Ireland lock James Ryan has revealed what he had to do in “tackle school” after being banned for a dangerous cleanout on Springbok hooker Malcolm Marx.
Ryan was initially yellow-carded in the 20th minute of the Dublin Test, before the the sanction was upgraded to red following a foul play review.
The Boks went on to claim a 24-13 win in a bruising contest that saw the hosts shown four yellow cards and one red.
An independent disciplinary committee later assessed the incident as mid-range foul play, setting an entry point of a six-week ban. That was reduced to three weeks due to Ryan’s clean record and early admission of guilt, and further cut after he completed World Rugby’s Coaching Intervention Programme, meaning he missed only two matches for Leinster.
Speaking about the incident, Ryan admitted the red card hit him hard.
“I was devastated, to be honest. Because it was at such an important point in the game. We’d just scored, the try got reversed. They got a penalty and I was sent off,” he told the Irish Examiner. “Big moment in the game and I felt like I let the lads down a little bit there really.
“The big thing now for me is just making sure I learn from it and it doesn’t happen again. Because at that level, it’s such fine margins and it probably cost us a little bit in the end.
“I’m not going to make any excuses for it … it was just a poor moment for me more than anything.”
Ryan also explained what “tackle school” involved.
“It was just some scenario stuff, so we’d kind of mimic maybe the ruck again,” he explained. “We’d put a couple of tackle pads into the back of the ruck to lengthen it a little bit.
“I talked through maybe what I should have done differently and what I will do next time. We’d record that and send it on to them … and they were happy with it.”
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