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Kick off: 3.15pm, Sunday. Venue: Aviva Stadium. How to follow: The Irish Times liveblog will start from 2.30pm. On TV: Virgin Media TV, Channel 4 and BT Sport.
It's hard to believe that Rhys Ruddock is nearing the end of his 10th season with Leinster. There have been a fair chunk of games in that time too, 158 appearances in all, but this season, finally, he's become an integral part of the team like never before.
He goes into tomorrow’s semi-final having been an ever-present in the Heineken Champions Cup, and having started all bar the home game against Bath. This tenth season has arguably been his best to date.
“It is mad. It doesn’t feel anything like that. I still feel like a young buck,” says the 28-year-old, who made his debut as an 18-year-old against the Dragons at Rodney Parade in December 2009, an apt starting point.
“We lost. It wasn’t a great result but it was funny playing the first game against them because my dad had been coaching them there maybe five or six seasons before. His sisters came to the game because it was just down the road.”
Ruddock was born while his dad, Mike, was coaching Bective Rangers in 1990, and after a successful spell at Swansea, Mike returned to Dublin to coach Leinster from 1997 to 2000 before going back to Wales, where he coached Ebbw Vale and the Dragons, before then coaching Wales to the Grand Slam in 2005.
Few families are as much an amalgam of Irish and Welsh as the Ruddocks. His dad is Welsh with an Irish mum from Clare, while his mum, Bernie, whose father hailed from Newport, is a Dub.
Relocating to the Leinster academy from the Ospreys equivalent, despite having played for Wales Under-16s, was always on his radar and was a decision made easier by having boarded for two years in Millfield School in Somerset while his dad was coaching Worcester. Have boots will travel. Like father, like son.
“It’s all worked out quite well,” he says with a smile.
Yet were Leinster to win the Heineken Champions Cup this season, it would probably be the sweetest triumph of all for Ruddock.
After witnessing their first Heineken Cup from the academy, Ruddock was still only breaking into the Leinster squad when they won it in 2011 and 2012, and didn't play in the knockout stages of either of those wins. Last season he tore his hamstring against Exeter, and returned for the quarter-final against Saracens when he probably shouldn't have done.
“I had the training under my belt but on the day of the game I felt a little bit sore so that wasn’t ideal.” He was in the match-day 23 for the final, but wasn’t used, which made for a slightly bittersweet experience.
Broken arm
“I could feel that there was something special building and the group was going really well. They probably didn’t even notice it themselves because they were so involved in the day-to-day and getting ready for each match, but I still felt a part of it, having that little bit of hope that I might get involved in some of those big days.”
Indeed, he started both the semi-final and final of the Pro14 success, which he ranks with the 2013 European Challenge Cup final win over Stade Francais.
Probably the cruellest injury of Ruddock’s career was the broken arm he sustained in December 2014. He’d been a regular starter for Leinster and Ireland until then, and when he returned for the Tbilisi Cup with Emerging Ireland, he broke his arm again.
“Those were probably the darker moments, when the worry gets the better of you. You start to think ‘maybe I’m not going to be able to come back from it’ but I was able to get the surgery done pretty quick and realised that it wasn’t quite as bad as I thought.”
Other lows were the semi-final defeats to Clermont and Scarlets two seasons ago.
“They were the first time I had experienced back-to-back disappointments of that magnitude and looking back now, they really were big moments in terms of fuelling the group for seasons to come.”
The injuries and the intense back row competition at Leinster have also made him prioritise his physical wellbeing. On his summer holidays with his girlfriend Liv to Sri Lanka, he supplemented his favourite hobby of surfing by taking up yoga. Ever since he joined a lifesaving club in Swansea at the age of 12, he’s loved surfing.
“So I think I have to live near the sea and somewhere I can surf.”
Music and cooking are other passions.
If it means sacrificing a day of bench pressing for a little bit of mobility then I'll do that
“I’d spend hours cooking. I’m always trying new things.”
He plays the guitar, but concedes he’s nothing like the singer his dad is. He’s also doing a strength and conditioning course online, with a view to maybe working with his brother, Ciaran, in his FFS gyms.
As for taking up yoga, he says: “I didn’t want to train the house down over the summer because I needed a break mentally and physically, but I still wanted to do things that would challenge me in a different way and make me a little bit more flexible. Flexibility was the big thing coming back from a hamstring injury.”
Such was his improved mobility that he has adapted some of the yoga exercises to his weekly regime.
Added responsibility
“I don’t feel like I need to do huge amounts of bench press. At the age I’m at now I’m strong, so if it means sacrificing a day of bench pressing for a little bit of mobility then I’ll do that.”
