It could be that his words are being misinterpreted here, of course, but we would have thought that if a competition is credible in the later stages, it is credible in the early ones as well. If you don't take the early stages seriously, you don't get to the later ones.
Still, we should be used to puzzles being set by Ryan in some of the things he says, though again we suspect a lot of the blame for that could be laid at the feet of some sections of the media who quote him without attempting to ask what on earth he is talking about.
Often the best place to read what Ryan is saying is the Citizen, and it's in the paper that the coach has been talking about the game at Newcastle (actually, it's not frozen up there at all - last time we spoke to the Shedloads North East correspondent, Uncle Bill, he said it was bright and sunny round Kingston Park. But give it time).
Ryan told the Citizen: "You're always in danger while you run three tournaments alongside each other that something's going to give. It's not about priorities or anything like that.
"Players can't play that amount of high intensity rugby. When you make changes you will get fragmented teams, fragmented defences. You will get mistakes.
"I'm pleased with the bonus point (against Dragons) because it allows us to go to Newcastle, it allows us to go and play well and hopefully go into a semi-final.
"Then suddenly this tournament really does take off because there will be big teams in there and it will have all the credibility it needs."
But no matter how seriously the game is taken, injuries will once again hamper Ryan's team selection as the queue for treatment lengthsn with every match.
Meanwhile, the club has limited itself to a short statement following the weekend arrest of Lesley Vainikolo in Bath: "We are aware of an incident at which Lesley Vainikolo was present. The police investigation is on-going."

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