Broken marriage, friendships lost and forged and Olympic glory: Ben Ryan talks about the ‘Beautiful Chaos’ of Fijian rugby – Part 1

Former Fiji sevens coach’s book is to be released at the end of May and the Englishman talks to South China Morning Post about his amazing journey

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Ben Ryan, former Fiji rugby sevens coach. Photo: Edmond So

Published: 3:45pm, 11 May 2018Updated: 1:00pm, 13 May 2018

Almost two years ago, Englishman Ben Ryan etched his name forever into Fijian folklore when he led the Pacific islanders to a cherished gold medal at the 2016 Olympic Games rugby sevens tournament in Rio. Ryan was more than a coach to the players. He was even more than a friend. He embedded himself into the Fijian culture, agreed to work for no pay for at least six months and laughed and cried with the players through on- and off-field challenges.

The gold medal earned Ryan a chieftain title – a rare honour for a foreigner – and he even has his face on Fijian currency. Ryan is now ready to tell his story via his book, Sevens Heaven: The Beautiful Chaos of Fiji’s Olympic Dream, which is officially due to be released on May 31 but is available already online.

South China Morning Post spoke to Ryan recently about the book and how he peered deep within himself to acknowledge some of his faults as well as the need to abandon Western ideals in order to blend in with Fijian society. Here is the first part of that conversation.

Why write the book?

Well, I guess it’s something that’s been a common thread, that when I sit down with people and we chat about my stories and journey in Fiji they always say I should write a book about this and so we got around to it. It was ghost written by a good friend of mine who I was at Cambridge University with, Tom Fordyce, who was chief sports writer for BBC and he also kept pushing me and telling me, ‘look we gotta tell this story’. So that’s where it went from really. So I sat down with him in different coffee bars around London almost feeling like I had therapy over the last 12 months as we told the story.