It was a huge night for Nenagh’s most famous second row as he played his last 80 minutes for Munster at Thomond Park.
Donnacha Ryan is 10-times the Munsterman Rassie Erasmus is – according to the province’s director of Rugby.
Eramus was paying tribute after the Nenagh man who signed off on 13 years at Thomond Park with a 23-3 victory over Ospreys last night in the Pro12 semi-final.
Munster will play the Scarlets in the Aviva next weekend in the final with a chance for Ryan to pick up on more trophy on his last day out in the jersey – although Munster will be wearing navy not red when they tog out in the home dressing room.
there were tries by Simon Zebo, Andrew Conway and man-of-the-match Francis Saili who’s also leaving this summer.
Erasmus says he’s sorry to see the two go…
Ryan got huge adulation from the munster faithful after putting in a typically hard-working 80 minutes – they were chanting his name Donnacha, donnacha, donnacha – as he tried to do one post-match interview.
His team mates also tried to hoist him onto their shoulders but captain peter O’Mahony says that didn’t go so well…
Ryan refused to come out for the press conference after his last match in front of the Brave and the Faithful in Limerick – he reckoned he’d embarrassed himself enough on his TV interviews – but here he is talking to former teammate Marcus Horan about what it all means, just after the final whistle ….
Elsewhere, Connacht missed out on a place in next season’s European Champions Cup.
They fell to a 21-15 defeat to Northampton in yesterday’s playoff semi-final at Franklins Gardens.
The result ends Pat Lam’s four year tenure at the province as he moves to Bristol in the summer.
