JAMES RYAN ADMITS sitting through those 80 minutes on Saturday was one of the toughest games he has had to watch, with the second row, usually a totemic figure for Ireland, completely powerless to prevent the team’s disintegration.
Having flown home to Dublin after the warm-weather training camp in Portugal, Ireland’s record defeat to England was a painful experience for Ryan as he watched on, like many others, in shock.
Perhaps the most disconcerting areas, and certainly the most damaging shortcomings of the performance at Twickenham, were Ireland’s defence and lineout, both of which Ryan is directly involved in.
The alarming malfunction of the lineout, in particular, provided enough ball for England to cause untold damage, while 37 missed tackles is a statistic that speaks for itself.
Upon rejoining the squad at Carton House on Sunday evening, Ryan said the players involved in the eight-try hammering were ‘quite low’ and perhaps, in this time of need, the 23-year-old recognises the importance of the big leaders standing up.
Set for his first appearance of pre-season against Wales in Cardiff this Saturday [KO 2.30pm], Ryan hopes to help Ireland be technically and mentally ready for the challenge ahead.
“I wasn’t there, but after the game, I think lads were obviously quite low,” he said at Carton House this afternoon. “A bit shocked as well, I think.
“We’ve done a lot of work looking at it today and yesterday and there are a lot of lessons there.
“I think the lineout and defence are among the two biggest areas we need to improve on from the weekend. Defensively, as Joe probably pointed out, we missed 37 tackles. We missed a lot in the first half. That’s an easy fix if we’ve got the right mindset.
“Then obviously with the lineout, it has been a strength for us in the past. But it definitely wasn’t on the weekend. From a forward perspective, a big focus this week has been on getting that right. It’s never down to one person.
“Sometimes what looks like an overthrow, when you look much closer, it’s because the lift isn’t right or the movement isn’t what it needs to be or has been that week. It’s our process right across the board in that regard. As I said, it has been a big focus this week on sharpening that up.”
Although Ryan stresses that these are areas of Ireland’s game that can quickly be fixed, and they will certainly need to be heading to the Millennium Stadium, there is also an admission that in Ireland’s three heavy defeats this year, the same issues have been at the root of the problem.
Just as it was with England in Dublin, or Wales in Cardiff, Ireland now need to sharpen their defence and loosen their attack heading into what feels like a must-win warm-up outing.
“The pattern is when you’re looking at the three defeats, is that there’s a pretty consistent pattern in what went wrong,” Ryan continues.
“In all three defeats, we conceded too many points, so defensively we need to be sharper. Too many missed tackles. We need to work quicker, smarter.
“The lineout as well. We look at England in the Six Nations game, they were that bit quicker than us, they were getting set quicker, we were a jump behind at the weekend. I think it’s pretty similar.
“Technically there’s definitely consistencies there but no, I don’t think there’s an overriding sense of panic from us. You don’t become a bad team overnight. Yeah, we’ve had a few losses now but we’ve had plenty of good days.
The big thing for us now is really learning from that, genuinely learning from what went wrong. Putting the right foot forward because it’s a great opportunity this week to hopefully get us on the right foot again. There’s no better place to do it than in the Millennium Stadium so we’re already excited.”
Ryan is set to win his 18th cap on Saturday and there is no better time for him to come back into the Ireland pack and provide the leadership, energy, work-rate and dynamism he has become renowned for.
Back in March, Ryan called Ireland’s lineout for the first time as he packed down beside Tadhg Beirne in the second row and Joe Schmidt will be hoping the return of his pre-eminent lock will help get the set-piece functioning again.
“I don’t think the squad is broken, certainly not today,” Ryan adds.
“As I said, it was very tough. I wasn’t playing, but it was one of the toughest games I had to watch. The lads came in Sunday and they were certainly quite low.
Today and yesterday has been about learning from what went wrong and as I mentioned, we’re obviously a bit low from that. It’s important that we channel that emotion in the right direction.
“It’s great for the guys that are picked and have the opportunity to play this week, that there’s an opportunity to do that.
“Wales certainly will be very motivated. It’s Warren Gatland’s last home game. They’re a very passionate country.
“We’ve got to make sure that we bring our own emotion this week and hopefully bring a bit of the hurt from the weekend. Channel that in the right way.”
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