Pride amid defeat as John Ryan reaches Munster 250th appearance milestone

Munster's John Ryan leaves the field after making his 250th appearance for the club

There was pride as well as the disappointment of defeat at Thomond Park as John Ryan reflected with family after his 250th appearance for Munster.

The 37-year-old had bided his time following his 249th outing for his home province, the body at a self-confessed “ripe age” requiring some recharging having shouldered the burden of an injury-hit tighthead prop unit over the opening weeks of this, a 15th season at professional rugby’s coalface.

The arrival of Samoa international Michal Ala’alatoa and emergence of experienced All Ireland League clubman Conor Bartley from Young Munster have eased the demands on Ryan, who in tandem with academy prop Ronan Foxe had been soldiering through the absences of both Oli Jager and Roman Salanoa following last summer’s retirement of Munster’s record appearance maker Stephen Archer.

So when the time came for number 250, he had Leinster as the opposition on home soil with his family assembled from far and wide to share his milestone, albeit tinged with a 13-8 URC derby defeat last Saturday.

“It's massive, yeah, I'm delighted. Very proud of it, to be honest,” Ryan said ahead of this Friday’s trip to face Ulster in Belfast.

“Kind of didn't give it a whole lot of thought going into it, a lot of noise, but I was trying to focus on getting the win because it's nice to try and get a double on Leinster as it doesn't happen that often. You know, we were confident going into it, to be honest. So, for me, I was extremely proud after the game.

“It kind of hit me then, and it was nice because my family came, my sister was back from Boston watching, and she came to the game, my dad was there. It was great for him to come again as he hadn’t been there in a while. So, it was just lovely to get that after, and it was just a pity with the result.” 

That Ryan, now in his third stint after spells with Wasps in 2022 and Clayton McMillan’s Chiefs in 2023, sits third in the list of Munster all-time appearances behind Donncha O’Callaghan on 263 and Archer’s 304 is remarkable, not least the fact he has been managing an inflammatory intestinal condition known as ulcerative colitis for more than a decade.

It had caused him to lose 10 kilograms in 2014 to 108kg before medical intervention and periodic infusions returned the Corkman to his fighting weight of 119kg, which he has maintained to this day.

Ryan now self-injects and said his condition will be “ongoing for a long time” but having won 24 Ireland caps as well as playing 250 times for Munster is an admirable achievement. Since returning home ahead of 23-24, Ryan has renewed his position as a front-row stalwart though he admitted this week: “I'm feeling my age a bit more now, so I'd say I'll be hopefully playing a lot of rugby going forward, but I'll be counted out for a few weeks every now and again, just to make sure I'm ticking over, because it's a big set-piece game now, and I suppose you've got to rotate.” He added: “When I finish up rugby, I'll be able to reflect on all this.

“Things come so quickly. Like, the six-day turnaround going to Ulster, so there's no more dwelling on it. I had yesterday, I thought about it yesterday, to kind of enjoy that and, well, I suppose being able to hit the 250 rather than getting that result.

“It was nice, but we'll change the page now again.”