Ask any Leinster fan what young players they are excited to see in the near future and nearly every one of them will mention UCD student Garry Ringrose.
It's easy to see why if you've paid attention to the Ireland U20s in recent years, as the young centre has earned comparisons to Brian O'Driscoll for his exciting play, but if not, well then his performances for Leinster in the absence of the province's World Cup stars would surely have made the fans take note.
Ringrose's involvement with the senior side at Leinster has made it difficult to juggle his studies and manage his time, but he's putting in the work because that is what got him to where he is today:
I'll never lose site of why I got to the position I did, it isn't for being a huge, big player. I am nor blessed with a great amount of size. I spend as much time on the field as I do in the gym. I wouldn't want to lose touch with what got me here - the skills and working very hard day in day out basically.
Ringrose did admit that he is making an effort to increase his size, but remains adamant that there's far more to playing at centre than just being big:
There is a big focus on strength and conditioning, there has to be, but if you don't have the basics and the skills well then size won't get you too far. Of course, everyone has different attributes and different strengths to their game. One of mine, at the moment, certainly isn't as a bulldozer.
I try to utilise the other attributes I have. I would like to think I've got a good foundation, a good skill set, read the game well, and hopefully the size aspect will catch up. I will keep working at everything constantly.
He certainly sounds like he has a sensible head on those shoulders, so we expect Ringrose to play a big part in the future of both Leinster and Ireland.
And we look forward to watching him progress as a player along the way too.
via Leinster vs Scarlets official matchday programme.
