THERE WERE SIGNS of Donnacha Ryan’s future as a rugby coach right from his earliest days playing, even if he was dreaming about playing in All-Ireland finals for Tipperary.
Ryan only took up rugby with Nenagh Ormond RFC at the age of 17 to get bigger and tougher for hurling. He might never have enjoyed a professional career with Munster, Ireland, and Racing 92 were it not for Nenagh legend Pat Whelan, who identified Ryan’s raw talent.
Whelan is obsessed with coaching. Even now at the age of 74, he leads Sunday morning skills sessions, working with ambitious young players from Nenagh and surrounding clubs to get them up to a standard where they can compete for Munster underage caps. He has Ben Healy coming in soon to do some kicking, while Ryan will lead two sessions during the summer.
So, Ryan’s current job as a coach with La Rochelle isn’t a huge surprise given that Whelan was his mentor.
When Whelan first saw Ryan play in a game against a visiting Canadian school, the future Ireland second row didn’t have a clue about the laws of the game. He charged around like a wildman.
“All I can say is he gave away penalties with enthusiasm,” says Whelan.
But he saw something special. Gut feeling told Whelan that Ryan could go far in rugby. He got Ryan into a trial for the Munster Youths team but again, there were teething problems. Ryan had never been lifted in a lineout. So Whelan brought him back to Nenagh to work with two of their senior props, Paul Spain and David Nevin.
Ryan’s ability to learn quickly was clear as he made spectacular progress within 20 minutes. What also struck Whelan was how Ryan then went back to the U18 team and began coaching them, demonstrating lifting techniques he had never seen only days before.
“The reality is that Donnacha was always mentoring or helping somebody,” says Whelan. “He had a flair for it.”
Ryan was insatiable when it came to learning the laws, sitting down with his father, Matt, to study. Whelan laughs as he recalls how Ryan soon knew more than he did. The coach was left wondering, ‘Who is testing who here?’ So intently did Ryan embrace it, he was able to directly quote laws word-for-word on the pitch when he got penalised.
Whelan introduced Ryan to his favourite book, ‘The Art of War’ by Sun Tzu. It’s a classic dating from the 5th century BC about war strategies and though it was heavy going for Ryan at the start, he engaged with a strategic approach to thinking about rugby.
Whelan used a Subbuteo Rugby table to guide Ryan through rugby tactics and theories. This was all an education for Ryan the player, but it also set him off on the pathway towards being a coach.
Now, having won 47 caps for Ireland, made 167 appearances for Munster, and played 84 times for Racing 92 as a player, Ryan is on the brink of a second Champions Cup title in just his second season as a professional coach.
The 39-year-old joined Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle as forwards coach in 2021 and helped them towards their European title last season when they beat Leinster in the final in Marseille. Ryan’s influence will be important in today’s rematch.
“It’s a huge step to stop playing and start a new job as a coach,” says La Rochelle’s sporting director, Robert Mohr.
“It’s not like you just put a tracksuit on and because you were a great player, you become a good coach. It’s a new job and it took him a lot of energy, especially last year because he had to do his coaching degrees in France.”
Ryan works alongside another forwards coach in Romain Carmignani, who played for the club in the past. The Irishman’s influence on La Rochelle’s lineout is said to be massive, while Ryan also leads the Top 14 side’s excellent ruck work in attack.
His former Munster team-mate, Sean Dougall, is now La Rochelle’s contact skills coach and has been learning from Ryan despite the Tipp man’s own inexperience.
“Donners is gold,” says Dougall. “Talk about a rugby brain… he is a guy who sees the game in a really exciting way.
“He has done such a good job here, the players love him. He’s intense in that Munster way around preparation and training, but he’s a great bloke around the place, very positive.”
The reality is that Ryan was preparing to be a coach throughout his playing career, even if it wasn’t always deliberate. He came to love lineout strategy in particular and was a key cog in that area of the game for Racing 92 when he moved there in 2017.
Many of Munster and Ireland’s fans were shocked when Ryan decided to head abroad after the IRFU opted against extending his central contract, but it wasn’t all that surprising for those who know him. He has always thought a little outside the box and appreciated different perspectives on rugby.
Ryan particularly enjoyed working under Rob Penney in Munster, even if the Kiwi’s attempts to transform the province’s attacking approach didn’t sit well with others in the squad.
There was probably always a desire to experience rugby somewhere else and Ryan was even linked with a switch to Leinster at one stage. But he moved on to France nearly six years ago and has thrived there, firstly as a key player for Racing and now as a coach in La Rochelle.
Ronan O’Gara had no doubts that Ryan could do it and he was right.
Watching on from Nenagh, there is great pride for the likes of Whelan.
“I always knew Donnacha could coach,” says Whelan, whose own coaching mentor was Eddie O’Sullivan.
“I used to get him to do sessions for me here in Nenagh when he was playing, lineout sessions or whatever. I could see straight away that he had the ability to explain things at the level of the kids he was coaching. Donnacha would have actually made a great teacher.”
It will be intriguing to follow Ryan’s coaching career from this point. He’d be the first to point out that he has plenty to learn.
La Rochelle have big ambitions to remain at the top, while there are plenty of other French clubs who would be interested. The IRFU and the Irish provinces will have been impressed by Ryan’s start in coaching, but perhaps he will venture somewhere unexpected again.
Whether he has head coaching ambitions remains to be seen, but Whelan knows Ryan will do a good job whatever the circumstances.
“There’s a lot of politics involved in being a head coach, you have to manage a whole lot of things,” says Whelan.
“Donnacha is a straight talker, you get what you see – I mean that in a positive sense. He would never look to promote himself. He’s a very bright man, big into analysis. He’ll do his job and do it very well.”
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