JAMES RYAN — IN the running for three awards at the 2019 Zurich Irish Rugby Player Awards — glances down the list of nominations.
“It’s pretty humbling,” Leinster’s totemic second row says. “It’s a serious group of players across the variety of awards there.”
Fresh from being voted Leinster’s Player of the Year by his team-mates, this is another acknowledgement of Ryan’s consistently outstanding performances for both club and country over the course of the season.
“Ultimately the respect you’re looking for is from your peers, the lads you play with, as opposed to anyone else, so yeah to win that was humbling,” the 22-year-old continues.
On the back of a peerless debut season as a professional, during which Ryan emerged as a central figure for both Ireland and Leinster, the former St Michael’s man has cemented his status as one of the leading locks in the game.
Even in Devin Toner’s injury-enforced absence, Ryan showed his growing leadership qualities to run the Ireland and Leinster lineout, most notably starring in the province’s European quarter and semi-final victories.
Against Ulster at the Aviva Stadium, Ryan was at his typical best, racking up an extraordinary 27 tackles and making 21 carries, before following that performance up with another similarly influential shift against Toulouse in the last four tie.
“I’d like to think so,” Ryan says, when asked if he feels he has improved this season. “I’d like to think that I’ve made progress since last year and there are still lots of things I can get better at but I’m happy enough with where I am at the moment.
“My set-piece work is always something I’m driving. My lineout work, whether that is with or without the ball, it’s always something I’m looking to get better at.
“With my scrum work as well I do a lot of work with Fogs [John Fogarty] to make sure my shape and my entry into the scrum is where it needs to be so certainly set-piece is an area I look at.”
There’s no such thing as standing still when you’re as hungry and driven as James Ryan.
He continues: “I’m focusing on making little improvements along the way and hopefully they add up. I’m happy enough with where I am at the moment but definitely by no means the finished article.”
In addition to starting four of Ireland’s five Six Nations games, and the November Test wins over Argentina and the All Blacks, Ryan’s influence continues to grow in blue having started all five of Leinster’s Heineken Champions Cup games en route to the final.
Ryan hasn’t played since the win over Toulouse and his next game will be the St James’ Park showdown against Saracens, with the build-up a particularly protracted affair given Leinster have again bypassed the Pro14 quarter-finals this weekend.
It has allowed Leo Cullen’s front-liners to rest and recover sufficiently, but at the same time the three-week gap between games means Ryan and his team-mates will be straining at the leash come Saturday 11 May.
“Yeah, I will be raring to go,” he laughs. “We’ll be fresh anyway because we’ve been managed very well. I think Saracens probably will be as well because they beat Wasps [last] weekend so, they probably can afford to rest a few guys this week.
“Obviously [the first-team] didn’t play last weekend against Ulster, so we’ve started to have a look at Saracens. So certainly it will come around pretty quickly, but the build-up is pretty long yeah.”
Ryan finds it hard to park it all when he leaves Leinster HQ every afternoon.
“I tend to take it home and think about it,” he explains. “I wouldn’t be the type, unfortunately, who are able just to leave Leinster or whatever and not think about rugby until the next day. I tend to think about it a lot. The closer [the final] is getting now, the more I’m thinking about it.
I think it’s more excitement at the moment. I think the closer we get is when the nerves start to build. At the moment, it’s just thinking about the detail and making sure that you [know] all the plays, provided that I’m selected, to do my homework.
“It’s going to be a great day, hopefully. I think we’ll get great Leinster support over there as well.”
Having been at Leinster’s European final wins in Cardiff and London as a supporter, Ryan is fully aware of how much it means to the province. Lifting a record fifth Champions Cup crown would be a huge moment for him and the team.
“I was at the Millennium Stadium when we beat Northampton and then Twickenham when we beat Ulster. I was always a huge Leinster fan so I’m well aware of it, I know as a supporter how good that feels when your club is successful.
“It’s slightly different being a player now but I’m well aware how much that means to the supporters of the club. Our fans have been unbelievable all year. I mentioned after the Toulouse game, the sea of blue we had driving in was unbelievable, there were people in blue lining the streets.
“No team has done it before [back-to-back doubles] so it’s definitely something we’ve spoken about. Toulouse and Leinster are the only teams to have won four European Cups so to win another would be a great legacy.
While that is all well and good we still need to be performance-based over the next few weeks so we’re just focused on all our little bits and if you get that right the rest will hopefully look after itself.
Saracens will undoubtedly present Cullen’s Leinster with their toughest challenge to date, but having beaten them in last year’s quarter-final, Ryan knows what it’ll take on Saturday week.
“We’re well aware it’s going to need a season’s best performance,” he adds.
“We can’t sit back and wait for them. We have to go after them and when we have the ball we have to play Leinster rugby. Everyone’s got to be comfortable on the ball everyone has got to want the ball and be ready to express themselves so that’s always our template. We play Leinster rugby, we back ourselves and that’s what we’ll look to do.”
James Ryan and Jack Carty were on hand to announce the nominees for the 2019 Zurich Players’ Player of the Year Award. The Zurich Irish Rugby Players Awards, one of the biggest nights in Irish sport, will take place on Wednesday 15 May, at the Clayton Hotel in Ballsbridge.
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