Ryan's France Sevens job tip of a big Bleu rugby iceberg

Ben Ryan, the coach who masterminded Fiji’s Olympic sevens triumph at Rio 2016, joined France’s sevens squad in Biarritz earlier this week, as it was confirmed he has taken a consultancy role with the FFR.

The 46-year-old will work with national coaches Jérôme Daret and Nicolas Le Roux and the players for several days a month every month ahead of next year’s Sevens World Cup in San Francisco.

He will not travel to tournaments.

Ryan’s recruitment is regarded as a coup for new sevens manager Christophe Reigt. He has the challenge of reviving the fortunes of the French sevens’ side, who have slipped to 10th in the world rankings.

One of Ryan’s most pressing tasks will be to create a team out of a 17-player squad that features eight new faces in time for the opening round of the World Sevens series in Dubai on December 2 and 3.

How much he can achieve in what will probably amount to about a fortnight’s work before December will be revealed in Dubai. He will obviously look for clear improvements throughout the season. But, importantly, it is further evidence of a shift in priorities from the club to the national game in France since currently embattled FFR president Bernard Laporte was elected in December 2016.

Despite the travesty of the knackered tour of South Africa in June, there’s the inkling or hint of an impression that France will soon reap what they finally started sowing when they created an elite player system last season – and which the FFR and LNR, in a rare display of public solidarity, have extended and expanded this season.

A domestic quota system, which obliges Top 14 clubs to select 14 homegrown players in every matchday 23, meanwhile, has been reinforced by a gestalt-shift in club ambitions. Both Toulon and Montpellier – who have led southern hemisphere raiding parties in recent years – have publicly declared their intent to develop 100% Made in France teams that will challenge for domestic and European honours.

The one thing the genetically engineered rebirth of France’s rugby phoenix needs is time. Given the problems Laporte currently faces on the political front at home, and the Damoclean sword of November success hanging over France XV coach Guy Noves, time is – sadly – what it may not have.