Munster can’t afford to let a man of Ryan’s class go

Munster supporters watching Donnacha Ryan’s man of the match performance and Sean Cronin making a massive impact off the bench in Ireland’s victory over Scotland must have been wondering why the former is being closely linked with Leinster for next season and the latter is already one of the boys in blue.

Given Donncha O’Callaghan celebrates his 33rd birthday in 11 days, Paul O’Connell reaches the same mark on October 20 next and time may be called on Mick O’Driscoll’s career at the end of the current campaign, allowing Ryan go when he is reaching his peak sounds like utter folly.

True, O’Callaghan and O’Connell are far from spent forces and Ian Nagle and Dave O’Callaghan must be afforded the opportunity to come through. But Ryan, 29 next December, is a man both for the present and the future. Not alone has he developed into asecond-row forward of the highest class, he is versatile enough to fill in adequately at number six.