James Ryan relieved to shed ‘Mr Perfect’ tag

By Brendan O'Brien

James Ryan held the inevitable at bay far longer than he could have ever imagined possible before defeat as a professional rugby player finally called to his door in Brisbane last summer.

Australia won 18-9 at the Suncorp Stadium in June. One year and one day had passed by then since his first game as a pro, when he came off the bench against the United States at the Red Bull Arena in New Jersey.

He railed against the dying of that light. Ryan was superb that day, making a succession of tackles, chipping in with the odd carry and making one tackle, clearout and turnover on Brandon Paenga-Amosa that took the breath away.

Defeat was not to be denied though. Not at the 24th time of asking.

He wouldn’t have taken kindly to the suggestion at the time but Ireland winning the next two Tests, and the series with it, meant he could reflect on that first loss for club or country months later and recognise it was, if nothing else, something of a monkey off his back.

He had cringed at the attention for months. Every media interview brought the same questions and the same jokes. All of them met with the same barely restrained annoyance and discomfort. Now there is no more ‘Mr Perfect’.

“Yeah, it was a bit (of a welcome),” he admitted at the announcement this week that Goodbody’s is to sponsor a personal development bursary in partnership with Rugby Players Ireland. “(It was) probably the one silver lining so that all that malarkey would stop. That was the only thing really. It’s nice to have that thing behind me.”

Well, it is and it isn’t.

Ryan has still to lose a game for Leinster, after 17 appearances, and he may well get to put that 100% record on the line tomorrow against Munster now he has passed the return-to-play protocols required after suffering a head injury against Edinburgh last month.

The IRFU’s player management system makes it difficult to predict who will and who won’t feature at the Aviva Stadium at the weekend but the possibility that Ryan could come face to face with Tadhg Beirne for the first time since the latter’s move to Munster is enticing.

Ryan isn’t a big talker but he got to know Beirne when the latter joined the Ireland squad for that summer tour of Australia. He describes him as a quality operator who, along with a few other key signings, has strengthened Munster’s hand this term.

Whether they play him in the second row or back row we’ll wait and see. Obviously he’s so good over the ball, they’ve other guys who are very good at that skill. Chris Cloete as well, he’s certainly one of their big players.

It’s a game that retains a special place in the minds of the public. A crowd close enough to capacity is being mentioned for this latest get-together and yet Rob Kearney has suggested this week the hatred between the pair isn’t as evident as it once was.

Ryan saw the rivalry at its pomp. He was just 12 years of age in 2009 when he watched from the Croke Park stands as Leinster got the better of Munster in front of a world record crowd for a club rugby game back in a Heineken Cup semi-final.

He has only faced the old enemy twice himself at this point of his nascent career — in Thomond Park last Christmas and in the Guinness PRO14 semi-final at the RDS in May — but doesn’t profess to envy Kearney’s generation for the enmities of old.

“I don’t really know what went on back then. Certainly growing up, you could always see that there was always an edge to those games. So for me anyway, I’m excited to hopefully get selected this week. They’re expecting 50,000 at the game I think so yeah, looking forward to it.”