'I felt like I let the lads down' - 'Devastated' James Ryan reflects on South Africa red card

LEINSTER LOCK JAMES Ryan has revealed he felt ‘devastated’ after his sending off in Ireland’s defeat to South Africa at the Aviva Stadium last month.

With Andy Farrell’s men in sight of the opposition whitewash during the 19th minute of their Quilter Nations Series clash with the current world champions on 22 November, Ryan executed a clear out on Springboks hooker Malcolm Marx.

While the play initially continued long enough for Tadhg Beirne to score a try, it was eventually ruled out after Ryan was deemed to have made an illegal challenge on Marx, and the second row was sent to the sin bin for an off-field review.

This yellow card was subsequently upgraded to a 20-minute red and in the absence of Ryan, Ireland fell to a 24-13 reversal at the hands of Rassie Erasmus’ side.

“I was devastated, to be honest. Because it was at such an important point in the game. We’d just scored, the try got reversed. They got a penalty and I was sent off. Big moment in the game and I felt like I let the lads down a little bit there really,” Ryan recalled at a Leinster media briefing in UCD on Monday.

“The big thing now for me is just making sure I learn from it and it doesn’t happen again. Because at that level, it’s such fine margins and it probably cost us a little bit in the end. I’m not going to make any excuses for it. We want to play on the edge, but you can’t obviously tuck your shoulder or go off feet like that.

“To be honest, it was just a poor moment for me more than anything. It would be easy to say, we play on the edge and these things happen. Hitting rucks for a second row forward is one of your primary roles. So, I just need to do better there really.”

In the wake of the Springboks game, an independent disciplinary committee upheld the red card issued to Ryan and after applying World Rugby’s sanctioning provision, they determined the mid-range entry point of six weeks/matches was appropriate.

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With Ryan’s acceptance of the red card, his clean disciplinary record and other mitigating factors being taken into account, a maximum 50% reduction in sanction was applied. This would have ruled him out of last month’s URC clash with Dragons in addition to the recent European Champions Cup encounters with Harlequins and Leicester Tigers, but he was offered the chance to have the final game of his sanction substituted if he took part in World Rugby’s Coaching Intervention Programme.

Commonly referred to as ‘tackle school’, this programme has been criticised as a convenient way to have a suspension reduced – albeit players are only allowed to appear at it once in their careers. Regardless, Ryan’s participation in ‘tackle school’ ensured he was available for last Friday’s trip to Leicester and he offered some insight into what the programme entails.

“It was just some scenario stuff, so we’d kind of mimic maybe the ruck again. We’d put a couple of tackle pads into the back of the ruck to lengthen it a little bit. I talked through maybe what I should have done differently and what I will do next time. We’d record that and send it on to them. I think I ticked off every box and they were happy with it.”

Having played the full 80 minutes against Leicester in a tricky encounter, Ryan is also expected to feature when Leinster welcome interprovincial rivals Ulster to the Aviva Stadium in the URC this Friday.

Courtesy of four wins from five games to date, the northern province find themselves fourth in the championship standings – two places and five points clear of Leinster, despite having a game in hand.

This will be the first of three interpro showdowns for Leinster during the festive period with clashes against Munster and Connacht also pencilled in for 27 December and 3 January, respectively. While he is due to be given a rest at some point owing to his heavy involvement in the November international window – he started all four tests Ireland played across the month – Ryan is itching for game time in the next few weeks.

“I’d love to be involved. The interpros are always a great few games to play in. This block is always exciting for us and us in the Aviva this Friday night will be great. Looking forward to it,” Ryan added.

“Ulster are five points ahead of us in the log, so we need to catch up there a bit and start putting some points on the board. So this is a big one for us. We had a good couple of weeks in Europe, but we need to start climbing up the ladder a little bit in the URC.”