Sevens Heaven, Ben Ryan
Sevens Heaven, Ben Ryan
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Sevens Heaven
The Beautiful Chaos of Fiji's Olympic Dream: WINNER OF THE TELEGRAPH SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2019

Author: Ben Ryan

Narrator: Ben Ryan

Unabridged: 8 hr 46 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/31/2018

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included

Synopsis

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018

The uplifting, feel-good autobiography of Ben Ryan, the coach of the Olympic gold-medal winning Fijian rugby team

It is late summer 2013. Ben Ryan, a red-haired, 40-something, spectacle-wearing Englishman, is given 20 minutes to decide whether he wants to coach Fiji's rugby sevens team, with the aim of taking them to the nation's first-ever Olympic medal. He has never been to Fiji. There has been no discussion of contracts or salary. But he knows that no one plays rugby like the men from these isolated Pacific islands, just as no one plays football like the kids from the Brazilian favelas, or no one runs as fast as the boys and girls from Jamaica's boondocks. He knows too that no other rugby nation has so little - no money and no resources, only basic equipment and a long, sad history of losing its most gifted players to richer, greedier nations.

Ryan says yes. And with that simple word he sets in motion an extraordinary journey that will encompass witchdoctors and rugby-obsessed prime ministers, sun-smeared dawns and devastating cyclones, intense friendships and bitter rows, phone taps and wild nationwide parties. It will end in Rio with a performance that not only wins Olympic gold but reaches fresh heights for rugby union and makes Ben and his 12 players living legends back home.

(p) Orion Publishing Group 2018

About Ben Ryan

Ben Ryan is one of the most successful rugby coaches in the history of the game, and the man who took Fiji to rugby sevens Olympic gold in Rio 2016. It was the island nation's first Olympic medal of any colour, and was recognised by the International Olympic Committee as the best male team performance at the 2016 Games. Ben, coach of England's sevens team from 2006 to 2013, also took Fiji to two Sevens World Series titles, and after the team's triumph in Brazil became Chief in the province of Serua as well as being awarded the Companion of the Order of Fiji, the nation's highest order. He is now a consultant to various leading sports organisations and companies around the world.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Sportyrod on August 02, 2021

Fiji. Small island nation. No Olympic medals in history. Until… An English coach accepts the challenge of providing some finesse to a naturally talented group of players. There are many obstacles: the players have no contracts (so they get poached), the nation has talent across the archipelago (logis......more

Goodreads review by Boy on August 30, 2018

For rugby fans around the world "Fiji style" has long been synonymous with exhilarating plays made at frenetic speed by athletic freaks. A team that seemed to have no sense of occasion and played for the sheer joy of the game whether it was a final or a first round pool match. Much like the reverenc......more

Goodreads review by Amy on January 04, 2023

This was a perfectly fine book, the author seems like he genuinely cares about the players he coached and his experience in Fiji. I did learn a bit about Fijian culture as well and felt there was a level of respect there. A couple of things keep me from rating it higher. While the writing is good, pa......more

Goodreads review by Jenwei on June 13, 2019

I loved this book - I sped through it like a Fijian with rugby ball in hand (or so it seemed to me). I think as a sports autobiography, it had the right amount of rugby and the right amount of life to give one an in depth exposure to a man who for 3 years devoted his life to Fijian rugby. Fascinatin......more

Goodreads review by Will on August 01, 2018

Probably the best autobiography I've read in recent years. An English rugby coach taking the job in the Pacific, away from home with a culture even more remote than the distance. Ben had to radically change the way he coached to bring out the best in the players on the way to their country's first e......more

Quotes

You'll struggle to read a more compelling rugby story than this . . . heartily recommended

An excellent read covering a brilliant journey

One of the all-time great sporting tales . . . Good things happen to good people

Sevens Heaven by Ben Ryan is such a special book Guardian, Best Sports Books of the Year

Brutally honest . . . A moving, candid tale of a coach taking the plunge with a rugby ball as his only buoyancy aid Daily Express

An engrossing account of a remarkable story Evening Standard

So many beautiful, provocative postcard descriptions of Fiji alongside fascinating, honest insights and humble lessons and truths

Sevens Heaven, the story of how English coach Ben Ryan took the Fiji sevens side to Olympic gold, is the best rugby book I've ever read (I don't say that lightly) and as good as any sports book, from Mailer to Plimpton to Hauser, I've encountered in the almost sixty years since I got a Terry McLean '59 Lions tour book for Christmas. It's so good because it reads at times like a noir novel, and is stunningly open and honest. We know how the rugby ended, but Ryan's book is so gripping to tell you any other plot twists might spoil it for you

We always knew a book by Ben Ryan wouldn't be dull, but Sevens Heaven surpasses all expectations. The Londoner's "three years of enlightenment" in the South Pacific makes such enthralling reading that I unhesitatingly call this one of the best rugby books ever written Rugby World

Entertaining and insightful The Rugby Paper

Awards

  • William Hill Sports Book of the Year
  • The Telegraph Sports Book of the Year
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