Ryan chases final target to end year on real high

To look at the way Donnacha Ryan earned his Munster Player of the Year award you would never imagine the bristling, marauding forward ever experienced moments of doubt.

From Ireland’s World Cup squad to a regular start at last in Munster’s Heineken Cup team and onto a first Six Nations start with a new two-year IRFU contract in his back pocket, the Tipperary lock and back row has enjoyed a season of personal high points, taking his aggressive, dynamic play to new levels for province and country.

Yet the season began with the 28-year-old measuring himself against France’s back-row colossi Imanol Harinordoquy and Thierry Dusautoir and not feeling comfortable with the comparison.