Ryan Santos

Ryan Santos was born in Manila, Philippines, and began playing organized rugby at the age of six with Valley Fort Rugby Club while living in Hong Kong. After returning to the Philippines at age 10, Santos’ family, alongside a small group of friends, founded the Makati Mavericks Rugby Club to address the lack of youth rugby opportunities in the country. Serving largely underprivileged and marginalized communities, the club played a central role in Santos’ development, as he went on to captain the Mavericks to multiple Philippine national titles in both Sevens and XVs. A standout multi-sport athlete in high school, Santos led International School Manila to multiple Interscholastic Association of Southeast Asian Schools (IASAS) championships across rugby, soccer, and track and field. Santos pursued his undergraduate studies at Harvard University, where he captained the Harvard Rugby Football Club - the oldest rugby club in North America, established in 1872 - and earned All-Ivy, All-American, and Academic All-American honors. He represented the USA U23 XVs on tour in the Netherlands in 2022 and was a member of the USA U23 Sevens program from 2021 to 2023, helping lead the team to a RugbyTown Sevens title in 2023 where he was named Player of the Final. Shortly after making his Senior National Team debut on the 2023 World Rugby Sevens Series in Toulouse, Santos graduated from Harvard University cum laude in-field. He was later selected for the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago and named to the USA Rugby Sevens residency program for the 2023–2024 season. Following the completion of a master’s degree at the University of Cambridge, where he also earned a Blue competing in the Varsity Match against Oxford, Santos has returned to the residency program. Santos comes from a proud rugby family. His father, Rick Santos, won a national championship at UC Berkeley and played for Oxford University and Harlequins. His brother Reed won a national championship at Babson College and represented the Philippines National Sevens Team, while his brother Rand won a national championship with UC Berkeley and currently represents the USA Men’s XVs.