The Corkman reached the milestone in his side’s 21-16 win over Ospreys on Saturday.

Ironically, Ryan’s first cap was away to a Welsh out, Cardiff, almost 6 years ago, making a 10 minutes appearance from the bench  in a 18-13 win.

The loosehead didn’t have the same path most Munster players have to reaching their first senior cap. Although he did represent the province at U19 and U20 level, he was released from the sub academy after a year and it looked as though he wouldn’t be playing for his province again.

But credit to the man, he went back and played AIL rugby with U.C.C and had a standout season with them, so much so that he was offered a new development contract by then coach Rob Penney and has been plying his trade for Munster ever since.

The fact his journey to his first cap was maybe longer than he envisaged made it that bit sweeter. The former CBC pupil sat down with Munster recently a spoke about his early beginnings in Munster

“I was on a development contract back then and was no spring chicken, I think I was 23, and word came through that Marcus (Horan) was injured – there was a bit of a shortage at prop and I was in.  I was delighted.

“It was probably something that I didn’t envisage coming up along.  I started to take things seriously in school, fell off again once I didn’t make it with the academy, and then to come back and make your debut at the age of 23 was very satisfying.

“It was going to be a massive step up because I had just gotten back into the Munster set up and hadn’t really played that much with Munster A.  I couldn’t even tell you who I was playing bedside that day – I was nervous and didn’t really take it all in.  But what I do remember was that it was some rush playing for Munster for the first time.”

Ryan has since gone on leaps and bounds in the last six seasons, with his best coming last time round when he cemented his positions as Munster’s number 1 loosehead as well as earning 8 Irish caps in the Six Nations and the Summer tour of the U.S and Japan.

What makes his achievement that bit more impressive is that he has had to deal with an illness called ulcerative colitis all his life, which is a condition where your colon can become inflamed and you can feel sick, lose weight etc. because of it. Despite a flare up in 2014, he hasn’t let it affect his career in anyway as he looks ahead to a new season of Provincial and International rugby.

There have been some huge achievements in Ryan’s career, but last year, understandably stood out as a really special one.

“Last season has to be the standout for me.  I was chipping away at getting into that starting squad since 2011 and last year was a breakthrough on that front.  Getting to two semi-finals and playing for Axel the way we did against Glasgow is something I’ll never forget.

“As regards the 100^th cap itself, it was business as usual really.  I enjoyed it after the fact and was glad I got a good bit of game time, but before I just wanted to get the win on the occasion – a lot don’t get that.”

On top of all those excellent accolades, the Cork native was picked in the Pro 12 dream team, nominated for Munster’s player of the year award and gave a man of the match try scoring performance against Toulouse in the Champions cup quarter final in front of a full Thomond Park.

When asked what’s next fro the ever improving prop, he said

“First things first, I need to get back into the matchday XV in Munster.  The likes of Stephen Archer is playing fantastic rugby at the moment and there’s more competition coming from Brian Scott and Ciaran Parker, and then you have the guys at the other side of the scrum.

“I need to work hard and get back into the number 3 jersey at Munster rather than think about anything else.”