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Wednesday 31st January 2007
The remit for England’s new sevens coach Ben Ryan is not straight forward. Should he win as many tournaments in the IRB Sevens as possible and earn England’s first series win, or should he concentrate on developing young, inexperienced players and move them along the RFU’s elite player pathway?
Ryan, who has enjoyed enviable success with National Division One club Newbury, where he is Director of Rugby, believes he should, and will, do both. He calls it ‘developing winners’ and his job starts this week with the 12 man England squad currently in Wellington.
When Ryan became full time coach at Newbury three years ago, they were struggling in Division Two and his leadership helped moved them up to the first division within a season. In his previous role at St Edward’s School (Oxford) he had a similarly impressive track record going from having no international players to having had a player in every England representative squad from England Under 16s to seniors (James Forrester). Add to that an 82 percent success rate at sevens and you can start to understand why the Loughborough University graduate has been handed his RFU role.
England are currently joint third in the IRB Sevens table, behind South Africa and New Zealand, so the big question is can the 35 year old from Wimbledon work his magic on the England Sevens squad too?
“I have had success coaching various age group levels and with the England Counties and have played quite a lot of sevens in my past. I haven’t played England Sevens myself as there wasn’t an England Sevens team when I was playing. Nor do I believe that you have to be an ex international player to be a top level coach. Just look at the top ten teams in the world and none of their coaches have played international rugby.”
The most important part of his new role is developing young players for the senior England team. With recent success stories including Jamie Noon, Josh Lewsey, Mathew Tait and Magnus Lund, the sevens has really started to prove a successful and reliable breeding ground for the next generation of England players. Ryan says, “You can look at development in two ways. For me, it can mean making players better on the pitch but it also means they understand how to win, so that when it comes to the senior England XV team, we are providing them with a group of winners. We are developing every single player who is here whether it’s his first or 31st tournament. We are trying to get talented youngsters, who might not be getting much game time with their clubs, and stick them on an accelerated experience curve. You can look at player after player after player who have stepped up to the senior team having been involved with the sevens team and it’s an impressive list, and proof of the effectiveness of the programme as a development tool.”
Ryan is coming to the sevens role on a part time basis due to his commitments at Newbury, where he will remain as Director of Rugby. He is keen to stress that rather than having the sevens as a part time job he instead has two full time jobs at the moment. “Everyone at Newbury has been fantastically supportive of this opportunity and understands that it is a great development opportunity for me. I have a reputation for not standing in player’s way if they are given similar opportunities in their career so I am grateful that they are doing the same for me. I have been with Newbury for over 120 games now, and a lot of things are set in place. My involvement with the sevens gives my number two a fantastic opportunity to step up to the plate for a month.”
Wellington is the third leg of the IRB Sevens and is renowned as England’s toughest tournament with a 31 hour journey, 13 hour time difference, and a 30,000 hostile New Zealand crowd. Ryan knows that to win here, something no England Sevens team has ever achieved, is a big ask. “I am fortunate that we have got quite an experienced squad, and have player power (in a right way) whereby players have an open forum to express themselves and learn from each other. I have just been tweaking with things really. Whenever a new person comes into a new job, so long as they don’t try and change things over night I believe it can really add value initially. It’s the factor of favourability. I have brought a few new things in, and Mike (Friday) was in charge and successful for a long time. It is just a case of tweaking a few things and hopefully getting it right. This is a very well oiled machine, and I am enjoying working with them.”
Whilst the Wellington squad does mark a return for a number of experienced sevens players such as Tony Roques (Exeter Chiefs) and Nils Mordt (London Irish), there are still some youngsters who Ryan is looking forward to seeing develop. David Smith, just 18 from Northampton Saints, and Mark Foster from Gloucester are both uncapped and will be making their debuts in Wellington’s famous cake tin stadium on Friday. Ryan is confident that however big or daunting the challenge for these youngsters, it will be beneficial to their career development. “I do my homework on these youngsters and have spoken to their Academy coaches, and people who have known them for a while, and do not think it is a gamble of any kind. It is going to be a massive plus for these two guys to be involved over here, especially David Smith, and I am confident he will go back to Northampton Saints and they will see a difference. We will do everything we can to create an environment where he feels as comfortable as possible in order to perform to his best ability.”
Less than half way into the sevens season, Ryan has already lost a number of his core squad as they have progressed to either the senior England team or the Saxons. He stresses that all selection decisions are based on what is right for the individual player. “There were players that were available for these two tournaments but we decided it was better for them at this time to either rest following injuries, or continue playing XVs. Similarly, if you’ve got a young player who has the potential to be in the World Cup squad in four years time but is getting no club rugby because he is third choice, then it is sometimes better for him to play England Under 20s and get some decent XVs experience. But if he is playing regularly for his club but needs some added experience then it is usually right for him to come away with the sevens. Each player is looked at as an individual and what is best for them at that time.”
Development is obviously very much on Ryan’s mind, but he is also a fiercely competitive coach and he is setting himself high targets within the sevens world. “My aim is to win these two tournaments. Simple as that. We would all be hugely disappointed if we didn’t come away with a win this weekend. I know it is a massive ask, especially against the home side who have been in camp for a couple of weeks and had 40 players at training. I think if I was set a target of reaching the quarters or semi finals I certainly wouldn’t have taken this job, and I don’t think we would have many players wanting to be involved.”
Reflecting on his appointment, Ryan admits that he has got a job that a lot of other coaches would ‘die for’. “I get to travel the world, work with the cream of the country’s youth, in testing environments where you have got to quickly mould and gel them. It’s a fantastic challenge. I have always loved sevens, especially the tournaments themselves. Everything about sevens is so instant and I love the fact that if you win or lose it matters immediately, you don’t have to wait until the end of a nine month season.”
He continues, “The RFU have not set me a specific target for the remainder of the series. I know they want me to continue to develop players and for me that goes hand in hand with winning. If we are successfully developing players then the winning takes care of itself.”
Keep up to date with how Ben and the England Sevens team get on in Wellington on Friday and Saturday at rfu.com/sevens
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