THE YEAR IS 2017. James Ryan is 21 and yet to be capped by Leinster. Yet Joe Schmidt sees something special in the young second row and brings him on Ireland’s summer tour to the USA and Japan.
It comes at the end of a testing year for Ryan. Taking part in a Captain’s Run with UCD before an AIL clash with Lansdowne, Ryan suffers a high-grade hamstring tear. It sidelines him for over six months. That May, as Ryan works his way back to full fitness, Schmidt arranges for him to line out for a Munster development side against the Ireland U20s at Thomond Park. The next month Schmidt hands Ryan his first Test cap in New Jersey.
“Joe was huge for me,” says Ryan, speaking after a light training session in Abbotstown yesterday.
“A big influence for me and my own career. I learned a lot about how to prepare, how to be a player and how to perform at the top level consistently, as much on the pitch as off the pitch, what it takes to perform in terms of the preparation you need to put in.
“Tools like visualisation, Joe used to go to the ‘mind gym’ a lot. They were all things I learned in the first year of my career that I still do today, so a big influence for me.”
James Ryan and Joe Schmidt in 2019. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
Ryan came in on the cusp of a golden period for Schmidt’s Ireland team, which coincided with a trophy-laded spell for Leinster. Within a year of his Ireland debut the second row would be a Grand Slam, Pro 14 and Champions Cup winner. Ryan played for club and country 24 times before he lost a game of pro rugby. Schmidt had the national team on the rise, and the foundations he laid at Leinster between 2010 and 2013 were an important part of the success the province enjoyed later that decade.
“Obviously what he did with Leinster was amazing. [Michael] Cheika came in and sort of changed the mentality a bit and maybe the perception of Leinster and then I think he sort of took over the mantle. Brought it to a new level.
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“I would say maybe he changed the expectation at a national level of what could be achieved. Some of the wins obviously stand out, beating New Zealand in Chicago, beating them at home for the first time. The Grand Slam in 2018.
I would say the ambition changed because of his legacy.”
Ryan feels Schmidt’s impact is still being felt to this day. Players like Garry Ringrose, Josh van der Flier, Robbie Henshaw, Tadhg Furlong, Tadhg Beirne and Andrew Porter also came through at Test level under Schmidt’s watch.
“So many guys learned so much from him,” Ryan continues. “How to prepare and everything. Just the standards that are required every week. Even Paul O’Connell, he definitely had a huge influence on him – he’d say that himself. So his legacy lives on, I would say.”
James Ryan in Abbotstown yesterday. Tom Maher / INPHO
Tom Maher / INPHO / INPHO
O’Connell can offer a different perspective. The current Ireland forwards coach was already a battle-hardened second row and a legend of Irish rugby by the time Schmidt took on the Ireland job in 2013.
“I was older when Joe came to Ireland,” O’Connell says. “I think one of the things he was good at is letting you know what he expected from you, then you could go and chase that down and you knew that if you delivered A, B and C, you had a good chance of being picked.
“I probably stopped trying to be a second-row that I was seeing on TV that was doing things really well and trying to copy that. I knew what I had to be good at, and I really enjoyed that.
He was very clear in how he coached. I think coaching had moved on a lot but we were still relying a little bit on emotion at times, whereas he was technically very good.
“Everyone talks about his detail. He had very good teaching principles. He wouldn’t just tell you what he wanted you to do, through the sessions he would actually give you a pathway of how to actually change the habit and get better at something. That was a really enjoyable aspect for me.”
It also informed how O’Connell would approach his own coaching career. The man who famously asked his teammates for ‘manic aggression’ in a Croke Park dressing room relies less on emotion since swapping his playing boots for the clipboard and whistle. The game, and it’s players, have moved on.
“You’re probably trying to give the players a nice, simple plan and some simple information that can help them do the job, but you’re trying to stay as clear as possible.
I think the emotion is probably the icing on the cake now, whereas maybe back in my day it was the whole cake, we weren’t too worried about the icing!”
Schmidt’s ways left a lasting impression on O’Connell, with some of the New Zealander’s ideas around the breakdown still relevant for this current group of Irish players.
“We would still do bits and pieces of what he had in place back in the day. Everyone is probably doing some kind of version of the same thing at the breakdown anyway but we still have bits and pieces of the language that he used to use. That was a big part of how he coached.
Schmidt joined Ireland towards the end of Paul O'Connell's playing career. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
“He was the first ever coach really that I experienced that was very consistent in how he spoke about various parts of the game and because of that you had real clarity in what was expected in different parts of the game and the ruck was no different.”
Schmidt is back in Ireland this week as head coach of the Wallabies, and an obvious narrative is that he’ll have an inside track on this Irish team – even if some of the main characters have moved on since his time in charge. Ireland’s World Cup quarter-final defeat to New Zealand last year remains fresh in the memory. At the time, Schmidt was an assistant coach with the All Blacks and his fingerprints were all over some of their best moments at the Stade de France.
“His rugby brain, his strike plays are always world class,” says Ryan.
