THERE HAVE BEEN three parts to the James Ryan story.

The first act saw him land the Grand Slam, Pro14 and Heineken Cup in his rookie season. It took 22 games before he saw what defeat looked like and all this time the big Leinster and Irish second row was tipped as the next Paul O’Connell.

“My first season was surreal,” he says. “When we won all these things, I remember other lads saying to me, enjoy this, cherish it, days like this don’t come around too often. Hearing this, I was thinking what’s this fella talking about?” 

He’d soon learn.

Ireland went into decline the way Ireland usually do when it is a World Cup year.

Leinster, meanwhile, kept knocking on the Champions Cup door but couldn’t add to their 2018 success in Europe.

And then a Lions squad was named for the 2021 tour of South Africa and Ryan’s name wasn’t on it. Worse than that, a series of concussion injuries saw him sidelined for chunks of time.

That was when part 2 ended and the latest chapter began.

In the summer, he rediscovered his form, excelling for Ireland against the All Blacks on their summer tour, credited with making the decision that won the series, when he persuaded Johnny Sexton to kick to the corner rather than at the posts following a typical New Zealand comeback in the final Test.

Sexton heeded Ryan’s advice; Rob Herring scored the game-changing try from the subsequent maul, Ireland were on their way to a 2-1 win and Ryan on his way back to his peak.

“The big thing was I was just getting a bit of confidence back,” he said yesterday. “It had been a tricky couple of seasons in terms of the head injuries and the extended periods I had on the sidelines and being in and out of the game a bit.

Photosport / Grant Down/INPHO Photosport / Grant Down/INPHO / Grant Down/INPHO

“It definitely took a while when I got back at the latter end of last season to – I suppose it’s a contact sport – to find my confidence to go and hit things again and to feel like I was at my best again.”

The question now is whether he and Ireland can build on what they did in the summer.

Ranked No1 in the world, they meet the world champions this evening in Dublin, all the while knowing their careers could be defined by what they do in next year’s World Cup. Many expect Ireland to choke once again at the quarter-final stage which is why this evening’s game against the world champion Springboks will give people an indication of where they really are in the pecking order.

“People wouldn’t have said that Ireland would have gone over to New Zealand and won a Test series against the All Blacks but that happened,” he said.

“Now, that’s behind us, of course, but the point I’m trying to make is that the only way to change these things, to change these narratives, is by winning, and is by having success. So for us it’s all about winning.

“That’s what it’s all about this weekend. So yeah, we have an opportunity to play against a big, power-based team this weekend and it’s exciting. We’ll see where we’re at the back end of it.”