ON THE FACE of it, it’s an odd thing to hear from a coach, but it speaks to the meteoric rise of James Ryan when Stuart Lancaster reminds the room that he hasn’t actually coached the 21-year-old all that much.
Lancaster’s first season, of course, saw Ryan’s progress curtailed (clearly not by much) by a serious hamstring injury. The prodigious lock was sent to Munster A for some game-time late last season and wound up playing his first senior professional match in the June internationals.
He has since won his first Leinster caps (10 to date) and certainly made an impact in their Champions Cup progress with starts against Montpellier and stints off the bench in against Exeter and Glasgow. But Lancaster can see a better player returning to pull on blue kit this week after two months in green.
“Obviously playing big games, you can’t accelerate that, you’ve got to go through it,” says the Leinster senior coach.
“There is no doubt James will be a better player for going through the Six Nations and everything that has happened for him.”
Commonly referred to simply as a ‘freak’ by his team-mates, Ryan isn’t following the normal trajectory of a dynamic young lock. There is no settling-in period as a blindside while he gets up to speed or fills out for the long days at lock ahead.
No need when you retain a 100% winning record as a professional (18 – 0).
“If you ask James and ask him what role he’d enjoy the most, it would be the tighthead lock role and doing the grunt. There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind.
That’s his DNA, that’s his point of difference, he’s going to go in there and he’s going to do the hard yards for the team. And my job is to make sure he does that, but also to then try and add on the little bits and pieces that hopefully he can do.”
The extras Lancaster alludes to here, the icing on the cake, are what will smooth out an inevitable dip that comes for all young stars who have risen fast. Often such a dip is merely a matter of perception as opponents begin to adapt or raise their game to counteract what was once an element of surprise.
“They are under more scrutiny,” adds Lancaster, “(opposition) give them a lot more respect and consideration. As a consequence it is a lot harder for them to achieve the things that previously went unnoticed.”
For all Ryan’s brilliance for Ireland in February and March, he could find himself on Leinster’s bench come 1 April with Devin Toner’s ‘particular set of skills’ never easily cast aside and Scott Fardy proving himself the heartbeat of Leinster’s pack all season.
More certain of a starting jersey is another ex-St Michael’s student who etched his name on the consciousness of international rugby fans this season. Though Rhys Ruddock has been pulling up trees in training, Sean O’Brien is back in the mix and Jordi Murphy looks sharper than ever, Leavy continually proves himself a big-game player delivering tide-turning moments in those vital tight spaces.
“I’ve always thought he was going to be there or thereabouts for Ireland,” says Lancaster of his natural seven, ”when he finally got his opportunity, I think he demonstrated the type of player that he is.
“He’s very good over the ball, incredibly strong and powerful and, particularly for me, he made very good decisions at the breakdown. Sometimes in the past… it’s one of the things I’ve spoken about with him.
“He looked composed and controlled in that environment. It’s obviously very intense, there’s a lot of scrutiny on players in those games, and I thought he dealt with it really well – alongside the other players who were making their early starts in the Six Nations.”
Saracens will come to Dublin without the untouchable veneer of recent seasons. Yet despite losing a third of their matches in this campaign they remain second in the Premiership and scrapped their way to an eighth seed spot to set up this weekend’s mouthwatering Champions Cup quarter-final.
As Leinster’s Irish contingent put Grand Slam celebrations long behind them and got back to work on Monday, they were preparing for the best version of Saracens and considered the early-season form nothing more than a blip.
“I don’t think any team goes through the season unbeaten. No team. You have dips along the way,” says Lancaster.
“You learn a lot about yourself when you lose and sometimes it’s for the better. I can’t say I was pleased we lost against the Ospreys, but it certainly gives us plenty of motivation going into this week.”
