Page 28 - IB JAN 2017

Sport
Saint of Fiji 7s rugby

Ben Ryan,

the legacy

THE Free Dictionary defines a saint a
person of great benevolence and virtue;
a founder or patron of a movement.
Many people would identify this with
Englishman Ben Ryan who moved to
Fiji in 2013 with wife Natalie to take up
the coaching role for the men’s national
sevens team.
His love of rugby and the potential he
saw in Fijian players to be world and
Olympic beaters overshadowed per-
sonal hardships he encountered with
his employer when he first arrived. This
great act of benevolence, when pitched
against the results he produced, made
him the most loved and adored person
for all Fijians the world over.
His right hand man, strength and
conditioning coach Nacanieli Cawani-
buka describes Ryan a “master-coach”
whose simple leadership style and
strong motivational skills worked well
for the players.
“A strong attribute I saw in him was
how to build self-confidence in the
players to believe in themselves that
they were the best in the world,”
Cawanibuka said.
“To get the best out of our
Fijian players you need to be
able to connect with them on a
personal level and collectively as
a team and Ben did that very well”.
Ryan had studied Fiji’s game thor-
oughly and used his interpersonal
skills and intelligence effectively to
mold a team Cawanibuka claims were
mostly “rejected” players that Ryan
transformed into a gold-medal winning
combination.
“He opened up the doors to players
who would have been rejected at some
point and to be honest with you that
team that went to the Olympics was a
team of rejects from previous history”.
Having had a successful record with
the English sevens team, Ryan was up
to the challenge before coming to Fiji

28 Islands Business, January 2017