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Ben Ryan confirms he isn't dead


Ben Ryan
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Olympic gold-winning rugby sevens coach Ben Ryan has taken to Twitter after a ‘fake news story’ broke that reported that he has apparently died.

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The article revealed that the 47-year-old had been run over by a Honda Civic in Toronto, and died in hospital, although Ryan has said that he isn’t even in the city.

This is the second occasion that the rugby guru has been reportedly killed, with the first one related to a ‘drug trafficking arrest’.

This is what Ryan had to say in his apparent death in a car crash:

This is not the first time that a rugby star has seemingly been the victim of an errant Honda Civic in the city of Toronto, as only two weeks ago former Saracens loose forward Jacques Burger apparently met the same fate as Ryan.

The Namibian also took to Twitter after this latest fake news story about Ryan to say that the ‘Honda Civic is on a killing spree’.

https://twitter.com/Nabasboer/status/1132695491613986816?s=20

The site is perhaps taking advantage of Ryan’s name being in the news at the moment, as his book Sevens Heaven was recently named the Sports Book of the Year and the Heineken Rugby Book of the Year at the inaugural Telegraph Sports Book Awards.

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Ryan’s book details the trials and tribulations surrounding leading Fiji to gold at the 2016 Olympics. A fake death is probably good publicity for his book.

Ryan is also promoting RugbyX – a new indoor version of rugby union. The O2 in London will host the debut event on October 29 when England, Ireland, France, Argentina and the USA compete in men’s and women’s competitions, with tickets going on sale last Friday.

Smaller indoor pitches, teams consisting of five players and simplified rules are all designed to produce a faster game that will broaden rugby’s appeal to families and sponsors.

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Phantom 32 minutes ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

Fact: the gap between the North and the South has narrowed considerably - that I get. However, determining that only selecting only Home grown players or playing in the home country is is the optimal strategy is a bit of a toss up and highly reliant on the economies of the home union. I do understand that England and to a lesser degree Ireland selects home based only. The top 14 is a massive threat to their domestic product. France would probably not be affected (the money is at home). Fiji, Argentina, Samoa, Italy and you could even argue Scotland have only benefitted from this. Their players either go overseas to learn at higher levels (Fiji, Samoa, Argentina) or players coming into their leagues to strengthen the home product and their National teams (Scotland, Italy, Japan).

South Africa used to limit its selection to the home based players, but the reality of a weak currency vs what players could earn oversees meant that you lost access to your best players at some stage of their careers, with very few exceptions. Kolbe left SA as he was considered too small for International Rugby (yes coaches/selectors view), but ironically in France he forced selectors to notice his endeavors and select him. He is only reaching 50 caps now despite being north of 30 - granted rotation and the odd injury also played a role, but for the most part it is having debuted or becoming a regular so late.



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