Donnacha Ryan ‘in Zen mode’ as Ireland opportunity knocks

You could forgive Donnacha Ryan for imagining he might never play for Ireland again. What with senior citizens enquiring as to the progress of his retirement and farmers suggesting remedies for lame cows, the Munster forward has had plenty of opportunity to think long and hard about his future in the sport.

Yet now Ryan has a different sort of a chance, of making the grade in Joe Schmidt’s squad and clambering on the plane to next month’s World Cup.

Yesterday the versatile forward was named in Ireland’s second row for tomorrow’s opening preparatory Test against Wales in Cardiff, his first selection since Declan Kidney handed him his 28th appearance in Italy in March 2013.

It has been a frustrating time to say the least, between then and now, injuries having limited the Nenagh man to just 12 games before he finally recovered from toe surgery this March. That is plenty of time on the sidelines to ponder one’s fate but Ryan insisted yesterday he was stronger for the experience and better equipped for the challenge of making Ireland’s final 31-man World Cup squad and balancing personal ambition with the aims of the greater good.

“I’m in a Zen mode, going from 10 months walking with a limp and again being able to run this morning,” Ryan said.

“You’re looking at guys playing matches and I couldn’t watch them at all because I found it hard watching people running. I couldn’t even watch athletics. It’s been so good for me. The questions are tough, the 72-year-old women in bank queues asking you how are you enjoying retirement? They’re tough questions to be asked. And to answer too!

“So personal ambitions are important but now it’s about making the most of my other personal attributes. Four years ago I wouldn’t have been as outspoken in terms of giving encouragement, I would have been sharper with lads. Whereas now you realise that everyone wants to do well and it is important to facilitate that.

“I’m just really enjoying being able to train. Maybe I haven’t as much endurance fitness as in the past but I’m running really, really fast, which is good purely because I’m excited to run again.

“It’s a very basic answer but that’s it. My motivation is to go out and put in the best performance I can. It’s not going to be perfect but, by the same token, I’m really going to enjoy it.”

Not unexpectedly, having suffered a fractured sesamoid in the ball of his foot that required its removal and endured the angst of such a long time on the comeback trail, Ryan is philosophical about making the squad.

“I’m very philosophical, you have to be. I’ve met five guys, I met a guy yesterday actually who has a fibular sesamoid fracture as well, he’s had it for three years and tried to explain, like I did with the five people I’ve met. You can feel their pain because they constantly have it, they’re walking with a limp on the outside of their foot.

“When they see that you’ve had this injury, can get back running and then playing, they can see that it can be done but by the same token there is a lot of risk in getting the operation I had done.

“The surgeon said to me he had seen this only eight times before: ‘Two rugby players, one of them I know you know, and the other six were ballerinas so you’ve high dexterity’.

“Funnily enough I’ve gone to see The Nutcracker since then and you’ve got to hand it to them, you can see why they’d get sesamoiditis after prancing around on your toes for an hour and a half.”

For Ryan, it seems, the dance has only just begun.