Schmidt: Workaholic Ryan makes the game easier for teammates

Joe Schmidt has spoken of his admiration for “workaholic” James Ryan as Ireland headed deep into the Japanese countryside to stay cocooned ahead of the World Cup clash with the hosts in Shizuoka on Saturday.

The Ireland squad travelled south on the Shinkansen, or bullet train, from Yokohama yesterday, to a mountain retreat described as a modern-day castle in order to prepare out of the spotlight for their meeting with the Brave Blossoms at the 50,889-capacity Shizuoka Stadium Ecopa.

With the Japanese off to a flyer themselves with a bonus-point victory on opening night last Friday against minnows Russia in Tokyo, the game will be a clash of two sides with plenty of momentum.

But for all the volume that got behind Ireland on Sunday from a remarkable 20,000 Irish supporters, the biggest noise in town will be the hometown heroes, who are based amongst their people in the heart of the Shizuoka Prefecture’s biggest city, Hamamatsu.

The tranquility of the Irish base will suit Schmidt down to the ground following his squad’s resounding 27-3 victory over chief Pool A rivals Scotland on Sunday, which gave Ireland a huge confidence boost ahead of their three remaining pool games.

Yet playing the host nation brings with it a host of potential distractions and after playing in an atmosphere more akin to a home game in Yokohama, Ireland can expect a very different vibe this weekend, as Schmidt pointed out yesterday.

I was talking to a couple of my brothers who were at the game yesterday, and a whole bunch of supporters who were there, and they said to me, ‘It must be great to play away and always play at home’.

“And the Fields of Athenry was being pumped out, it felt like a home stadium in Yokohama so hopefully there will be a few Irish who get to Shizuoka and get to Ecopa Stadium and get behind us.

“But I’ve no doubt the Japanese will have the majority of support, being the home nation. We’re out at the Katzuragi Hotel, it’s a country hotel, it’s a very traditional Japanese hotel and we’re quite isolated this week.

“So I think it’s probably ideal for us not to have too many distractions, to be the sole occupants of a little and very traditional Japanese hotel in the week that we’re playing Japan. It’s probably a little bit unique.”

With that sort of build-up you can be sure the Ireland team staff have sourced a bed big enough for their talismanic lock James Ryan, who put in another epic shift against the Scots, calling a perfect 12 from 12 lineouts, co-leading the team’s carries with 15 and tackles, 14, and even grabbing the opening try of a four-try salvo which sank Gregor Townsend’s team inside the hour.

And all in a country where Schmidt blooded the young forward at Test level before he had played a first-team game for Leinster.

Ryan was handed his Ireland debut at the age of 20 in the summer of 2017, off the bench for a try-scoring burst against the United States in New Jersey.

The second cap came in Tokyo a fortnight later and Ryan has gone from strength to strength ever since.

“It’s pretty hard to live up to the way he started, really,” Schmidt said. “I think it was his second touch against the USA, think he might have run about 40 metres to score so we have the expectation that… I think he went about 40 cm to score at the weekend but that was every bit as important.

He’s able to physically impose himself a little bit more. He’s always been a super athlete but two years ago he was still finding his way but he’s also taking more responsibility for the lineout.

“Obviously, it was a massive call for him to be running the lineout in Wales in that final Six Nations game (last March) and then it turned out to be very wet, which makes it ever more complicated but we thought that he worked his way through that game really well, against a team that are really tough to play against at the lineout - they tend to close the gap, there’s a lot of contact in and around the ball at the lineout.

“So that experience contributed to him running thelineout really well yesterday when it really mattered so defensively, he’s a workaholic.

"He works so hard that he makes the game easier for the players playing either side of him so I’m sure there are things he’s always working away on and that’s one of the things that I admire most about him, he’s certainly never satisfied with the performance.

“He’s always looking to improve and I think the more players you can have like that, probably the better position you’re in.”

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