James Ryan says he's enjoying his rugby as much as ever following a rough period in which he had to deal with worrying injuries and non-selection disappointments.
Ryan suffered two head injuries in the 2021 Six Nations, another one that autumn and lasted just a few minutes of Ireland’s win over England in Twickenham last season after a sickening head collision with Charlie Ewel.
For a long spell of time building up the 2021 Lions tour of South Africa, the 26-year-old Irish lock looked certain to be included but in the end, didn’t make the cut for Warren Gatland’s squad.
But three rounds into the current renewal and Ryan has scored two tries, against Wales and Italy, and captained the team to a memorable victory over France.
Italy 0-5 Ireland: James Ryan opens the scoring for the visitors with a well-taken try after a lightening start for the visitors.
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He looks a player reborn.
"Yeah, [I’m] feeling good about it," says the Leinster lock about his recent form.
"The fellas are slagging me now that I am one of the top try-scorers.
"That's the way it goes, you don't score for a long time and you come up with a couple.
"Yeah, feeling good, really enjoying my rugby at the moment, been injury free, thank God.
"I feel like my confidence and stuff has grown off the back of that. I am enjoying my game at the moment.
"It was difficult at times.
"But I would say there was people like Ciaran Cosgrove [team doctor] who were important at getting the balance to the whole situation and helping getting me through it.
"Obviously Stuart Lancaster [Leinster senior coach] as well, Andy Farrell, Leo [Cullen].
"And then, obviously, my friends and my family, my girlfriend, all that. But that's what sports careers are all about, I'm no different.
"You go through ups and downs and stuff like that and it is kind of what shapes you as a player. "[I'm] glad to be on an injury-free run and enjoying my rugby.
"The stuff I had mostly was concussion so that was the most worrying and frustrating because I copped a few in a short space of time.
"So that was the main issue. That was the one that took the longest to get over."
Following the nervy 34-20 win in Rome, attention quickly turned to the match-up with Scotland, who are very much in the title race and can claim a Triple Crown with victory over Ireland on Sunday (3pm).
"I think it will be a pretty emotive day, they're going for a Triple Crown, going for a championship, so you've got two teams that have everything to play for," said the second row, who won his 51st cap against the Azzurri.
"I'm just really looking forward to it. I think it will come around nice and quick now but as I said, looking forward to it and hopefully we can start well like we have in the last couple of away games. I think that will be important.
"Some of their attack is really good, particularly some of the counter-attack stuff.
"One of the things we could have been better at the last couple of games is our kick-chase.
"When we kick the ball away we're a little bit disconnected, I think they'll look at that. Finn Russell and Duhan van der Merwe and those guys will look at that and think they can have a crack.
"So how connected we can be when we kick the ball away will be huge.
"They play very wide and very deep. They like to play, they like to get the ball to space, so again defensively, it's a big challenge for us.
"We need to make sure we get our spacing right defensively and our width, otherwise we'll be in trouble.
"I think they're one of the best attacking teams we'll face, definitely. Finn Russell is such a big player for them, we've got to be all over it."
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