A NEW WEEK, a new opponent and a new captain. As Ireland look to build on Saturday’s superb defeat of New Zealand, James Ryan is the man charged with leading the squad for this weekend’s game against Argentina, which closes out the Autumn Nations Series for Andy Farrell and his players.

The Leinster lock steps into the role with usual captain Johnny Sexton ruled out through injury, although the out-half has remained with the squad to see out the final week of the autumn internationals.

However his absence on the training pitch will be felt. A few weeks ago Ryan spoke about how Sexton tends to drive things for the rest of the group. Now the responsibility falls to him.

“I suppose how we make it up is everyone else on the team stepping up a little bit,” Ryan explains.

“That’s why today and tomorrow are very important sessions for us. It’s not even down to us, it’s up to everyone to drive the standards, drive the energy.

We shouldn’t be relying on Johnny, it’s an Ireland game this week, at home at the Aviva. Hopefully we’ll have a big crowd in. There’s going to be an opportunity as well for other guys coming in. When he’s in it’s absolutely brilliant but when he’s not there as well everyone’s got to step up and we’ve got to find our own voices. We can just be relying on him either, any opportunity you get to play for Ireland, you shouldn’t need extra motivation.”

Ryan knows the importance of finding your own voice. He is a very different personality and leader to Sexton, but understands that to be an effective captain, he needs to do things his way.

“I’m not too interested in giving a lad a bollocking or whatever else. I’m captain this week but to be honest it doesn’t change a whole lot for me. I just want to get my own performance right. I think that’s the best way for me to lead. There are plenty of guys there that can drive those things on that side.”

He’s also grown to become more comfortable with taking on the captaincy, having first led the team against England last November and also acted as captain during the July Test this year.

“Initially it did feel like a bit of a weight on my shoulders in some ways. It was hard not to (see it that way).

It doesn’t actually change a whole lot for me during the week. There are a number of guys who are good in a leadership capacity. The advice Faz gave me when I was first captain was to be myself and to focus on my own game. That’s the best piece of advice I could have gotten, so that’s how I try to operate whenever I’m given the honour of captaining.”

Farrell is expected to make a number of changes to his starting team for Sunday’s meeting with Argentina, who recorded a comfortable 37-16 win over Italy last weekend.

Yet whoever gets the nod will be expected to continue the high standards set against the All Blacks. 

And Ryan feels the group have plenty more to offer on the back of two superb performances against Japan and New Zealand.

“Even some of the performances this group has had… That England game and the French game when we went away during Covid (last year), we knew we weren’t very far away. They were just little errors that were very costly.

“The performances that we have had more recently have given us a bit of belief and a bit of confidence. Obviously the New Zealand game but you could argue that the Japanese performance was probably an even better one.

“We had good performances over the summer and at the end of the Six Nations so we feel like we’re going pretty well.

“Having said that we have looked at the game and there is definitely a lot more that we can be better at if we want to judge the performance rather than the occasion. That was the good thing, we do feel like there is a lot more in us.”

Ireland centre Garry Ringrose added that the New Zealand win was one of the most testing games of his career.

“It was one of the toughest games I’ve played in,” Ringrose explained.

“Against a side of their quality, you really can’t afford to switch off for one second. The moments we did, we suffered. Mental intensity was definitely up there, as high as it can be.

“And physicality, I’m sure you could feel it and see it. It was right up there too. On Sunday, I wasn’t up to too much, recovering and keeping the feet up.

“On Monday, it was about trying to get the body right for this week. We’re lucky there’s an eight-day turnaround (for Argentina). That makes it a bit easier.”

Updated at 6.56pm to include Garry Ringrose quotes.