After what was surely one of the toughest weeks of his career, James Ryan responded in the best possible manner on Friday night by delivering the kind of performance that was far more like his old self.
Being left out of the Lions squad stung for a player, who not that long ago was being tipped as a Test starter. Not many people had him down for not travelling to South Africa at all.
Injuries played their part and as Ryan bids to rediscover his best form, he took a major step in the right direction when he powered Leinster to victory over Ulster.
Ryan made a whopping 29 tackles and stole two five-metre lineouts early on and that he did so against his Ireland second-row partner Iain Henderson, who got the nod from Warren Gatland, will have made his own performance all the sweeter.
That said, it won’t make up for being overlooked for the Lions. “James had a bit of a disjoined run,” Leinster head coach Leo Cullen said. “If you think of when we met up first (for the restart), an unbelievably innocuous incident in training where off the back of it he ends up having shoulder surgery.
“He has a little bit of a late start getting into the return to play, so you can sometimes chase the season a little bit. A couple of bangs then during the Six Nations, and it just gets a bit disjointed.
“But James is such a great voice in the group already. He’s so young, still 24 years of age, has unbelievable experience built up and he’s very committed to the cause.
“It was good to see him get through 80 minutes (against Ulster) and still going strong at the end. He’s going to get stronger and stronger.”
Cullen believes Ryan will bounce back from his Lions snub and will be ready if Gatland comes calling on the back of potential injuries. “He’s naturally disappointed, as you can imagine,” Cullen continued.
“In many ways he’s been probably the form lock in the northern hemisphere, you could argue, over the last couple of seasons, he’s won a European Cup, won a Grand Slam.
“And as I said, this season, a bit disjointed for a few different reasons, but all you can focus on is the next thing, so that’s the most important bit and that’s what he was doing.
“So it was focus on the next challenge, try to play well and put his hand up so if something happens to somebody else, he’s hopefully ready to go. That’s all he can control at the moment. He’s been good, and very vocal in the group this week, which is good.”
Leinster’s Lions contingent played a key role in their side making the most of Munster’s defeat at home to Connacht. Jack Conan came off the bench to score a crucial second-half try, while Robbie Henshaw also dotted down in another excellent man-of-the-match display.
“You can see, he’s flying into things out there, it’s great to see,” Cullen added.
“And it’s important those guys that are going away, even Jack Conan coming off the bench as well, Tadhg (Furlong) getting through 60-plus minutes, it’s a good shift for those three. Ports (Porter) wasn’t involved but Andrew has been good as well, so it’s great to see those guys.
“But again I think it is important they keep delivering on performances because I think that will stand them in good stead when they get away, and they’ve got the confidence to play and the minutes under their belt as well.”