Ben Ryan

Ben Ryan (born 11 September 1971, in Wimbledon) is the England Rugby Union Sevens head coach and also a National Academy Coach, looking specifically after scrum halves. He was named to the position at the end of 2006 after Mike Friday resigned to follow a career outside of rugby and given the combined Sevens and Academy Job full time in July 2007 [http://www.england-rugby.com/englandrugby/index.cfm?fuseaction=News.News_Detail&storyid=15476]

Ben Ryan was educated at 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. A utility back who made his senior debut as a 17-year-old for Richmond, he played for England Under-18s, 19s and 21s, and in every backline position in the top two divisions. 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. He taught at St Edward’s School, Oxford who, by the time he left after six years, had a player in every England representative squad from England Under-16 to Senior (James Forrester), wheras previously they had no internationals. They 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 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, won by Samoa, who Defeated England 19-14 in the group stages. England went on to win the Plate, defeating France in the final. He has been in charge of the Sevens side since, in a time when the Rugby Football Union have put the onus on development and transition into the Senior and Saxons Squad. However, this season the side finished well, beating New Zealand in IRB London 2008 quarter finals, which interestingly was not only the sevens first win over New Zealand in five years but the first victory by an England National side at any level over a New Zealand national side for 4 years. They lost 12-10 to Samoa (the eventual champions) in the semi-final but a week later in IRB Edinburgh 2008, went one better to reach their first final of the IRB World Series 2007/8. In a physical, close contest, they were defeated by New Zealand 19-14.