Ireland’s Ethan Ryan would love a family reunion at the World Cup

Hull KR winger Ethan Ryan says he would made up if he was managed to reunite with some of his Irish family when he represents Ireland at the World Cup.

The 26-year-old has won five caps for Ireland since making his international debut in 2018.

Ryan was born and raised in Halifax but qualifies to play for Ireland through his family, who hail from County Wexford.

The Hull KR flier says he has lost touch with some of his family over in Ireland since the passing of his grandad. However, he would be over the moon to see some of them come over to watch him represent their Irish heritage at this year’s World Cup in England.

“All of my dad’s side of the family are Irish,” Ryan told Love Rugby League. “My grandad and grandma are both Irish, but I didn’t know her.

“Grandad came over to England with the majority of his family to come and work. My dad was then born in England and met my mum, where I was brought up.

“I think it is important to know about your family and where you come from.

“My mum doesn’t know who her dad is so she did a DNA test the other year. She found out all sorts about where she’s from and where family is from and it was good to know. On the back of that I wanted to ask my dad where all his family are from. I had an in-depth conversation with him and spoke about going to visit family over there.

“A lot of my family are still over in Ireland”

“We aren’t very close since my grandad passed away so it is something I’d like to change and I’d like to keep in contact with all of them.”

When asked if he would like them to come over at the end of the year, Ryan said: “I’d love something like that!

“I’m going to have to speak with my dad and his side of the family about it. I’ll do my best to get people over who want to be there.”

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Ethan Ryan excited for World Cup

Ireland have been drawn in a group alongside New Zealand, Lebanon and Jamaica at the World Cup.

The Wolfhounds had a two-day training camp over the international break. New head coach Ged Corcoran got his squad together at Hopwood Hall in Rochdale to layout their World Cup hopes.

Ryan added: “There has been quite a shift in the staff. Ged has gone to head coach, we’ve got a new assistant coach and all the backroom staff have changed.

“We did two days in camp and we were told the vision of Rugby League Ireland in general and how they want to go about it moving forward, not just for this World Cup but for the next World Cup and all that sort of stuff. It was good to get the ball rolling for October.”

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