Donnacha Ryan didn’t pick up a rugby ball until the age of 17, despite the fact the club in Nenagh “is literally 500 yards from the house”. And this can be blamed on his hurling-mad dad, Matt. Matt is a fiercely proud Limerick man (hailing from a small farm a mile and a half over the Limerick-Tipperary border). He played senior inter-county hurling with Limerick and it’s clear when Irish Country Living sits down to talk to the pair that it’s from Matt that Donnacha got his love for sport.

Matt, an independent dairy consultant who facilitates discussion groups and was formerly the head of dairy advisory services in Teagasc, recalls a tale from his own sporting days. He was playing in a junior hurling county final in 1994. He had won a Limerick senior championship in 1964 and was hoping for a 30th anniversary celebration.

“I organised a free, straight in front of the goals – and one of the lads missed it, so we lost the match. I was like a lion: senior championship in ’64, and a medal in 1994 – it would seem to fit. But what happened, as I was coming off the field, this little fella ...”

“My hero now,” interjects Donnacha. “I’d follow him everywhere.”

“... this little fella ran up to me. He said: ‘Dad, you were great!’ And jeepers I totally ignored him. To this minute I can see him running towards me, and then I can see him coming behind me after I ignored him. I’ll never forget it.”

Irish Country Living is sitting there, mouth agape, and when we mention our anguish, Matt understands: “I know but sure it broke my heart when I look back on it.”

The story isn’t finished, however, as Donnacha continues: “What happened then was, he ignored me the whole way into the dressing room and then told me: ‘Would you go away would ya!’ And I shouted at him: ‘It’s only a game.’”

Fast-forward 10 years and Matt is up in Belfast, watching 20-year-old Donnacha playing rugby for UCC. This time Donnacha is the one having a hissy fit after losing a match.

“I was like an Antichrist coming in, and they had driven up to the North – Mam and Dad, and my sister and her boyfriend at the time. I was pretty ignorant after the game, didn’t really say hello, wasn’t grateful or anything like that and I went outside.”

Matt followed him, and reprimanded his son, telling him he never, ever wanted to see Donnacha behave like that again. But clearly the apple hadn’t fallen far from the tree.

The Ryan men certainly share a passion for sport – originally for GAA. Donnacha had his sights set on playing for Tipp (“The reason I took up rugby in the first place was to get bigger for hurling!”) and his rugby debut came out of nowhere. There was a Canadian team visiting Nenagh to play rugby and the Ryans offered to help.

“Dad being the good Samaritan that he is, said we’ve a free bed in our house,” explains Donnacha.

The Canadians were looking for a guy to play, so off went Donnacha, even though he didn’t know the rules.

Pat Whelan, a close family friend and a mentor in the club, saw Donnacha’s potential and encouraged him to keep playing. Pat was also involved with the Munster under-18s and in his first year playing, Donnacha secured a place on both that panel and the Ireland under-18 side.

Make or break

Donnacha says his entire professional career hinged on one day that saw a trial training session take place in Cork for the Munster under-18s. The bus was leaving Nenagh at nine o’clock. Donnacha and Matt went to mass that morning but it ran on late and they got to the bus stop at five past nine, to find that the bus was gone.

“I couldn’t believe they’d go without me,” says Donnacha, who then decided he had no interest in going anyway and was going home to bed.

Matt went into town for the papers, came back home, went into Donnacha’s room and said: “Come on, we’ll go.” But ten suggestions later he was still being greeted with a gruff response.

“He was as stubborn a mule,” says Matt, whose last-ditch attempt (“Well if you’re not going, I’m going anyway.”) finally realised success.

They just about got to the trial on time and the selectors were impressed with Donnacha’s commitment to make his own way there. He earned a place on the panel and his next move was to transfer to St Munchin’s College – a rugby school in Limerick – where he boarded.

It wasn’t plain sailing though. It “very, very difficult”, says Donnacha, gesturing towards his dad: “This is the counsellor I had every night.”

Donnacha explains that having already played with Munster youths and Irish youths wasn’t the advantage you might imagine.

“You’re a young teenager, thinking: ‘Jeez I’m actually pretty good at this.’ So I went into Munchin’s and it was the biggest leveller I ever had, because all these guys had been playing rugby for several years. We trained twice a day so obviously you got smashed – and then you’re kind of ostracised a bit if you take someone’s position on the team.”

