Resolute Ryan refuses to panic

If yesterday’s press briefing was anything to go by then the Kiwi public have already lost interest in the Irish challenge on what is fast becoming a tour from hell.

The function room in the swanky Crowne Plaza in downtown Auckland, which easily accommodated up to 100 journalists during last year’s World Cup, welcomed the small Irish press corps and a handful of disinterested Kiwi hacks wearing grins from ear to ear. The funereal atmosphere was interrupted only by the odd quip or the click of a camera.

The Kiwis don’t do modesty when it comes to their national game. It was fitting therefore that Donnacha Ryan was wheeled out to face the music, given the Munster lock was a tower of strength in the Irish pack on a desperately difficult night in Eden Park.