Loose Forward:
Bush (Pahiatua) 1969 [ 9 games – 6 Tries]
Wairarapa Bush (Pahiatua) 1971-72-73-74 [ 42 games – 10 Tries = 39pts]
Hawkes Bay (Taupo) 1975-76-77-78 [ 54 Games – 9 Tries]
Hawkes Bay Country 1975-76 [ 2 Games ]
Nelson Bays Invit. XV 1975 [ 1 Game ]
Evergreens Club 1974 [ 1 Game ]
Saracens Club 1978 [ 1 Game ]
NZ Juniors Trial 1969 [ 1 Game ]
NZ Juniors 1972-73 [ 9 Games – 2 Tries]
NZ Trials 1975-77 [ 2 Games ]
NEW ZEALAND 1976 in Argentina [ 5 Games – 1 Try]
First Class Career : 19 games, 3 Tries, 19 Conv., 13 Pen. = 86pts
| RUGBY CLUB (First made All Blacks from) |
Taupo |
| PROVINCE | Hawke’s Bay |
| ALL BLACK DEBUT | Tuesday, 12 October 1976 v Uruguay at Montevideo aged 26 years, 175 days |
| BORN | Thursday, 20 April 1950 in Pahiatua, New Zealand |
| DIED | Tuesday, 5 March 1985 in Taupo |
Pat Ryan All Black #759
Pat Ryan was a fit and vigorous loose forward who had an admirable career at representative level when between 1969 and 1978, though with three different sides, he achieved more than 100 games at provincial level.
A player with a high work rate and never far away from the ball, Ryan had a good physique at 1.87m and 95kg and was capable of playing in all three of the back row positions.
Not long out of St Patrick’s College, Silverstream, which he attended as a boarder, Ryan made his debut as a 19-year old for Bush in 1969 from the Pahiatua club. He had nine games for that union and was included in that year’s national under 23 trials.
When Bush was amalgamated with Wairarapa to become Wairarapa-Bush he played 42 matches for that union between 1971 and 1974. One of his notable performances for Wairarapa-Bush was against the touring Lions in 1971 and in 1973 when he often acted as the side’s captain he played in the union’s Ranfurly Shield challenge against Marlborough.
Ryan joined the New Zealand under 23 team’s tour of Australia in 1972 as a late injury reinforcement for Ken Stewart and the following year was in the Junior side’s internal tour, playing in the celebrated win over the All Blacks at Carisbrook.
In 1975 Ryan moved to Taupo, which was then within the Hawke’s Bay union, and spent the rest of his first class career with the Bay, playing in 56 matches over four seasons, including games against the touring Scots in 1975 and the Lions in 1977. He was also in the Bay’s shield challenges against Auckland (1975) and Manawatu (1976).
Ryan had an All Black trial in the 1975 season and another in 1977. His consistent efforts at provincial level were rewarded with the second All Black selection in 1976. He made the tour of Argentina playing in five of the matches but missing out in the two internationals against the Pumas, with the team captain, Graham Mourie, Canterbury’s Stu Cron and Otago’s Merv Jaffray preferred for the back row.
Ryan continued in club rugby until 1981 but died of cancer in 1985 at the early age of 34.
Profile by Lindsay Knight
for the New Zealand Rugby Museum.
