms of a message, he’s very direct so he gets straight to the point and he can’t help himself at times, forcefully pushing a message.
“I think that’s been good for us during the week. Rhys still plays the role that he plays within the pack and the two of them can work well together, and have a calming effect on Johnny at times.
“I think Johnny has been good, I think he’s been really good during the week. When the lads have turned up prepared we’re very competitive during the week. I would say that Johnny has been really good for us and the team has performed well with Johnny as captain.
“We’ve had a couple of wins that are pleasing so there’s no complaints from our side.”
And nobody can really argue with that.
Seven wins from eight games this season, including back-to-back bonus point victories in Europe, means Leinster head into the final two fixtures of this first block in good stead. They’re heading in the right direction, anyway.
Saturday’s visit to Kingspan Stadium will be a stiff appraisal of their credentials, particularly given Ulster’s home form, Leinster’s recent record in Belfast and the slightly reduced hand Cullen will have at his disposal.
With South Africa looming, Joe Schmidt will begin to have a significant influence on player availability over the next two weekends, although Fogarty insists it’s not Joe, it’ll just be player management.
“We’ll probably have to look at one or two players, just look at their minutes,” he continued.
“That’s not Joe, it’s managing the players and I think in Ireland that we do that well. Some players would have been involved in the last eight games, and in that case there will be players where we’ll have to look at their minutes and see what decisions will have to be made on the back of it, considering what’s coming in the next two games.
“That will all be happening but at this point in time the players, and the group are in a good spot. We have a very tough task going up to Ulster but we’re happy with how things have gone to a point.
“The team have been really, really competitive during the week, that’s led to good performances. We haven’t won in Ulster for the last five outings, it’s a very difficult place to go, so right now everyone’s focusing on getting into the right frame of mind to go up to Ulster, because I think we missed out last year, we went up there not prepared mentally and we didn’t come out with anything.”
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