Donnacha willing to break pain barrier
The Munster forward cuts a more optimistic figure than the official medical bulletin suggests after he was diagnosed with a bruised AC joint suffered in the defeat to Scotland on Sunday and rated as “somewhat less than 50/50” to play against the French at the Aviva Stadium in eight days.
“Hopefully I might train [today] and we’ll take it from there and hopefully I’ll be available for selection,” Ryan said yesterday as Ireland reconvened at Carton House for a two-day camp.
“I put pressure on myself to get on the field no matter what, I suppose as people might say, ‘I’d give my left arm to play for Ireland’, I definitely would. I give my whole body to do it and that is not saying it lightly. Look, everybody puts so much into trying to play for Ireland that the bottom line really is you would try to go through any pain barriers to do it.”
There is also the pain suffered by Ireland’s second defeat in a row in this year’s RBS 6 Nations and a keen desire to rectify the mistakes that mean dominance over the Scots counted for nothing in a 12-8 defeat that piled more pressure on Kidney and his hopes of leading the national side into the 2015 World Cup.
“Obviously it is part of the job, you are there for questions to be asked of, that’s what you sign up for,” Ryan said of the criticism. “I don’t think it is warranted, Declan has created a fantastic environment for us and it is just unfortunate the results haven’t gone for us in the way we would have liked.
“I think he is doing great and even the meeting we had this morning was very good and even to go in there and discuss what do you think of the weekend…
“You know it was very hard to watch the review as well and looking back again but definitely you had people trying to look at it from a different angle and definitely it is a mental challenge for everyone and Declan is not an individual to shirk from that at all.
“He definitely creates a very good environment for us to do our business in and that’s exactly what you want to do. Obviously Declan doesn’t throw any passes at the end of the day; it’s all down to us to try and get the result out there.
“Himself and the coaching staff, their preparation has been fantastic. They’ve been very good.”
If Ryan believes Kidney and his staff are holding up their side of the bargain, it naturally suggests the fault lies elsewhere and the Munster lock is looking for a reaction from the Ireland players to bounce back against France.
“Nobody likes losing and nobody goes out to make mistakes. A defeat like last week is very, very disappointing, but what’s going to test your mettle is what reaction is going to come from that. We’ve had some tough results over the last number of years and we’ve been to some dark places. But that’s what you want to do, get back out on the field straight away and either hide under the quilt and feel sorry for yourself... the reality is the world keeps spinning.
“Get up and get on with it, really... that is the absolute bottom line. That shows the test of a man.
“It’s a collective thing. Obviously lads are down, and some lads can be worse than others. Make sure to get everyone up in good form and get back on the field, get into the technical side of it.
“Then it’s obviously small steps and keep working from there.
“That’s what it is. The world keeps spinning. The next challenge is up and if you’re not ready for it it’s just going to pass you by.
“I’ve been sitting on the bench or up in the stand for years. Obviously it’s disappointing these results, we want to win them, but it’s trying to park it now. What’s done is done; get on with it and put on a result for the next time.”
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