He’s still always searching for ways to improve his game too, stripping it down this season to being dynamic in his carries, winning collisions and making dominant tackles. Known for his hard, straight carrying, Ruddock has also improved his footwork, thanks to the work done on the training ground with Stuart Lancaster.
“At first he was on to me about that intent on the carry and moving onto the ball, and then he challenged me to use footwork late at the line. He reckoned that a big man who can use that footwork is a lot harder to defend. Having watched Jack Conan it’s not hard to see how that challenges defenders. Jack’s unbelievable at it. He can take the ball to the line and use footwork really late.”
Both Leo Cullen and Joe Schmidt have also turned to him as a captain. He's led Ireland to six wins out of six. He admits this brings added responsibility and pressure, but be it Brian O'Driscoll, Leo Cullen, Paul O'Connell, Rory Best, Isa Nacewa or whoever, he's played under a fair few good ones.
“Everyone is so different and what that shows me is that there is no right way or wrong way, and the best way is to be yourself, because people will see through anything but that, and then ultimately they won’t follow you.
“There are traits that you can emulate. Be honest, and be one of the hardest working people in the group, they seem to be traits of all the good captains I’ve seen.”
Along with being down to earth, and having no airs and graces, these are the traits which people who know Ruddock use to describe him.
“God knows where my personality comes from, but I certainly look up to Mum [Bernie] and Dad, and my brother [Ciaran] and sister [Katie]. What I try to respect and emulate is mostly from them. Their values shape the way I am and the way I act hugely.”
Although he’s a big, physically aggressive player, Ruddock comes across as being quite calm on the pitch.
“I don’t know how that happened because I had a terrible temper growing up,” he reveals, laughing. “I’ve mellowed and I’ve had to be captain at under-age level so I tried to set a good example, and not lose the head. But I definitely had a terrible temper until I was about 15 or 16.”
Six of Ruddock’s last seven caps have been as captain, but since making his debut in 2012 only 10 of his 21 caps have been from the start, with none in the Six Nations.
He regards captaining his country as a great honour, but given the choice of playing the big games and testing himself against the best – “I’d choose that every time” – he confirms.
That second broken arm in 2015 scuppered his World Cup hopes, although he was called out as a late replacement and played the ten minutes of the quarter-final defeat by Argentina.
Bigger threat
Some of his best performances for Leinster have been against French sides, ie that semi-final against Clermont and this season’s meetings with Toulouse, and one could well imagine there have been, and will be again, overtures from the Top 14.
But, represented by Navy Blue Sports, accepting a two-year deal taking him up to 2020 was a no brainer, given the possibilities to be part of “incredible” Leinster and Irish teams who could win silverware, and the coaching in both. The core of his rationale, as ever, is his ever burning desire for self-improvement.
He knows he will have to play his best rugby to make that World Cup squad and in the big games, with none bigger than tomorrow’s semi-final, and Ruddock agrees Toulouse represent a bigger threat on Sunday than they did in January.
I'd love to reach the pinnacle of the game and to become a lion
“They’re incredibly exciting to watch and it’s in that traditional Toulouse way,” he adds, citing the offloading game of their big forwards, the footwork of their backline and the need to control the collisions in order to set a defence without any gaps.
Loose kicks or passes, he notes, will also be punished.
“They’re certainly a livewire team and a pretty scary prospect to play against. I reckon this will be the toughest game we’ve played all year, just because they’ve got loads of confidence and they’ve really peaked this season.”
However, an element of fear, he agreed, was good and while Leinster have been the hunted ones this season, Ruddock welcomes that too.
“I think it definitely keeps us on our toes. We know that teams are going to bring their best performance against us because of what we did last year. I think it’s a good mentality for us to have. It doesn’t allow for any complacency. Especially from now on, every team is going to be bringing their best performance, so we need to as well.”
He can’t remember the last time he looked at any of his medals, but well remembers the feeling of satisfaction in the dressing-room after sharing big wins with his teammates. He wants more of that.
“When I do finish I want to feel like I’ve given everything I can to make all my dreams and aspirations come true. I don’t want to have any regrets when I retire.”
His ambitions don’t stop with this season and making that World Cup either. With his Irish/Welsh roots, it comes as no surprise to learn he has another one as well.
“I’d love to reach the pinnacle of the game, and to become a Lion would be something that I’ve always dreamt of since a young age. I haven’t really come close to that yet but I’d also feel I haven’t come close to reaching my potential yet.”
“If I could achieve that, and keep being part of this Leinster team and hopefully winning more trophies, that’s a big drive of mine. I’d love to be part of some big days with Ireland as well so there’s loads to achieve. And I’m lucky, I’m loving my rugby at the moment.”
Ten years on the fire still burns, as much it ever did.
