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Investec Champions Cup

James Ryan learns his fate after Ireland red card

Jon Newcombe

Published: 26 November 2025 03:25 PST

Dublin , Ireland - 8 November 2025; James Ryan of Ireland during the Quilter Nations Series 2025 match between Ireland and Japan at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. (Photo By Seb Daly/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Ireland international James Ryan has been ruled out of Leinster’s opening match in the 2025/26 Investec Champions Cup after being hit with a three-match ban.

Ryan will be sidelined for the game at home to Harlequins on 6 December and will also miss the trip to Leicester six days later unless he successfully completes World Rugby’s Coaching Intervention Programme.

The first game of the ban applies to this weekend’s URC match against Dragons at Rodney Parade.

The disciplinary committee upheld the 20-minute red card issued to Ryan in the early stages of Ireland’s defeat to the Springboks in Dublin on Saturday.

VIDEO

Ryan was initially sent to the sin bin by referee Matthew Carley after he made direct contact to the head of Springboks hooker Malcolm Marx whilst attempting a clearout.

But on bunker review, the sanction was upgraded from yellow to red by foul play review officer Dan Jones, who deemed that there had been a sufficiently high level of danger and there was no mitigation for Ryan’s ruck action.

The mid-range entry point of six weeks/matches was halved in light of Ryan accepting the red card and his clean disciplinary record up until that point.

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Comments

23 Comments

shundeez 337 days ago

If I can share what I've learned about rugby in the past month:

- Punching someone in the face in front of the ref = 20 minute red card, rescinded (Josh Murphey)

- Having a no evidence claim about something in a ruck = 10 game ban (Jan Henrik Wessels)

- Upright, no arms tackle, head contact = 20 minute red card, rescinded (tadhg byrne)

- Bent at the hip, on a knee, ball in face (mitigation), one arm wrap on a falling player = permanent red card, 4 week ban (lood dejager)

- Bent at the hip, one arm wrap, no head contact = permanent red card (franco mostert)

- Flying off feet into a ruck, arms tucked, shoulder to head of player sitting on the floor (James Ryan) - 20 minute red, 3 game ban

Can anyone on gods green earth explain the above. Handing this to an alien, with the rule book of rugby would cause them to fly off in search for other beings of intelligence.

WR is a mess. They are not coaching their refs and tmo’s properly, their is no accountability and therefore it will not get better.

Problem is, we all love our teams so much, we will not talk with our feet. It’s the only way to get them to listen, when their bonuses don’t look so fat at the end of the year.

Hammer Head 336 days ago

Comment of the year this.

As I’ve said elsewhere Shundeez, WR’s strategy is to transform the game to make it safer.

I’d argue “appear” safer because so far they’ve largely put bandaids over the real safety issues.

Mostly because they’re being advised by lawyers on how to avoid successful legal claims against them for not making the game safer.

Lawyers and risk insurance experts are working hand in hand with them to save their balance sheet from financial ruin.

I’d like to see what WR’s balance sheet is currently sitting on re: future liabilities. If there’s a chunk of change being accumulated there, then we know how afraid they are about this. (Court cases are nice way to accrue for cash flow purposes).

This will all translate into ever more bewildering trials and tests around the rules of the game.

Systematically the game is being changed and come 2031 will look very different to what it is today.

I just wish they’d be open with the fans about it. Instead of acting like a corporate marketing firm - acting as if they know what’s best for all of us.

Cigarette anyone?

Enjoy the current style of rugby, because it may or may not tickle your fancy in a few years time.

Certainly isn’t tickling all my ticklish bits at the moment. I’m not as flexible as I used to and I need time to warm up to trying new things. But I get there in the end, if there’s open and sensitive communication in the process with people I trust.

https://apnews.com/article/rugby-concussion-lawsuit-6caba05ed6a9be1b54f12e1770f807c6

DP 337 days ago

Mitigation

“We were getting humiliated in Dublin in front of a partisan crowd so I had no choice but to try and injure him again like I did last year in SA when I busted his leg up and took him out the game for months”

Yep - previous “good behaviour” taken into account.

Dave Didley 337 days ago

I’d have expected his previously clean record to knock a bit off it but I don’t understand their reasoning around the mitigation.

His actions were always illegal and Marx was retreating from the ruck when he was hit. It’s arguable he hit a player who was not actively involved in the ruck which is more dangerous.

Eric Elwood 337 days ago

Facts: De LOOD:

Head Contact, Reckless, Vulnerable player

Mitigation but no guilty plea = 4 weeks

RYAN:

Head contact, Reckless

Mitigation + Guilty plea = 3 weeks

Difference of one week: De Lood hit a vulnerable player and was advised not to plead guilty.

MM 337 days ago

Can you imagine if a Springbok did what Ryan did , probably get 12 weeks…

Ace 337 days ago

Three weeks? What a fkn joke.

Eric Elwood 337 days ago

Don’t let facts get in the way of a good old South African supporter tin foil hat theory:

Facts: De LOOD:

Head Contact, Reckless, Vulnerable player

Mitigation but no guilty plea = 4 weeks

RYAN:

Head contact, Reckless

Mitigation + Guilty plea = 3 weeks

Difference of one week: De Lood hit a vulnerable player and was advised not to plead guilty.

SB 337 days ago

Should be a longer ban, it was a ridiculous action.

Eric Elwood 337 days ago

Facts: De LOOD:

Head Contact, Reckless, Vulnerable player

Mitigation but no guilty plea = 4 weeks

RYAN:

Head contact, Reckless

Mitigation + Guilty plea = 3 weeks

Difference of one week: De Lood hit a vulnerable player and was advised not to plead guilty.

Henrik 337 days ago

looked to me like Ryan was doing a Bakkies Botha impersonisation ….

TC 337 days ago

How the hell does James Ryan only get a three week ban for a running no-wrap missile shoulder charge to the neck/head!? Make it make sense, when in Lood’s case he got a) a rugby ball to the face ino a dynamic action thereby impacting his vision, b) is on his freaking knees and c) there was a last minute drop from Ramos and yet he got four weeks. Ryan’s case is clear cut premeditated “I am going to knock the hell out of Marx” thuggery. World Rugby (who are headquartered in Dublin) cannot be taken seriously with garbage uneven sanctions like this.

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