Matt notes a “profound statement” Donnacha made sometime afterwards: “Jeez,” he said “Dad, you know you were my best friend during all of last year.”

“Aw, Jesus Christ,” groans Donnacha while Irish Country Living is whimpering: “Aw, that is so nice!”

Matt is grinning. “There, I knew you’d like that!”

Donnacha’s head is practically in his hands as he groans: “Why do you have to tell people that!”

Ultimately, however, Munchin’s saw Donnacha become a member of the schools side that won the Munster Senior Cup and he secured a place on a commerce and language programme in UCC. His goal now was to become a professional rugby player and it was important to plan the next stage of his rugby development to coincide with his academic goals. Having goals is something Donnacha had been interested in since working on the farm of Peter Baker in Cloughjordan from the age of 12.

“Peter had this one line written up. I’m not into these one-liners – not into them at all, but this one I always remember,” says Donnacha. “He had it over the milking parlour and it said: ‘Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off your goals.’”

Planning for success

A plan was put together to help him realise his goals. Pat Whelan felt Donnacha wasn’t ready to join any of the big rugby clubs, so he identified Sunday’s Well as most suitable, where Donnacha got one-to-one coaching from Murray Kidd, former coach of the Irish rugby team.

Hurling now very firmly took a back seat, meaning Donnacha didn’t get to play Fitzgibbon Cup in college – as his dad had done while studying ag science in UCD. In fact, Matt has three Fitzgibbon Cup medals – “and a Player of the Tournament the fourth year”, chips in Donnacha, beaming proudly. But rugby was going well for Donnacha and he was called on to the Munster panel in 2003 as a number of their second-rows were away. Alas, he didn’t make it off the bench.

When he moved to Limerick during college to complete the work placement element of his commerce and Irish degree, he joined Shannon RFC. He played a few games for Munster in 2004 and it took off from there. In fourth year in college he was offered a professional contract with Munster.

Donnacha got his first Irish cap on 22 November 2008 against Argentina in Croke Park. On career highlights, he says “playing in Croke Park was a massive achievement because I wanted to play hurling there, but a first rugby cap in Croke Park was fantastic”.

His time with Munster and Ireland has now drawn to a close, however. On 1 July he starts a contract with Paris club Racing 92. He’s not overly keen to talk about the circumstances surrounding his departure.

“Those things happen. What matters is that all I wanted to do was play for Munster and even to play once was enough. Then to win a Heineken Cup and a Pro12 with Munster as well is amazing.”

Donnacha expects Paris will be “fantastic, you make the most of it. It’s a beautiful city and the facilities over there are amazing. And the players – they’re some of the best in the world.”

The fact Donnacha still has a rugby career at all is a miracle. He crushed his foot while playing for Munster in March 2014 and broke a small bone under his big toe – the sesamoid bone. Donnacha’s cousin, Shane Sweetnam, is a show jumper who won an Aga Khan with Ireland.

“Shane said to me: ‘I know every bone and ligament a horse has to deal with’, and he didn’t really know how severe my foot was, so I said: ‘Shane, if your horse had a broken sesamoid, what would you do?’”

Shane’s reply was emphatic: “I’d shoot it.”

Donnacha decided to get the bone removed but he found it difficult to get a surgeon willing to do it. No one in Ireland had done this specific procedure, a specialist in South Africa told him to enjoy retirement and he got similar responses from America and Australia. Eventually a surgeon in London said he would do it. He had done the procedure eight times, and five were a success while three weren’t. Donnacha persevered, however, and the operation was a success. He went on to not only participate in the 2015 World Cup, but also play in Ireland’s first ever defeat of New Zealand in Chicago.

He credits his recovery partially to his mother and father for nursing him back to health.

Matt speaks admiringly about Donnacha and his teammates’ pain thresholds but Donnacha chips in: “Anything I would have done now would have been to impress my role model.”

His dad guffaws.

We mentioned earlier Donnacha’s career highlight was playing in Croke Park, but that was only half his answer. His first response had been “sitting down alongside you [puts his arm around his dad], having the craic, reminiscing about these stories”. And while he said it in jest, this jest couldn’t hide the fact his words contained more than a grain of truth. CL