LEINSTER WING JAMES Lowe knows the key reason for his beloved Chiefs making a perfect start to the Super Rugby Pacific season.
Lowe spent four seasons playing for the Chiefs in his native New Zealand and has delighted in their six wins from six ahead of Saturday’s top-of-the-table clash with the Hurricanes.
“John Ryan, there you go,” said Lowe.
“Who would have thought the missing piece was from Munster?”
Whatever about his mischievous streak, Lowe is right that Irish tighthead prop Ryan has made an impact for the Chiefs, starting four games and coming off the bench in the other two. The 34-year-old is back among the replacements for the Canes clash this weekend.
It has been a whirlwind couple of years for Ireland international Ryan. In the summer of 2022, he was released by Munster and joined English club Wasps. They went bust a few months later and Ryan made a swift return to Munster on a short-term contract after fellow tighthead Stephen Archer was injured.
Munster were then keen to extend that deal until the end of this season but the Chiefs turned Ryan’s head. The Kiwi franchise had lost All Blacks tighthead Angus Ta’avao to injury and convinced Ryan to make the move across the globe.
Ryan had played for the Barbarians last November against the All Blacks XV, whose assistant coach Clayton McMillan is the Chiefs’ boss. It was clearly meant to be.
Ryan signed with the Chiefs only for this Super Rugby season, which runs until the end of June, and he will then re-join Munster again on a one-year contract up to the summer of 2024.
“My secret talent is fooling teams into signing me for all my career,” joked Ryan in a recent interview with a young Chiefs fan for the Super Kids round of the competition, while also revealing that his favourite colour is blue.
On top of all the upheaval with his rugby, Ryan and his wife, Zita, welcomed their third child into the world in January just before he made the move to New Zealand. Ryan’s entire family joined him several weeks later so they’re all getting a new experience.
Ryan landed into New Zealand just before the Super Rugby season started but he has settled in impressively to make an impact on the pitch.
Ryan loves scrummaging. He’s an old-school tighthead prop in that sense.
In the instance above, the Crusaders are down to seven forwards with one in the sin bin when we get an example of Ryan’s ability to generate momentum. The Chiefs score off the back of this scrum effort.
Ryan has also conceded a few scrum penalties in recent matches but his value in this area of the game has been proven many times before.
The Cork man is a strong defender and we get an example of that below as he finds himself on the left edge of the Chiefs’ defence against Moana Pasifika.
Ryan initially tracks up and out as he covers the overlap, then reacts well to turn back inside to block a possible offload. That leaves him perfectly positioned to snap over the ball for a breakdown turnover penalty.
In the instance below, Ryan brings good linespeed to shut the Rebels down behind the gainline.
Ryan has never been regarded as a front-line ball-carrier but he is solid in this aspect of the game when called upon.
His carries invariably come close to the ruck off the scrum-half.
The Chiefs haven’t used Ryan as a ball-carrier often and his work in attack revolves around hitting rucks.
Ryan’s 74 ruck arrivals when the Chiefs are in possession place him among the team’s busiest players in this department, while Opta’s data tells us that he has also attacked 14 opposition rucks in total.
The Irish prop is also comfortable at handling the ball. Passing is something that all forwards in New Zealand are expected to do and it’s also a skill that all forwards in the Ireland squad are expected to do.
The most recent of Ryan’s 24 Ireland caps came in the summer of 2021 and then his move to Wasps seemingly ruled him out of adding to that tally at Test level.
However, Ryan’s latest return to Ireland will come before the World Cup and he is a player Andy Farrell and his coaching team are keeping an eye on as he plays in Super Rugby.
Finlay Bealham and Tom O’Toole’s stock rose considerably in the recent Six Nations, while Tadhg Furlong remains the front-liner at tighthead prop, but Ryan is certainly still a strong option for Ireland.
He’s keen to continue his international career but regardless of whether that happens or not, he’s undoubtedly having a unique and enjoyable experience with the Chiefs. It might even end with the first big trophy of his club career.
