The final phase of the Road to Gold journey starts for Ben Ryan and the sevens team

The final phase of the Road to Gold journey for the Fiji 7s men’s team begins in the next hour when the team flies out to Santiago, Chile for an 8 day camp before heading to Rio for the Olympic Games.

Coach Ben Ryan says he is taking a fitter and faster side after the gruelling training sessions at Uprising Resort and the Sigatoka Sand Dunes.

It has been a dream story for Ryan and the team so far as they get ready to represent Fiji in the first ever Olympics 7s competition.

Many changes have also been made since Ryan was appointed as Fiji coach in September 2013.

Three years ago, the story was quite different.

According to thetimes.uk, on his first day, Ryan did fitness testing with the squad he had inherited and the highest score in testing was his own. After the first tournament, he smashed them in training with a succession of 100m runs up and down the pitch. After just one, he found Jerry Tuwai, one of his star players, hiding behind a bush. But they then won their second tournament, in Dubai, and Ryan’s legend — and something of a cultural revolution — began to take root.

Fiji had never, for instance, had anyone to tell the players what to eat.

Ben Ryan says the breakfast buffets at tournament hotels are the worst. In Dubai, he recalls one player piling his plate with eight eggs and eight slices of chocolate bread. Ryan said that he asked the player ‘What are you doing?’ and the player said, ‘Eggs are good, bread’s good, no?’

So they were educated to have a lot of colour on their plates. Not just white — rice and pasta, with ketchup. Colours equal fruit and vegetables.

Ryan says the players now show him their plate and ask if it is all right.

The peoples team is about to leave for Rio @Olympics #Fiji7s #rugby #RoadToRio pic.twitter.com/gUHDx4gawn

— Kelvin Anthony (@keljnr) July 26, 2016

Ryan had also told Fijivillage that his first test when he took over confirmed that all the players were dehydrated. This is when he got the players to have coconut water - the best energy drink in the world.

Ben Ryan also has had to buy into the culture he set. When he says no drinking alcohol after tournaments, he means it, not even a couple of relaxing beers. Ryan says if it’s there, it will all go.

Ryan also brought in a breathalyser and on mornings after tournaments, when they were doing pool recovery, he would pick three players.

They knew the rules : you test positive, you’re gone.

Ryan says now the players know, and when they see him coming - they say: “I’ll have a go.”

There are also no phones at tournaments for the players. He had noticed many of his players tired at tournaments. He discovered that the hotels have free wifi and so the players were on Facetime and Facebook all hours. They all hand their phones in during the tournaments, and the first time they did it, they won the tournament.

He has also worked a lot on passing, breakdowns and high tackles, knowing that there were a lot of weaknesses in these areas.

With all this done, and the high altitude training in Chile - the Fiji team is flying off today, carrying the hopes of the entire nation to win gold next month.

Fiji will take on Brazil in their first Rio Olympics pool game at 4.30am on August 10th, they will then face Argentina at 9.30am before taking on USA at 4.30am on August 11th.

The quarter finals will start at 8am Thursday August 11th, the semis will start at 5.30am Friday August 12th and the final will kick off at 10am Friday August 12th.

Barring any upsets, Fiji will meet France, Kenya or Argentina in the Medal Quarter Final, Australia or Great Britain in the Medal Semi Final and NZ or South Africa in the Gold Medal Final.