Quite apart from James Ryan’s prodigious talent the ability to filter out the extraneous noise is a cherished attribute. He hasn’t played a match yet this season, a statistic that will be rectified when he takes to the pitch in the Principality stadium in Cardiff on Saturday.
Put a squad of players in a post match review situation and what emerges for the most part is a homogeneous description of the findings. A point of difference is a player who delves a little deeper and addresses the specifics in performance terms.
Ryan wasn’t part of the Twickenham mauling but he hopes to be part of the solution. The defence and lineout woes have dominated the post England debate and he addressed those issues. “They’re among the two biggest areas we need to improve on from the weekend.
“We missed 34 tackles; that’s an easy fix if we’ve got the right mindset. The lineout has been a strength for us in the past (but) definitely wasn’t on the weekend. From a forward perspective, a big focus this week has been on getting that right. It’s never down to one person.
“Sometimes what looks like an overthrow, when you look much closer, it’s because the lift isn’t right or the movement isn’t what it needs to be or has been that week. It’s our process right across the board in that regard. It has been a big focus this week on sharpening that up.”
Ireland’s three defeats in 2019, to England and Wales in the Six Nations and again to Eddie Jones side last weekend, bear similar hallmarks. Ryan admitted: “There’s a pretty consistent pattern in what went wrong. In all three defeats, we conceded too many points, so defensively we need to be sharper; too many missed tackles. We need to work quicker, smarter.
“The lineout as well, we looked at England in the Six Nations game, they were that bit quicker than us, they were getting set quicker and we were a jump behind (again) at the weekend. I think it’s pretty similar. Technically there are definitely consistencies there but no, I don’t think there’s an overriding sense of panic from us.
“The big thing for us now is genuinely learning from what went wrong, because it’s a great opportunity this week to hopefully get us on the right foot again.”
Ryan pointed out that will require a twin track approach. “It’s a combination of things. It’s what we need to be better at technically. The lineout, defence and our attack can be better definitely. So it’s all those technical bits we’ve looked at fixing.
“And then it’s making sure that we’re absolutely ready to go this week in terms of, emotionally, because maybe we weren’t ready to go last weekend. With the games, as tough as they are at this level, if you’re even five or 10 per cent off, it can hurt you massively. For us this week it’s making sure that mentally we’re primed.
“It’s important that we channel that emotion in the right direction. It’s great for the guys that are picked and have the opportunity to play this week. Wales certainly will be very motivated. It’s Warren Gatland’s last home game. They’re a very passionate country. We’ve got to make sure that we bring our own emotion this week and hopefully bring a bit of the hurt from the weekend, channel that in the right way.”
He was adamant that Schmidt’s departure after the World Cup hasn’t distracted the players. “No, I don’t feel it to be honest. I think half of us forget it sometimes with what’s going on at the moment. We’ve got to look at it much more specifically and think what’s going wrong.
“It’s not because of that stuff, it’s because we need to be sharper at the lineout, it’s because our defence needs to be better, it’s because our attack needs to be more fluid. It’s a combination of those things as opposed to who is leaving and all that.”
