Hand luggage with Ryanair? Handbag allowed on its own?

Hey I have a flight from Stansted in a few days. I know the limits for hand luggage but I'm just wondering, so much fuss is made about having a cabin bag. There is nothing on the site to inform me if its okay just to have a med sized handbag - I don't want to take much. Really not up for buying a cabin bag. Are you allowed rucksacks? Seems such an obvious question but nothing on that site has informed me yes or no, only that I cannot hold a handbag separately to a cabin bag. On the boarding pass it says "handbag briefcase laptop (etc) must be carried within your 1 cabin bag".