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Ryles loving tour second time round
3 November 2004
A year ago, while the Australian rugby league side was busy retaining the Ashes trophy, Jason Ryles was curled up in bed at home with only the dull pain of a shoulder injury and a bottle of pain killers to keep him company.
Ryles watched Australia win the three Ashes Tests wondering whether he would get the opportunity to play rugby league again.
Fast forward 12 months and Ryles is back in the green and gold, lapping up his second tour of England.
The NSW and Australian forward's comeback from a career-threatening shoulder injury has been well documented and Ryles quite happily admits he's still a work in progress.
"Sometimes when I do fall off a tackle it tends to be, not a result of it (shoulder surgery), it's me sub-consciously doing it," Ryles said from the Australians' hotel in Leeds.
"They're (the missed tackles) getting less and less now. Other than that it just doesn't look good. It's withered. But you can see it all growing back now.
"It's getting stronger."
So is Ryles.
At 25, he's entering his prime.
Ryles surged onto the rugby league scene in 2000 as a fearless, raw-boned front rower and within a year he was playing representative football, turning out for Country Origin.
He finished the season in the Australian side, touring with the 2001 Kangaroos.
It was in the lead-up to that tour that Ryles produced his now-famous sound bite.
Asked whether he had any concerns about touring with the spectre of terrorism swirling around the world, Ryles quipped he'd play in Afghanistan if it meant pulling on the green and gold.
Comparing the difference between that tour and this year's trip, Ryles said: "That was a little bit different - that was more like a hit and run thing.
"This one's a full tour. It's been a bit different this time. It's been good to come away, especially getting to know Wayne Bennett.
"That's probably been a highlight for me. He's pretty intense but at the same time you can talk to him. I have learnt a lot of things off him - just to keep it simple and concentrate on my job.
"I'm rooming with Shane Webcke and that's a big highlight for me as well."
Last year Webcke, the president of the NRL's front row club, took a young Joel Clinton under his wing.
This year it's Ryles' turn.
The pair have struck up a formidable combination.
"He's got a reputation as a grumpy old man," Ryles said of Webcke.
"It's a bit of a front he puts on."
And what about Ryles three years on?
"A little bit older and probably appreciates playing footy a bit more," he said.
"Twelve months ago I was laying in bed, with all the painkillers, my arm in a sling thinking I was never going to play again.
"I couldn't go to sleep because I'd only just had the shoulder operation. The Test would come on so I would watch it."
Now he's in the thick of it.
Ryles loving tour second time round
3 November 2004
A year ago, while the Australian rugby league side was busy retaining the Ashes trophy, Jason Ryles was curled up in bed at home with only the dull pain of a shoulder injury and a bottle of pain killers to keep him company.
Ryles watched Australia win the three Ashes Tests wondering whether he would get the opportunity to play rugby league again.
Fast forward 12 months and Ryles is back in the green and gold, lapping up his second tour of England.
The NSW and Australian forward's comeback from a career-threatening shoulder injury has been well documented and Ryles quite happily admits he's still a work in progress.
"Sometimes when I do fall off a tackle it tends to be, not a result of it (shoulder surgery), it's me sub-consciously doing it," Ryles said from the Australians' hotel in Leeds.
"They're (the missed tackles) getting less and less now. Other than that it just doesn't look good. It's withered. But you can see it all growing back now.
"It's getting stronger."
So is Ryles.
At 25, he's entering his prime.
Ryles surged onto the rugby league scene in 2000 as a fearless, raw-boned front rower and within a year he was playing representative football, turning out for Country Origin.
He finished the season in the Australian side, touring with the 2001 Kangaroos.
It was in the lead-up to that tour that Ryles produced his now-famous sound bite.
Asked whether he had any concerns about touring with the spectre of terrorism swirling around the world, Ryles quipped he'd play in Afghanistan if it meant pulling on the green and gold.
Comparing the difference between that tour and this year's trip, Ryles said: "That was a little bit different - that was more like a hit and run thing.
"This one's a full tour. It's been a bit different this time. It's been good to come away, especially getting to know Wayne Bennett.
"That's probably been a highlight for me. He's pretty intense but at the same time you can talk to him. I have learnt a lot of things off him - just to keep it simple and concentrate on my job.
"I'm rooming with Shane Webcke and that's a big highlight for me as well."
Last year Webcke, the president of the NRL's front row club, took a young Joel Clinton under his wing.
This year it's Ryles' turn.
The pair have struck up a formidable combination.
"He's got a reputation as a grumpy old man," Ryles said of Webcke.
"It's a bit of a front he puts on."
And what about Ryles three years on?
"A little bit older and probably appreciates playing footy a bit more," he said.
"Twelve months ago I was laying in bed, with all the painkillers, my arm in a sling thinking I was never going to play again.
"I couldn't go to sleep because I'd only just had the shoulder operation. The Test would come on so I would watch it."
Now he's in the thick of it.
