Ben Ryan (rugby union)

Ben Ryan
Rugby union career

Ryan at the 2013 Coral Coast 7's
Date of birth	(1971-09-11) September 11, 1971
Place of birth	Wimbledon, London
Height	1.82 m (5 ft 11 ¹⁄₂ in)
Weight	85 kg (187 lb)
Occupation(s)	Rugby coach
Playing career
Position	Scrumhalf, Utility Back
Coaching career
Years	Club / team
2007-2013 2013-Present	England 7s Fiji 7s

Ben Ryan (born 11 September 1971, in Wimbledon) is the current Fiji sevens head coach.

He is the former coach of the England sevens team where he was named to that position at the end of 2006 after Mike Friday resigned to follow a career outside of rugby^[1] and given the combined Sevens and Academy Job full-time in July 2007.

Ryan graduated from Loughborough University with a BSc in Sports science. He is a former member of Thames Valley Harriers Athletic Club, where he was a very successful sprinter at school boy level. He is a former Master at St Edward's School, Oxford where he was master in charge of Rugby and Athletics. During his time at St. Edward's he successfully introduced A-Level Sports science, was head of the physical education department.

Ben Ryan was educated at St Benedict's School, Wimbledon College, Loughborough University (BSc in Sports Science) and Cambridge University (MPhil in Education), where he won two Blues as a scrum-half in the winning sides of 1995 and 1996 as well as captaining the Light Blues’ Sevens team. He played club rugby with Nottingham and West Hartlepool and as recently as Jan 2007 turned out for Newbury in their 45-13 defeat at Leeds Tykes.

Coaching career

He taught at St Edward's School, Oxford which, by the time he left after six years, had a player in every England international squad from Under-16 to Senior (James Forrester). Previously the school had no representation on international teams. The school also had an 82 per cent success rate at Sevens including four national Sevens semi-finals and two quarter-finals.

He joined Newbury Blues in 2002 as backs coach and led them from National Division Two to One (Championship) in 2004/05 (his first season as full-time Director of Rugby). He was assistant coach to England Counties on their tour to Argentina and Uruguay in 2005 and head coach for the 35-7 victory over Tunisia June 2007 and Ireland Clubs and France Amateurs in March 2007.

Ben Ryan's first IRB tournament was Wellington 2007 and up to and including The Dubai Sevens 2012 he was in charge for 56 HSBC IRB World Series Sevens Tournaments, over 300 games - the longest serving England Sevens Head Coach of all time, reaching the semi finals or better 28 times. Outside the HSBC World Sevens Series he was also head coach for the 2009 RWC and 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi and in his last tournament in charge of England led them to their first Rugby World Cup 7's Final in 20 years, eventually losing to New Zealand in the final.^[2] In the FIRA European Series, he has coached 7 tournaments and overall has coached England in 67 International Tournaments corresponding to 378 Games.^[3] In 2011, Ben was also in charge of the England side that won the Junior Commonwealth Games in the Isle of Man, beating South Africa in the final 41-20^[4]

England are currently European Champions and ranked third in the World. Ben's assistant coach is Russell Earnshaw, the former Bath player whom he played with at Cambridge University. Russell has just successfully led GB Students to their first World University Games title (2012 Brive). In 2013, he resigned as the coach of the England 7's team and was subsequently replaced by Simon Amor.

Coach of Fiji

In September 2013, he was signed on as the coach for the Fiji sevens team.^[5] He led them to a tournament victory, winning the Dubai 7s for the first time in the nation's history in only his second tournament in charge. His appointment has also coincided with financial problems with the Fijian Rugby Union, resulting in Ryan's volunteering to go unpaid for the first four months of his contract - a first as an International top tier head coach.^[6]^[7]

As coach of Fiji, he has won 6 tournaments, 2 in the 2013–14 season and 4 in the 2014–15 overtaking the record set by a former coach, Waisale Serevi who won 4 Cup titles with Fiji. In May 2015, Fiji were crowned the overall winners of the 2014–15 Sevens World Series after defeating South Africa in the cup quarter final of the 2015 London Sevens giving Ryan his first ever Sevens World Series title. He won 3 more titles with Fiji in the 2015-16 season taking his tally to 9 titles with Fiji, the highest ever by any coach for Fiji.

References

External links

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