“That’s a conversation that we’ve had. There is going to be something that we probably haven’t seen. So for us, it’s just making sure we are loaded for everything really, defensively, because I’ve no doubt he will have a few tricks up his sleeve.”
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'The ambition changed' - Irish rugby still benefiting from Schmidt's teachings
THE YEAR IS 2017. James Ryan is 21 and yet to be capped by Leinster. Yet Joe Schmidt sees something special in the young second row and brings him on Ireland’s summer tour to the USA and Japan.
It comes at the end of a testing year for Ryan. Taking part in a Captain’s Run with UCD before an AIL clash with Lansdowne, Ryan suffers a high-grade hamstring tear. It sidelines him for over six months. That May, as Ryan works his way back to full fitness, Schmidt arranges for him to line out for a Munster development side against the Ireland U20s at Thomond Park. The next month Schmidt hands Ryan his first Test cap in New Jersey.
“Joe was huge for me,” says Ryan, speaking after a light training session in Abbotstown yesterday.
“A big influence for me and my own career. I learned a lot about how to prepare, how to be a player and how to perform at the top level consistently, as much on the pitch as off the pitch, what it takes to perform in terms of the preparation you need to put in.
“Tools like visualisation, Joe used to go to the ‘mind gym’ a lot. They were all things I learned in the first year of my career that I still do today, so a big influence for me.”
Ryan came in on the cusp of a golden period for Schmidt’s Ireland team, which coincided with a trophy-laded spell for Leinster. Within a year of his Ireland debut the second row would be a Grand Slam, Pro 14 and Champions Cup winner. Ryan played for club and country 24 times before he lost a game of pro rugby. Schmidt had the national team on the rise, and the foundations he laid at Leinster between 2010 and 2013 were an important part of the success the province enjoyed later that decade.
“Obviously what he did with Leinster was amazing. [Michael] Cheika came in and sort of changed the mentality a bit and maybe the perception of Leinster and then I think he sort of took over the mantle. Brought it to a new level.
“I would say maybe he changed the expectation at a national level of what could be achieved. Some of the wins obviously stand out, beating New Zealand in Chicago, beating them at home for the first time. The Grand Slam in 2018.
Ryan feels Schmidt’s impact is still being felt to this day. Players like Garry Ringrose, Josh van der Flier, Robbie Henshaw, Tadhg Furlong, Tadhg Beirne and Andrew Porter also came through at Test level under Schmidt’s watch.
“So many guys learned so much from him,” Ryan continues. “How to prepare and everything. Just the standards that are required every week. Even Paul O’Connell, he definitely had a huge influence on him – he’d say that himself. So his legacy lives on, I would say.”
O’Connell can offer a different perspective. The current Ireland forwards coach was already a battle-hardened second row and a legend of Irish rugby by the time Schmidt took on the Ireland job in 2013.
“I was older when Joe came to Ireland,” O’Connell says. “I think one of the things he was good at is letting you know what he expected from you, then you could go and chase that down and you knew that if you delivered A, B and C, you had a good chance of being picked.
“I probably stopped trying to be a second-row that I was seeing on TV that was doing things really well and trying to copy that. I knew what I had to be good at, and I really enjoyed that.
“Everyone talks about his detail. He had very good teaching principles. He wouldn’t just tell you what he wanted you to do, through the sessions he would actually give you a pathway of how to actually change the habit and get better at something. That was a really enjoyable aspect for me.”
It also informed how O’Connell would approach his own coaching career. The man who famously asked his teammates for ‘manic aggression’ in a Croke Park dressing room relies less on emotion since swapping his playing boots for the clipboard and whistle. The game, and it’s players, have moved on.
“You’re probably trying to give the players a nice, simple plan and some simple information that can help them do the job, but you’re trying to stay as clear as possible.
Schmidt’s ways left a lasting impression on O’Connell, with some of the New Zealander’s ideas around the breakdown still relevant for this current group of Irish players.
“We would still do bits and pieces of what he had in place back in the day. Everyone is probably doing some kind of version of the same thing at the breakdown anyway but we still have bits and pieces of the language that he used to use. That was a big part of how he coached.
“He was the first ever coach really that I experienced that was very consistent in how he spoke about various parts of the game and because of that you had real clarity in what was expected in different parts of the game and the ruck was no different.”
Schmidt is back in Ireland this week as head coach of the Wallabies, and an obvious narrative is that he’ll have an inside track on this Irish team – even if some of the main characters have moved on since his time in charge. Ireland’s World Cup quarter-final defeat to New Zealand last year remains fresh in the memory. At the time, Schmidt was an assistant coach with the All Blacks and his fingerprints were all over some of their best moments at the Stade de France.
“His rugby brain, his strike plays are always world class,” says Ryan.
“That’s a conversation that we’ve had. There is going to be something that we probably haven’t seen. So for us, it’s just making sure we are loaded for everything really, defensively, because I’ve no doubt he will have a few tricks up his sleeve.”
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Ireland james ryan Joe Schmidt legacy Paul O'Connell Rugby