John Ryan would be entitled to feel somewhat peeved. He spent 11 full and trophyless seasons with Munster and after a brief interlude with Wasps returned on a three-month loan to his native province, before relocating to the Chiefs in New Zealand last January. Whereupon, Munster went and won the URC!
On Munster’s long-awaited day of triumph over the Stormers in Cape Town the 35-year-old tighthead – hewn from pure Cork rugby stock in CBC, UCC and Constitution – was in Canberra, having played in the Chiefs’ 31-21 win over the Brumbies. But he watched the final from his room with Alex Nankivell – then Munster-bound and so this season a team-mate again, at 3am.
While there was “a tiny bit” of envy, there was one bigger lament.
“My regret was not being able to celebrate with the lads. Yeah, there was a small element of it, but no, mainly pride. I feel like I was a part of the team. I played a few league games last year, so I think I’m going to get a medal at some stage,” says Ryan, who played four games in the URC last season as well as four in the Champions Cup after Munster brought him in on loan when Wasps went bust and he was made redundant.
Speaking ahead of Saturday’s rematch between Munster and the Stormers in Thomond Park (kick-off 5.15pm), Ryan says he has no regrets about becoming something of a nomad after such a settled career. Ask him what he learned from his time abroad and he admits: “I suppose a dose of perspective.”
The 35-year-old admits that “moving to England took me out of my comfort zone. You’ve got to fight for your position all over again; a new squad and the respect of your team.”
And the same applied with the Chiefs.
“My mindset has changed a lot in how I approach the game. I’m not exactly going to be setting the world alight, but I definitely think that I’ve added to my game and I’m a smarter rugby player for it.”
Professionalism has led to greater cross-fertilisation between countries, but even so, Ryan’s move to the Chiefs – “a brilliant experience, from a family point of view as well” – remains especially eye-catching.
Prior to his move, his wife Zita had just given birth to their third child, Rex, and they joined him in Hamilton soon after along with their older kids, Felix and Gaia, who were then five and three.
Ryan played 17 matches in 18 weeks but having topped the table by 11 points with 13 wins in 14 matches and then having beaten the Reds and Brumbies to reach the final, the Chiefs ran into a superlative defensive performance by serial champions, the Crusaders.
“There wasn’t a whole pile of downtime. There was a lot of rugby and obviously, we came quite close in the end and just fell at the last hurdle. We were a good side,” says Ryan, now sounding rueful.
An intense rugby experience, it was also an eye-opener. While this Munster like a high ball-in-play time, so do the Chiefs. The tone was set by 44 minutes of ball-in-play time in their opening game against the Crusaders.
“I went into the meeting the week after and it was: ‘That’s okay but we want to keep going.’ I was like: ‘Jeeze, this is mental.’ They were saying: ‘We want to kick the ball long and long.’ They were giving out about the ball going into touch. ‘We want to just run everything.’
“That was a big wake-up call for me. ‘I need to get way fitter here’,” he said, adding: “And they don’t do box kicks. I don’t think I was in a single caterpillar ruck down in the Chiefs last year, which is mental.”
But it was also great fun.
“Genuinely, what I enjoyed most was playing with some of the lads who could just make magic happen. Emoni Narawa was just magic, and then obviously Damian McKenzie at 10, and [Etene] Nanai-Seturo and Shaun Stevenson. The back three were crazy. They’d make a line break out of nothing.
“It was extremely enjoyable to come out of a ruck and see the lads under the posts and that happened a lot. That was probably the most enjoyable thing, playing on a team who were that individually talented and being a part of this buzz, just saying: ‘God, how am I a part of this team? I’m just hitting rucks here’.”
Although he admits Munster were at a low ebb when he first returned from Wasps, they were on an upward curve when he moved on.
“Things built from then on, it wasn’t just in the period when I was away. It was definitely coming, you could tell. It was building nicely.”
Ryan has also detected “a big change” in the Munster squad’s mentality since returning.
“There’s a lot of belief in the squad, from the younger lads as well. They’re coming through younger and younger. Now there are lads who are 18 – I’m nearly twice their age – and they’re very competent and there’s a lot of competition in the squad, which is really good.”
Games like next Saturday’s final rematch were also part of the allure of coming home. Munster-Stormers is a rivalry now.
“Yeah, it is actually and it’s going to be a big game. I’ve no doubt they’re going to come to Thomond Park looking for a little bit of revenge. We’re looking forward to it and hopefully, we’ll cement this rivalry now with another win.”
