Lock James Ryan cannot wait to lead Ireland out for the first time at Twickenham after being handed the captaincy for the Autumn Nations Cup game against England.
The 24-year-old replaced regular captain Johnny Sexton when he was forced off with a hamstring injury ahead of the half-hour mark of their 32-9 victory over Wales at the Aviva Stadium.
A winning start to the new competition saw Andy Farrell’s men provide the perfect response to their final round 35-27 defeat to France in the 2020 Guinness Six Nations, which handed the Championship trophy to England.
Now Ryan has been named captain from the off against the Red Rose – an honour the towering lock believes will be made easier by the experience he will have around him.
“It is a huge honour for me, so I’m looking forward to it,” said Ryan, who will win his 30th cap on Saturday. Probably the great thing about it is, I won’t be on my own.
“There’s guys like Peter O’Mahony there, Hendy (Iain Henderson), Earlsy (Keith Earls), a huge amount of experience.
“Johnny’s in (the training camp) for the week as well, so we’ll be very much be driving things together this week, as we usually would. To be honest, it’s the same for me this week as it is every week.
“I have got to look to do my job really effectively, hope to play well, not get sidetracked with all of the captaincy stuff because I am going to need to get my performance right, just like everybody else is going to get the performance right in order for us to get a result this weekend.”
But Ryan is under no illusion of the challenge presented by Eddie Jones’ men, who followed up their Championship win with a strong start to the Autumn Nations Cup themselves, overcoming Georgia 40-0 in their tournament curtain-raiser.
“It was a pity to lose Johnny so early on, but it was cool [to take over as captain], I have to say,” Ryan said. “I didn’t expect it. It was pretty humbling, but I just got on with it. I think between myself and Pete [O’Mahony], it was very much the two of us making some of the decisions.
“It’s great having guys like Pete and such a great leadership group around me. I was delighted to see Quinn Roux get over for a try and he was brilliant to play alongside.
“We were really forward so I’m delighted with that and it’s something that we need to keep building on. Obviously, we’ll have to step up again next week against England.
“They’re up there with the best sides in the world. Everything is going to need to be better next week. We were really pleased with some parts of our game against Wales, particularly the defence and set piece.
“That’s the difference at this level. To keep them try-less was really good and they’re two areas that will have to be really, really strong next week to get a result.”
