Willie Ryan has been an Irish sporting nomad for more than a decade, travelling the byways rather than the highways of English rugby. At Championship and National One levels, it is a journey that has seen him don the colours of Rotherham Titans, Ealing Trailfinders, Doncaster Knights, Nottingham and two spells at Chinnor, for whom he now plays just shy of his 34th birthday.
He’s torn his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and dislocated his shoulder, among sundry injuries, had full-time and part-time contracts, shared houses and bought houses. And in the near future he hopes to put down more semi-permanent roots in Aylesbury, the county town of Buckinghamshire, 20 minutes from the village of Chinnor, along with his partner Laura, and daughters Cara and Eimíle.
He’s occupied a ringside seat as English rugby has cannibalised itself financially in recent years. London Irish, London Welsh, Wasps, Worcester Warriors and Jersey Reds have withdrawn from the firmament of professional rugby, poorer and maybe wiser to its pitfalls for those that may dare to try again.
There is less security of tenure for players and there’s only decent money for a minority. In the Championship, English rugby’s second-tier club game, Ryan pointed out that only four of 12 clubs – Ealing, Coventry, Doncaster, and Cornish Pirates – are fully professional set-ups; the remainder are part-time operations.
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It’s closer to the All-Ireland League in orientation, training Tuesdays and Thursdays with a match on Saturday. Or at least that’s what he remembers, as it’s been more than a decade since he left Cork. His first love was hurling – he played with the Inniscarra club – and even after he went to school at Christians (CBC Cork), he tried to play both sports.
“It seems like a lifetime ago,” said Ryan. He was invited to play representative rugby but decided not to because “I wanted to continue playing hurling, probably a mistake at the time”.
“I had a decision to make coming out of school: whether to play hurling or rugby,” he recalled. “I tried to play both. I actually stopped playing rugby for a year, which was detrimental to my rugby career.
“It was my brother (John, Munster and Ireland tighthead prop) – he was the one that got me back into playing rugby, when going to watch him play in UCC. It made me want to go back and play.” Ryan played three years at UCC and then a season at Cork Constitution.
“Not playing rugby after school and not playing 20s, I lost a bit of hope of getting into Munster,” he continued. “I wanted to play rugby. I spoke to my brother and used his agent Niall Woods, who was brilliant. There were a couple of offers, Rotherham or Bedford.
“I played for Ireland clubs against England in Darlington. [Rotherham and Bedford] both came to the game. At the time I was living with my brother John and Sean Dougall (currently an assistant coach at La Rochelle), who had played at Rotherham. He advised me that if I wanted to kick on in my rugby career, it was the best place to go.”
Ryan signed a £20,000 yearly contract and moved to Rotherham on a two-year deal. He sorted out a house rental agreement with two other players, his share being £250 per month. Another Munster man, Seán Scanlon, a contemporary and friend of his brother John, was at the club and helped him to settle. He remains a good friend.
As a backrow, they wanted to make him bigger. He weighed about 103kg travelling to England. Three months later, at the behest of the club, he tipped the scales at 112kg. He tore his ACL in preseason of his second year but was back within six months, and when he impressed in a match against Ealing Trailfinders, the London club came calling.
“They were looking for backrows and they signed me. I was put in a player house owned by the club. They had a few. It was nice. Roaming around London was a bit better than Rotherham. Alex Codling (currently forwards’ coach with the Ireland women’s team) was head coach.
“People were on good money. It wasn’t huge – the highest paid player was probably on £60,000-£70,000. The vast majority would have been in the £40,000s. I signed a two-year contract, dislocated my shoulder in the second year and was sent on loan (to Chinnor). They got in new players. It was hard to get back in.”
The turnover in personnel at Ealing on an annual basis can be in the 20s. Ryan recalled that between September and January in his first year, they let about a dozen players go. He moved to Doncaster and enjoyed his year at the club, before moving to Chinnor in 2018.
One of his team-mates was the former Connacht and Samoa flanker Ofisa Treviranus. The club was going well in the National One division when Covid hit.
“I had bought a house in Doncaster when I was up there,” Ryan recalled. “So when Covid hit, the people that were living in my house moved out. I was paying my mortgage up there and rent down here. I got Nottingham head coach Neil Fowkes number from Seán Scanlon, who was playing there. I spoke to him, signed for them and went to work for a company as they went part-time that year.
“I worked for McCanns. John McCann is an Irish lad, owns McCanns construction in Nottingham, and he took me on for the year I was there.” Ryan sold the house in Doncaster and moved back down to Chinnor.
“The owner of the company that I work for is the chairman of the rugby club, Simon Vickers. He’s been fantastic. There were a couple of tough years after Covid, because when Covid hit, it wasn’t financially stable enough to keep paying players. A lot of players moved on where now it is much more of a good culture and environment.
“Players enjoy it. A lot of the loan players that we get from Harlequins and Ealing have actually come back and signed for us. It’s good fun, we play good rugby.”
Chinnor won National One this season and have been promoted to the Championship. Ryan works 8am to 4.30pm five days a week. The match fees at this level are about £250, while the luckier players might get a retainer of £500. For some, it’s about £1,000 a month. But you must play to get paid. He agrees “the majority of people will only be using rugby to subsidise their income”.
“I was going to finish up last season when we won the league. I think this will be my last year. I think I will stay here. I have a good job, am happy in the company I am in and I’m moving house to Aylesbury. I will probably stay around and continue with the club in some respect – I’d like to come back coaching when my playing career is over.
Ryan will play his 100th match for the club in a couple of weeks, when Chinnor face Cambridge in the opening game of the season. You have to be robust mentally and physically to survive and only a teeny percentage of players will be on decent contracts.
What would he say to a young Irish player who wanted to pursue a career in England, particularly starting outside the Premiership?
“You need to understand, it is quite volatile. It is not well paid, and it is getting worse. There are rumours of a Prem 2 with more money from TV rights, and if that was the case then definitely [the money would be better]. People need to understand that it won’t be all roses coming over here. The money wasn’t great when I came here. It’s even worse [now].”
And yet if the clock were rewound he would have no hesitation in making the same choice to pursue a rugby career in England. It has provided him with lifelong friendships, an opportunity to play a sport he loves and earn some silverware. The key for young Irish players, he says, is to get good advice and to look before leaping.
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