A couple of tries, a try assist, three line breaks, 107 metres made from 15 carries and the game’s most vital turnover – Garry Ringrose was back with a vengeance.
His man-of-the-match performance in Leinster’s 55-24 win over Leicester last Friday was all the more reassuring after the disconcerting and premature end to his Six Nations campaign in Murrayfield.
Ringrose was knocked out and treated by medics for 4½ minutes before being stretchered off with his neck in a brace, albeit he was able to give a reassuring thumbs-up to the crowd.
Nor did he seem especially disappointed to miss out on both the Grand Slam denouement against England or Leinster’s Champions Cup win over Ulster.
“It’s always tough watching lads have a crack in games. Obviously with Ireland it was a special finish, when all was said and done it didn’t ever feel disappointing not being there because it was such a team and squad effort.
“There was a few of us who played a part earlier on in the tournament and then the same with this, I would have loved to have played last week but it was pretty cool watching the lads go well in tough conditions.
“I was grateful to get a crack this week and yeah, all went well.”
Ringrose also revealed that the scenes in Murrayfield looked worse for those watching on, including his father in the stands, than for himself.
“It was fine. It was just kind of a rugby incident. I caught his hip, which is like concrete when you catch someone’s hip and I caught the wrong side of my head so it wasn’t too bad for me because I was knocked out, it was probably a bit worse for everyone there and watching on TV.
“Like, the medics looked after me unbelievably well and with the oxygen and the neck brace and stuff, it made it look worse than it actually was.
“But they have to do what’s right by the player and not take any chances, so that’s what they were doing.
“It’s not ideal but my old man was over there. He was able to be with me after, I went to hospital and got all the necessary scans and spoke to the right specialists over the last two or three weeks to get the all clear. So I was able to come out here and play with confidence and not question anything that I had done before because I was so well looked after.”
He was also given the “unbelievably special” honour of lifting the Triple Crown trophy along with James Ryan.
“I remember the last Triple Crown we won after we had finished second, Church [Cian Healy] was saying how special it was to win a Triple Crown, and it wasn’t something he had done too frequently in his career, with all the trophies he’d won.
“So yeah, to get a chance to lift it was pretty cool. There’s any number of lads in the squad who could have lifted it, I think Johnny might have felt a bit sorry for me being injured, but it was a special moment to lift it with James.”
He was also part of the Grand Slam celebrations with the squad, even if his apparent reluctance to carry on into a third night was captured by a video of some team-mates turning up on his doorstep.
I’m sick of talking about that now. I wouldn’t let the truth get in the way of a good story,” he said good-naturedly.
“Ah no, it was a bit of craic after. It was an unreal squad effort to do what we did in the Six Nations and it was pretty special finishing it here, so we made sure we celebrated the right way and then back to business when it came to training on the Wednesday with Leinster.”
Ringrose and the rest of the frontline squad will now be confined to training at their UCD base before their sixth semi-final in seven years.
“It’s the nature of the beast but it’s a testament to the coaches that have been with us for the last seven years. Some have moved on, but the ones who are here at the moment are constantly driving us in training and setting an expectation for us when it comes to the big days, and the flip side of that is the players stepping up, a change of personnel in some instances, say Johnny [Sexton] not playing and Ross [Byrne] stepping up in the way he has.
“It’s a good combination of the coaches demanding and getting the most out of us in how we train and prepare, and then lads stepping up and doing the same.”
Yet only a fifth star will make this a successful season.
