Ryan has to wise up and show respect
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PETER JACKSON
THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW
Maybe one day James Ryan will find it in him to send a note of gratitude to Matthew Carley care of the RFU referees' bunker at Twickenham.
Whether Leinster's co-captain emerges as the chosen one to lead the post-Johnny Sexton Ireland into the Six Nations has become a matter of still more intrigue since Carley's public removal of his armband in La Rochelle last Sunday evening.
Getting that far on the wrong side of a World Cup referee noted for his tolerance takes some doing. Ryan put himself there so soon that his ex-communication had been completed within the opening quarter of a predictably edgy top-of-the-bill Champions Cup scrap as slugged out by a pair of super-heavyweights.
More than a few national captains have hit the wrong note with referees through the hostile tone of their voices but none in recent times has done so often enough to force the man-in-the-middle into severing all diplomatic ties.
How the skipper speaks to the referee can be far more rewarding than what he actually says. Lions captain Sam Warburton proved that to historic effect with his almost plaintive request to Romain Poite (‘Could you possibly have a look?') which somehow prompted the French referee to change his mind and deny the All Blacks a pot-shot penalty to win the series, a volte-face as bewildering now as it was then.
Assuming Andy Farrell had settled on Ryan as the No.1 contender to succeed Sexton before last weekend, then Ireland's decorated head coach will be sorely tempted to put him through a crash course on how to get the referee onside and keep him there.
Another English referee, Karl Dickson, will be in charge of Ireland's opening defence of their Grand Slam, France in Marseille on February 2 with Carley one of his two assistants. He will be back in the middle for the finale against Scotland in Dublin six weeks later.
It ought to be made clear that what happened in La Rochelle was entirely Ryan's fault. Keith Wood, the former Munster, Harlequins, Ireland and Lions hooker, spoke out against what is becoming an ominous trend.
“You can't have people looking for cards,'' he said. “You can't have people roaring and shouting. You can't have players running up to the referee.''
Clearly, Carley felt he had been shown a lack of respect. Ryan had subjected him to a barrage of complaints which included calling for a yellow card after an airborne Hugo Keenan had been the victim of a tip-tackle.
Ryan had jumped to the wrong conclusion, identifying La Rochelle's Fijian flanker Levani Botia who had nothing to do with a fall which had been caused instead by the unwitting intervention of another Leinster player, anobvious case of friendly fire.
Whether by luck or design, Leinster had taken the unusual step of naming two captains, fortuitously so. After only 16 minutes, Carley decided he had no option but to muzzle one co-captain (Ryan) and open a dialogue with the other (Garry Ringrose).
“I've asked him (Ryan) several times and he's not listening,'' Carley told Ringrose. “He's speaking to me at every penalty and nowhe's almost asking for a captain's referral. I told him no.''
Such a referral, allowing a captain to challenge a referee's decision, had been abandoned after a trial in Super Rugby last season. Before restarting the match, Carley told Ryan and the other Leinster players: “Garry is going to work with me now.''
Ringrose, whom Farrell has long admired as ‘an exceptional leader' who will ‘captain Ireland one day', took the added responsibility in his stride without mishap. Perhaps his day may come sooner than later.
Ryan, retained as co-captain against Sale yesterday, ought to have made an immediate apology to Carley. One touchline after-match interview, to Leinster TV, contained no such reaction but then the interviewer appeared not to have raised the subject.
That Leinster have kept shtum on the matter does them no credit. Maybe someone will advise Ryan that a ‘Dear Matthew' letter regretting his conduct would be better late than never.
