The ‘desperation’ James Ryan feels ‘to do something special’ and the ‘line in the sand moment for Leinster’ that he has never forgotten
James Ryan now understands the value of what Rob Kearney, inset, said to him after 2018's Champions Cup final (INPHO/Ryan Byrne and PA Images)
James Ryan loves the Investec Champions Cup semi-final weekend. He has played in five, won four and having missed out on Leinster Rugby’s last two appearances through injury, the 29-year-old is eager to get back at it against RC Toulon, hoping to put a huge shift in for the Irish club chasing its fifth title.
The Ireland second row is no Johnny-come-lately to the Blues’ cause. Long before he got to wear the shirt, he was roaring the team on as a teenage fanatic. A never-forgotten semi-final moment for him was Leinster’s seminal breakthrough – dethroning Munster at Croke Park in 2009 and taking a giant step towards winning the trophy for the first time.
Ryan was a 12-year-old obsessed with the fortunes of a team under the baton of Michael Cheika, the upstart Australian who dreamed big and delivered. “That was such an important game,” he remembered with a chuckle. “That was probably a bit of a line in the sand moment for Leinster. I’ll never forget it. That game is iconic in terms of Irish rugby and probably a result that people didn’t see coming, but a big, big part of the Leinster story.”
The triumph lit a fuse in Ryan and attending more matches became his thing. “I would have gone to a lot of the big European games with Leinster,” he explained. “I was lucky to travel over with my dad and my brothers when we beat Northampton in the Millennium Stadium to win the Heineken Cup, as it was, in 2011.
“It’s unreal. I can’t wait.”
“I was there in Twickenham the following year when we beat Ulster. So, I was obsessed growing up watching Leinster. It was all I ever wanted to do. This is a competition we love playing in and I love playing in.
“I don’t think I’ve played Toulon before; I don’t think we’ve ever beaten Toulon [Leinster have, but their 2021 round of 16 success came via a Match Result Resolution Committee and not on the pitch as the pandemic era fixture was cancelled at the 11th hour]. Several big losses over the years, but a semi-final at home in Dublin, it’s unreal. I can’t wait.”
Four past Champions Cup matches versus Toulon, four Leinster defeats between April 2014 and December 2015. Ryan recalled watching from home in April 2015 when Leinster came closest to victory, Jimmy Gopperth’s last-gasp regulation time drop goal in Marseille coming within inches of making the target and stopping Toulon’s three-in-a-row title bid.
“(Bryan) Habana got the intercept,” volunteered Ryan, sharp as a tack with his long-ago Leinster fan memories. “I wasn’t over at that one, but I remember watching at home and it was such a close game.
“Obviously, Toulon had such a star-studded squad; I remember that team they had was ridiculous, and Leinster were maybe a little bit inconsistent that year. That was a game that went right to the wire, and it was Habana who was the difference in the end in terms of his intercept.
“This tournament is very important to Toulon. It’s a very important tournament for teams like Toulouse and Bordeaux, but Toulon as well. They love this competition, have a lot of history and have won it several times, so they will relish this semi-final game.”
So will Ryan. When Rob Kearney told him in the wake of Leinster’s 2018 Champions Cup title success in Bilbao to “soak this in, days like this don’t come around very often”, the then first-year newcomer to the team thought the veteran full-back sounded strange, that winning would surely be the norm every year.
It hasn’t. “That’s the thing, I appreciate the wins now more as a 29-year-old than maybe I did as a 22-year-old because we have had a lot of close calls and heartbreak between now and back then.
“So, I understand now how hard it is to win at this level. That’s why I enjoyed the URC trophy we won at the end of last season. Because it meant so much, I appreciated that a bit more. So absolutely, that [what Kearney said] still rings true, but it’s making sure that we’re not looking too far ahead because we have got this semi-final to look after first.”
The disappointment of not winning the Champions Cup since 2018 is something Ryan doesn’t wallow in. Amid the doom and gloom of Leinster’s hat-trick final loss in 2024, he insisted at the post-match media briefing in Tottenham, “When you want to do great things and you want to achieve great things, you always want the risk of failing greatly as well.
“Would I rather be in a team that tries to be the best team in Europe every year and have risks in a team like this? I still would. That’s part of trying to do special things, you run the risk of feeling like this.”
Two years on from that impassioned outburst, he is just as enthusiastic to embrace these high-risk situations. “My thinking is the same. Our goal every year is to be challenging on two fronts, challenging for trophies in the URC and the Champions Cup.
“That is always our ambition, and it’s the same this year. That [what was said in 2024] still rings true. Of course, there is a risk of losing and of coming away with nothing, but the squad is as hungry as ever now to make the most out of these next few weeks.
“You look at the top clubs in Europe, they’re in the same boat. They’re all trying to do really special things, and that’s why we love the competition. Because at this level, you have such quality and there’s such a desperation from all sides to do something special.
“I’m feeling pretty good,” he added, assessing his form in a season he came into after touring Australia with the British and Irish Lions. “I was happy with the Six Nations. Ireland had a bit of a slow start and then finished well. I picked up a knock towards the end, but I got back to Leinster, played the Sale game and then played the Ulster game…
“I’m feeling good, feeling excited. This is why you play the game, you know what I mean? You put in all the work. A lot goes into the season, a lot of effort, a lot of time. You think about the number of guys that play and it’s to put the group in a position like this where you’re playing in a semi-final at home. This is where it matters. This is where you want to be.”
Ryan signed off with a nod to the influence ex-skipper and current coach Leo Cullen has had on him as a fellow lock. “The game is a bit different. If Leo was playing today, he’d be getting a red card every week. You can see some of the old clips of him,” he quipped with a mischievous smile. “But thankfully, he’s in the coaching box now.
“He has coached me at Leinster since I started and particularly as a second row, I’ve learned a lot from him. Game-specific stuff as a lock, around the lineout, around set-piece, but also around mindset, how to prepare properly, how to lead – Leo’s been a massive influence on my career.”
- This James Ryan interview with Liam Heagney is featured in Saturday’s official EPCR match programme for the Leinster versus Toulon semi-final in Dublin