As Jonathan Burchill wrote Ben Ryan was one of the Bees links to the Olympics at Rio, 2016. Growing up and listening to the Griffin Park crowd sounds from less than a mile away, Ben was at school at Strand on the Green Junior, Chiswick,
Ben is a local hero, he’s a supporter and former season ticket holder.
In Rio, Fiji beat Great Britain to claim the Gold Medal in the Men’s Rugby Sevens – the first Olympic medal ever won by the country.
Fiji were coached by Ben and to mark the success, the winning team, including Ben, were depicted on the reverse of a Fiji $7 note.
Ratu Peni Rayani Latianara
Ben stood down as Fiji’s coach in 2016 but is still well regarded in the country where he has been awarded the Companion of the Order of Fiji, given three acres of land and made a chief with the Fijian name Ratu Peni Rayani Latianara. He also helped changed the landscape of women’s rugby in Fiji during his time in the country. Ben’s groundwork bore fruit when, like the men’s side, the Fiji women’s side went onto to win a Rugby Sevens medal at the 2020 Olympics.
They also beat GB, this time in the Bronze Medal match, 21-12. The popularity of the women’s game in Fiji continues to grow
Ben joined Brentford in June 2022 as Performance Director.
Many of you have heard the Brentford catchphrase, ‘no dickheads’ – maybe that should be changed to ‘more Bens’.
A Loughborough alumunus
With kind permission we now print extracts from an article from Loughborough University – which was recently named Sports University of the Year by The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025.
The full article is linked below and makes a ‘can’t put down’ read so we suggest doing just that and having a read!
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Rewind eight years and the games were in full swing in Brazil. Rugby 7’s was on the schedule for the first time and the men’s Fiji Rugby 7’s side were set to take home the inaugural gold for the event, Fiji’s first-ever medal at a games. Alumnus Ben Ryan coached the team to gold in Rio. With a career focused on coaching across a range of different sports, we asked Ben for some of his highlights and insights into the games, and we also found out more about his latest role with Brentford FC. Ben Ryan started out as a sportsperson, playing rugby to a high level. He played in the Premiership and was in national age group squads. Injured early on during his time with West Hartlepool in the Premiership, Ben turned to other endeavours between injury which has ultimately led to a successful coaching career. He gained a BSc degree in Physical Education and Sports Science with Recreation Management in 1995 from Loughborough. He later earned a master’s degree and qualified as a teacher from Cambridge. He ended his professional career at 37, having been a player-coach at Championship level to move into full-time coaching.
Ben was still playing rugby when he joined Loughborough:
“We had freshers trials for rugby and they put us in different positions to line up. Anybody that had played at least county level was to stand in one position. “I was playing center at that point and there were thirty people there that had played county in that position, which was pretty crazy. The levels were really high, and I was probably as fit as I ever was in my career.” Ben says Loughborough was the place where he “grounded a lot of fundamentals”. He added: “Basing a lot of your philosophy around working hard on the pitch and on fitness, I’ve got some lifelong learning from Loughborough.”
Fiji, a “magical” experience
“To sum it up, they were just beautiful people.” Ben recalled mornings at training camps, “When we would sit down – and I’m not religious at all – but we’d sing songs for five minutes. We’d have a little prayer, make sure everyone was okay for the day, have a hug and go and have breakfast.” At the beginning Ben was also doing strength and conditioning, fitness, coaching, nutrition, psychology and analysis. He’d probably finish at around 5 or 6pm every day and go back to his place, a beautiful house on a reef. “That was my place of sanctuary really. I did that on and off for three years until I left and moved on to other things.”
Huge expectation
“When I look back, there was an expectation, and I put that upon myself to win gold very early on. It was really controlling what we could control and throughout my coaching career I’ve been pretty good at that – and currently with Brentford it’s the same – making sure you separate the things that you can control and the things you can’t.
“We could control people being on social media or on their laptops or phones. The boys all handed in their phones – we went off grid basically.” They could request their phone to make a call, but this was one of the ways in which the team kept focused on themselves. They headed to the athletes’ village around four days before the tournament, Ben added: “Every day we’d be in the news and we needed to take them away from that bubble”. “We did everything as a team. “The nerves were pretty aligned and as my old sports psychology professor says, it’s okay to have butterflies as long as they’re flying in formation, and that’s kind of how I felt.”
The final v GB for gold
“It was perfect. It’s a rarity as a coach to get a whole group of athletes and staff in what Hanin – another psychology quote – would talk about in the zone of optimal function, where they were on this level, highly competent and anything that was thrown at them, they could deal with, but they weren’t overconfident. “They were grounded, they were humble, and they were happy. and that’s what it felt like for the team in Rio. We scored our first try after 30 seconds and five more by half time. You just feel effortless, and you feel like everything is in slow motion.
National thank you
We had three days of bank holidays and a tour around the island, which normally took three hours and it took more than seven. “I was Knighted, given land, made a Chief and I was put on their bank notes and coins. All the boys were given land. It was just amazing really, beautiful.” Thinking about the experience for current athletes and coaches on the global stage in Paris, Ben said: “You can’t treat it like another event, because it isn’t. You need to have a conversation about that and understand again, going back to what you can control and what you can’t. Don’t change your routines drastically but embrace the fact that you’re at the Olympic Games.” Fiji went on to defend their gold medal in Tokyo.
Then Brentford
After Fiji, Ben did some work with a basketball team in America and then worked as a consultant for UK Sport, Nike, and the French Rugby Federation. He worked across more sports and consulted for a couple of football teams before landing his current role with Brentford. Ben’s broad experiences gave him he chance to “understand some of the key fundamentals around performance that is linked across all the sports” and taking away “technical and physical requirements on the pitch.” “You’ve got to find ways to achieve optimal performance all the time in an environment that’s highly pressurized and you’re trying to constantly ease the pressure but push the standards. And that’s probably one of the things that I’ve loved the most in my career. That constant challenge to try to work out how you can do things better.
…….And that’s exactly what I’m doing at Brentford as a Performance Director.”
With thanks to Loughborough University’s Alumini team
The full article on their web site is here
Alumni spotlight: Coaching to gold – Ben Ryan
Brentford FC articles on Ben
How Brentford’s culture helps the club to compete 26.09.23
The Olympic gold medalist helping Brentford reach peak performance 07.05.24
‘Vei Lomani’
Tattooed on Ryan’s wrist is the Fijian phrase meaning love one another and work together
