Ryan Ready For Contest In Cork

Versatile prop John Ryan discusses life in the front row and this weekend’s clash in Cork as Munster bid for a return to the PRO12 top 4.

Playing primarily at loosehead last season, the former Ireland Club international has reacquainted himself with the intricacies of tighthead of late, a challenge that Ryan is relishing.
 
“I really enjoy playing tighthead, it’s a big challenge and it’s somewhere that I’ve played stop-start – I played there two years ago and I’m playing there again this year – at the moment I’m really focusing on it and hopefully I can kick on in that position.
 
“I started off loosehead with Christians, I moved into prop from no.8 in second year and I stayed there until college. At UCC I moved to tighthead and that’s where it kicked off for me at Munster.
 
“I’ve heard off every coach I’ve had that off every good beating you learn something. Throughout a game you could be beat in one scrum and you learn from that and do something different in the next scrum and do better. That’s what I try to do and each game, I try to learn one new little trick. Obviously we do a lot of study on the other props we come up against so you have to adapt to that every single game.”
 
Munster enter this Sunday’s encounter having made hard work of their 12-16 win over Zebre last time out.
 
“It was a very bruising encounter and our discipline cost us a bit. We gave away three penalties in about 10 minutes and they kicked all three of them and that really gave them hope.  They’re a team that you can’t give a glimpse of hope to because they’ll feed off it and get some momentum going. They were very strong and a massively improved side so I think getting the win out there was brilliant but we’ll look to improve big time, that wasn’t our finest hour.
 
“We were on the back of 16 games in a row and I think there were some tired bodies but we’ll need to lift that performance against Ospreys.”
 
With no Scottish, Welsh, Italian or Irish side reaching the knock-out stages, all now have a collective and sole focus – the Guinness PRO12, making for a crucial run of games from here till the start of May, albeit that teams will compete without a number of their frontline internationals across February and March.
  
“There will be a lot of changes but we’re used to that. We do it around the Autumn Internationals and we do it at this time of year.  This time last year we did quite well so we’re going to look to really kick on and that’s very important. We don’t have any European Cup and neither do Ospreys, they’re six points behind us at the moment and we badly need to keep that separation there and climb to the top. All the Irish sides are ahead of us at the moment, as are Edinburgh and Scarlets so we need results and we need to edge into the top four.”
 
On the performance of Munster’s international representatives against Wales, Ryan added, “They all stood out to be honest, they played brilliantly. It was an extremely bruising encounter and, of course, CJ got his standard man-of-the-match, he gets that every time so I’m very happy for them.”
 
Valentine’s Day will see Munster play just their fourth game of season at Irish Independent Park and their first of the New Year.
 
“I’ve played there plenty of times, we love it down there. The Cork crowd are brilliant and we really want to give them a performance. We went through a shaky period in December and the start of January so we’re trying to repay the fans for their loyalty and give them the win they deserve.”
 
Munster v Ospreys, Guinness PRO12 Round 14, Sunday February 14^th at Irish Independent Park – KO 5pm.

Tickets from just €;20 for Adults and €;40 for Families (2 adults & 2 kids, meaning kids go free) can be purchased online here, from the Munster Rugby Ticket Offices at Irish Independent Park and Thomond Park, or by calling 0818 719 300.