Ryan loving life at Falcons

Newcastle prop Tim Ryan will become the latest Irishman to wear the Falcons jersey this season, following Nick Popplewell and Ray McLoughlin.

Whilst McLoughlin's North-East exploits may have come under the Gosforth banner in the amateur era, Ryan will no doubt be aiming to emulate the blockbusting impact of the Lions and Ireland star as well as Popplewell, who helped fire the side to Premiership glory just over a decade ago.

Having served a five-year apprenticeship in the heralded Munster ranks, last season saw Ryan on the French Riviera as his Toulon side achieved a European final place and a French league semi.

Now at Kingston Park and poised for his Falcons debut, the 26-year-old is keen to seize his chance.

"We're still to play our first game, but from what I've experienced so far this has been a great move," says Ryan, who makes his Newcastle debut against Rotherham on Saturday.

"I had heard great things about the club and the city from Tom May and Jonny Wilkinson, my Toulon team mates from last season, and that really helped me to make my decision when I had other options also on the table.

"The first thing they said was that Newcastle is an awesome city, and I can certainly agree with that having now spent a bit of time here. The second main point they made was that it's a great club here, the squad is very close-knit and there are no cliques or anything like that.

"I think that's so important for a club, and the boys here have been great right from day one. I don't care what anyone says, it definitely means more when you're playing for your mates. I know that people might say it's a professional game and stuff like that shouldn't matter, but when you're putting your body on the line and going into battle with good mates by your side, it makes a hell of a difference.

"Even though a fair chunk of our squad is new this year, everyone has got on straightaway. We're working extremely hard in training, but the atmosphere is great you can sense a real bond developing between the players."

With the revitalised Falcons squad playing under new coach Alan Tait, Ryan admits that the Scotsman's no-nonsense honesty is just the ticket.

"I came over from France to have a look round the club after our European final with Toulon, but by that stage Alan and myself had already had a number of extremely frank and open phone calls," he revealed.

"He laid it on the line in terms of exactly what he was looking for from me, and that was music to my ears. When I came over to see the club and meet Alan in person it was much the same really, and the thing I love about him is that he doesn't just tell you what you want to hear. Sometimes you get coaches who try to massage your ego, tell you you're great all the time and try to keep you happy rather than being honest.

"With Taity you always know exactly where you stand, because he'll tell you in plain English. He's not just a ranter though, if you do something good he'll make sure he tells you, just as he will if something's not right. It's all aimed at building a culture of honesty where players and coaches can be totally straight with one another, and having come through with Munster I can say that was one of the real secrets of their whole ethos.

"Funnily enough the other day we had a team meeting and I was meaning to bring it up, but one of the other players did it without me having to. The gist was that we have to be completely honest with one another, and if something's not right then we need to push each other to make it happen. The point made in the meeting was that it's never personal when people pull you up on something, it's just aimed at raising our standards and ultimately getting results for the club."

Having risen through the much-vaunted Munster system Ryan admits that a move away from the Emerald Isle this time last year was just what he needed, as the giant front rower pushed himself in new surroundings.

"It's a horrible thing to say as a player, but if I'm totally honest I was in a comfort zone at Munster," he says.

"I'd been there for all my career, I still lived at home with my mam and my brother and the training ground was only just across the road. I knew that I needed to take myself away to develop not just only as a player, but as a person as well.

"That was really the motivation behind moving to Toulon, to experience living away from home, learning a language, playing with new players and just having a fresh start.

"A massive thing for me as well was the fact that the French value the scrum so much. That's not to say that they're any better at it than the Premiership or Celtic sides, but they just live for the scrum and the fans go wild when their side dominates in that area.

"When I first joined Toulon one of the French players said to me 'no scrum, no win', which basically meant that you couldn't win a game without beating your opposition in the scrum.

"I'd come to scrummaging quite late because I played back row up until the age of 19, so really I just needed to go over to France and serve a bit of an apprenticeship, if you like. I'll admit that there were odd times when I'd get a good beating from some gnarled 36-year-old stager, but you learn a lot from those experiences and it's definitely helped me to emerge stronger at the end of it. Certainly to play with the quality and profile of players we had at Toulon was a fantastic thing to do, and now I see Newcastle really as the next stage in hopefully getting some more regular game time under my belt."

Asked where the ambitions lie for the Falcons this season, Ryan reiterates his no-nonsense mentality, stating: "We're not going to fool people and come out saying we will win the Aviva Premiership.

"Our fans wouldn't expect us to say that anyway, I'm sure, but what we can absolutely say is that we're going to put everything into every single game. I don't see any reason why we shouldn't be aiming for the top six this season or next, but it's a young squad here and we know we have to work at it. The good thing with this group is that a lot of the guys have youth on their side, there are people here who could give this club five or ten years of great service and build a real dynasty for the Newcastle fans.

"We've had an extremely thorough pre-season under Andy Smith on the conditioning side, and we're looking to run teams around the field with the way we want to play the game.

"It's a tough style to play and we've been put through the wringer to get ourselves ready, but the satisfaction will come in the last ten minutes of tight games when opposition legs are weary and we're still buzzing with a real fast-paced game in the best condition of our lives. That's when the hard work comes to fruition, and there's certainly been no shortage of that here."