Coaching Fiji a life changer: Ryan
the players were upbeat and happily looking forward to what the future may hold.
This struck
Ryan’s heart.
“I wouldn’t change a single thing. I wouldn’t have change for not getting paid for many months. “Making that decision of going to Fiji based on the decision of not having any contract and not knowing how much money I was going to get.
“And not knowing who my bosses were and just taking that leap.
“So all other things that have happened good or bad have led me to an amazing place and I’m incredibly grateful for, Fiji.”
SAY YES
achord in
Ryan said on his first coaching hours everything got thrown at him.
“I signed without signing, this is an expression that they rang me and told me that I have 20 minutes to make a decision. “If they gave me a day I would have said no. I would have thought about it and rang my agent so he would have said where is the contract, what is your offer, where are you going to live?
“I just said yes.”
Ryan said he had a whole list of things to do in that first few months.
“That would put you off and just get you straight back on a plane home.
“Some of them were small and some of them were very significant.”
He said with all those loads it was different when he got with the players.
“All that stuff you just forget about when you go on the field and train with the team.
“You know that pure joy, that gratefulness that you are there, the happiness in the way you want to play the game.
“It just reminded me of how I love what I’m doing in trying to get the best out of everybody, trying to play the game with the smile on your face.
“Fiji gave me that reset button to do all the reasons on why I came and you forget about that we have a stuff it’s not like your glass is half full and half empty it’s kind of like the way forward for Fiji.” Ryan said: “When you’re down you only get for breakfast in the morning by the time you finished, you count about 20 grown men smile and laughter half a dozen times.
“So you’re into your day and that’s your constant daily way of dealing with things so I’m incredibly grateful for Fiji and I miss the island it’s a hard place to replicate.”
STILL THERE
Ryan said at first they tried to find a gym so that was done a couple of weeks before the Olympics so we did get some use of it and not the use that it’s getting now.
“Contracts we put them in place so the framework is there for the players and the training base had an artificial pitch on it at Uprising Beach Resort.
“This is the first artificial pitch in the South Pacific so they got all of those things that they are able to utilize and off course the famous Sigatoka sand dunes that’s still there and the boys are still running up and down.”
Paternal Role
Ryan said he had a paternal role to play and he had to know everyone.
“I’m not a Fijian, I didn’t attend a Fijian school or lived in a village. Neither, have I eaten Fijian food or listen to Fijian music so I had to understand the players and people that I was working and living with. I had to know everybody.
“As a coach, you’re kind of a leader, coach and a manager and they are your traditional trades.
“But in Fiji you had to dig into everything and I was pretty fortunate to have an amazing team manager of Ropate Kauvesi and an amazing captain Osea Kolinisau.
“There were other Fijians around us as well like physiotherapy William (Kwoong) and strength and conditioning coach Naca Cawanibuka. They are still with the team and doing amazing things. I still have to plug in all of that information and all of that expertise so to get the best out of the players.
“The easy bit was the coaching, the hard bit was everything else around that. That is to get the boys on the right frame of mind, fit, healthy, happy, full of belief, full of purpose, anatomy, recognising their stages and their achievements.
“I spend a lot of time going to the villages to meet the players and villagers. I had a solid relationship with them.”
What does it mean winning in the Olympic Games?
Fiji is a tiny dot of an island in the middle of the Pacific. Ryan said there is not too many things that Fijians in the past have been globally recognised for.
“Outside tourism and now rugby, everyone is proud and everyone felt that they all have a part in that ownership in the team. In some way they were part of the gold medal.” He indicated that most of the players came from villages and they all came from very low income families.
“Most of them got jobs before we got them full time contracts. So they were working in the army, hotel porters, farms, labourers, taxi drivers and so the people had connections with them.
“Obviously sevens rugby is a national sport so all of those things kind of added up to this real feel within Fiji, that united the country when we came back.”
Ryan said most players know their performance for the Fijian 7s team would get them a job for life or contracts overseas.
“It's very rarely they hung back to the past or think about the future, they kind of enjoy the moment. So you see that in the kind of way they enjoy the game. “Amazingly, those risky offloads without wondering the consequences of what might follow and how they react to that. I think everybody enjoys what they are doing in the present.
“There’s a legacy about previous teams so they all felt if they played for Fiji and handed the shirt and said congratulations you’ve been picked, it’s about winning world titles. “The standards and par is set very high for someone coming into the Fijian team. I think they are more aware of that then the future and the financial benefits.
RETURN
I went back to Fiji a few times. Kolinisau got married, so I flew back for that. I also flew back when we launched the $7 bill and 50 cents coin. “I went in for a quick break because I haven’t had a break yet. I miss it, I really love to get back my diary which is pretty full on a lot of things that have gone on.”