Garry Ringrose is hoping that any rugby chat in 2025 relates to on-pitch exploits. A couple of shoulder injuries, in a Champions Cup game against the Leicester Tigers in January last year and then on his return in a cameo appearance as a replacement on the wing for Ireland in their final Six Nations game against Scotland, scuppered the season from a playing perspective. He did come back in time to start Leinster’s URC semi-final defeat to the Bulls in June.
Since then he has appeared in all five Test matches for Ireland, starting three of the five games from the second Test victory over the Springboks in Durban and the Autumn Nations Series internationals at the Aviva Stadium against New Zealand and Argentina.
Seven appearances for Leinster this season, including two in Europe, underline his rude health. If there was any lingering doubt his thumping tackle on another Blackrock alumnus AJ MacGinty, the Bristol outhalf, expunged that notion.
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On Sunday he returns to Stade Marcel Deflandre where he helped the Irish province to the first of two wins last season over a club, La Rochelle, that had previously proved a nemesis. Leinster’s defence coach Jacques Nienaber had started work a couple of weeks before that pool fixture in December 2023, but his influence was already palpable in a rain-drenched arm wrestle.
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While there was no silverware Leinster continued to evolve, searching for a sweet spot where defence and attack are equally formidable. The trick was in trying not to rob Peter to pay Paul when it came to focusing on one aspect of the game more so than the other.
Ringrose was asked about maintaining that equilibrium this week. “It’s always a little bit elusive, any given week, any given day you’re trying to get the balance right, when you have the ball, when you don’t, what will help you to win the game.”
There are weeks when one side of the ball gets a little more play in training. He offered an example. “It can happen. The Bristol week, we would have shone the light defensively a lot on how many tries they score, their attack, how dangerous they are; that would have maybe been a week you shine the light defensively more.
“Any given week you’re only ever doing the best you can to win so it’s always an interesting challenge. It makes it exciting though when you’re testing yourself against the best, (the likes of) La Rochelle, you have to get them both (attack and defence) spot on if you want a chance of winning, you can’t go all-in on one or the other.”
Drilling down a little further into the constituent parts, Ringrose explained that the evolution process never stands still. “Essentially, defensively working with Jacques (Nienaber) we’re still learning and there is still things we’re maybe not getting right, trying to be quicker and become more instinctive. We are repping that in training as much as possible. And then in games you get exposed to it with a bit more consequence obviously. We like to think we’ve improved and got better defensively.
In attack guess the score line probably flattered us (in the win over Munster). Whether we can get things to click a little bit better is the challenge for us.
“The last time I played (against La Rochelle) was a wet day over there, there wasn’t much attacking, there was a lot of kicking, a lot of set piece and scrums and mauls and picking and going close to the line. We’ll have to be ready from that perspective, but if it is a bit drier (we must) get our set piece starters right and then because kicking is a big part of the game for us and them, be ready to go off the back of that.”
It was put to him that maybe the attack might have suffered with more emphasis on the defence. Ringrose said: “I wouldn’t...I don’t think I’d use the word suffered. It’s like a tug-of-war between the two (attack and defence) in any given week.
“Tyler (Bleyendaal) wants his minutes for us and same with Jacques; they are working unbelievably closely and they’re almost running meetings symbiotically. So I guess it’s always something they’re trying to get better at.”
Sunday’s match between two unbeaten teams in Europe offers another benchmarking opportunity to see how that evolution in style is progressing. Despite La Rochelle’s patchy form in the Top 14 Ringrose doesn’t see much slippage from their time as back-to-back European champions.
“They are so well drilled and well-oiled at set piece. How they defend, they’re very in sync and put you under massive pressure. Nothing’s changed from that perspective. They’re regarded across every team in Europe as one of the best. You’ve got to be at the races as they say to have any chance to beat them.”
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