Rugby superstars of Fiji are shaping up gingerly under Ben Ryan

Ben Ryan has got used to expectations of rugby-loving nation as Englishman goes about changing tactics, writes Paul Radley.

In this photo taken Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013, Fiji rugby Sevens coach Ben Ryan, center, speaks to his squad in Pacific Harbour, Fiji. This is Ryan's first training camp with the national squad in Fiji. Show more

There are pluses and minuses that come with being centre of attention within the national obsession that is rugby sevens in Fiji.

Succeed and you are celebrated to the echo. If the Flying Fijians break their duck in Dubai and win the Emirates International Trophy this weekend, coach Ben Ryan anticipates a welcoming committee of thousands when they fly home to Suva.

Lose, though, and you might as well go into hiding. Which is easier said than done for the slight, fair-skinned Englishman with the vivid ginger hair.

“There is a big expectation there,” said Ryan, who was appointed as Fiji coach at the start of this season after the best part of six series in charge of England.

“It is hard to go anywhere on the island and not get stopped – and I stick out.

“I think I might be the only ginger on the island they have ever seen. It is the most common question I get asked: is your hair the real colour?”

He might have enjoyed some solidarity with his players until recently. Osea Kolinisau, Ryan’s captain, had been one of the most recognisable players on the world series due to his mane of strawberry blond dyed locks. The clippers have put paid to that now, though.

Yet the Londoner is loving his glorious isolation. So far he has only commuted from the UK for month-long training camps in the South Pacific islands.

However, he plans to move there for good – or at least for the two and a half years until the Olympic Games – after Christmas.

He has tried to talk down his side’s chances of success this weekend, citing the fact they are building towards the greater goal of Olympic gold when sevens debuts in Rio de Janeiro.

However, he acknowledges that opinion is rather out of kilter with “the whole of the rest of the population of Fiji”.

“They are expected to win every tournament,” Ryan said. “That is what all the boys will get told from the moment they get selected and it will be hammered into them. Every single person will be glued to a television this weekend.”

It is clear to see this Englishman abroad is already besotted by his adopted home.

For supporters weaned on the brand of the game the Fijians play, the islands themselves represent some sort of mystical rugby heaven. Now Ryan is ensconced in it, he acknowledges the perception is not far from the truth.

“When people told me when you get to the islands all you see is people playing rugby, I thought that would be a bit of a stereotype,” he said.

“It is not. I have a 40-minute journey from my home to Suva and you lose count of the amount of pick-up games you see.

“When the tide is out they will be playing on the sandbanks, and it is a high-risk, one-touch version of the game that they play across the country.

“The tries you see Fiji sometimes score that are absolutely incredible are happening every day of the week, at every level, in every village in Fiji.”

Suffice to say, the differences between his current posting and his former one are stark.

When Ryan has arrived in Dubai at any point over the past five years, it has been with some new-fangled, hi-tec gizmo or other.

From global-positioning system tracking devices used at training, to high-visibility monogrammes on the playing kits, England’s sevens side have wanted for little thanks to the funds washing through the game there.

On the opposite side of the world, riches are confined exclusively to the player pool. The Fijians have never done, according to Ryan, video analysis on their opposition. They have never even looked at their rivals before.

Only now are they starting to think about working on the specifics of set pieces like kickoffs, scrums and line-outs.

Hitherto, prodigious natural talent was deemed enough.

This is a world away, both geographically and metaphorically, from what has gone before for Ryan.

“It is light and day in terms of funding and resources, as well as the way the players are regarded in the two countries,” he said.

“In Fiji they are superstars. They are on the magazine covers and the TV commercials, and they all come from varied and humbling backgrounds.

“This is their ticket to money for their families and their village. I’ve had a pretty incredible experience so far.”

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