Ryan ready to shoulder the locking workload again

James Ryan is just happy to be back in action. Picture / Dean Purcell

Strong though the temptation surely is, James Ryan is thinking small steps as he rebuilds his burgeoning rugby career.

Ryan locks Otago's scrum in tonight's Air New Zealand Cup semifinal with Filipo Levi, for his third game back after spending all winter healing a shoulder damaged early in April during the Highlanders' Super 14 campaign.

There's no good time to be sidelined for reconstructive surgery and in Ryan's case it happened after an impressive first year as an All Black.

The 23-year-old made seven test appearances last year - five in the starting lineup - and seems sure, fitness permitting, to figure in next year's World Cup plans.

He returned for the 21-14 loss to Wellington and was on hand for the 56-21 beating of North Harbour in last Sunday's quarter-final.

"It's still very early days," he said. "The first game was just a hitout, I had to guts it out. The lungs were pretty heavy. And Harbour, it was huge to get that 80 minutes under the belt.

"I'm reasonably happy with the way I'm progressing, but I'm realistic. There's still a long way to go if I'm going to get back to where I was."

Ryan has added some bulk in his layoff to go with his 2m height and is an imposing figure.

Tonight, he'll be up against reinvigorated Keith Robinson and crafty veteran Jono Gibbes.

That he's delighted to be running about is an understatement. Watching the All Blacks this year was hard work.

"It was twisted emotions really. I know a lot of the guys pretty well, and you still want them to win but it's not nice when you're so competitive and someone else is getting a shot and they're doing the business."

Ryan admitted that, as he'd finished a long year his body might have enjoyed a bit of rest. But it wasn't long before he yearned to be up and about.

There's only so much sitting about, doing university studies, you can take. Ryan has four papers left to complete law and economics degrees at Otago University.

"I was pretty immobile for a good couple of months. That was difficult. Then once I was back physically running, it's hard when you're 70 per cent right. You can't do any contact, or any reaching with the shoulder.

"That was probably the hardest thing, when I could do a little bit, but not all of it."

Ryan has tonight and, victory permitting, next week's cup final in which to let the All Black selectors know whether he's ready for the end-of-year trip to France, England and Wales.

A maximum four games isn't much to base a judgment on, but in Ryan's favour, they know his capabilities from last year.

Ryan is not getting ahead of himself, and with a semifinal to focus on it's not exactly at the forefront of his thinking.

"In semifinals week, I'd be in completely the wrong frame of mind if I was thinking about an All Black tour.

"It's always at the back of your mind. But especially coming back from a long injury layoff, I just want to get out and perform and hopefully the rest of it will take care of itself."

As for tonight, Ryan is anticipating "a humdinger" but cautioned about getting too carried away with Otago's performance against Harbour.

"It was a good win, but we'd lost four straight before that. We're pretty realistic. We know how we prepared last week, the frame of mind we were in, and how we want to play the game. All that stuff about momentum, you just go out and do it."


James Ryan

Age: 23
Super debut: v Blues, 2005
All Black debut: v Fiji, 2005
Tests: 7