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Coaching Culture with Ben Herring
Coaching Culture with Ben Herring is your weekly deep-dive into the often-overlooked “softer skills” of coaching—cultural innovation, communication, empathy, leadership, dealing with stress, and motivation. Each episode features candid conversations with the world’s top international rugby coaches, who share the personal stories and intangible insights behind their winning cultures, and too their biggest failures and learnings from them. This is where X’s and O’s meet heart and soul, empowering coaches at every level to foster authentic connections, inspire their teams, and elevate their own coaching craft. If you believe that the real gold in rugby lies beyond the scoreboard, Coaching Culture is the podcast for you.
Episodes
65 episodes
Coaching Under Pressure: Owning Your Dark Traits
Pressure doesn’t invent character—it reveals it. When the game tightens and the season bites back, many of us slide into sarcasm, shut people out, or bury ourselves in busywork that feels safe. I unpack those dark traits head-on and share how e...
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15:17
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Mick Byrne : From All Blacks to Fiji. How Self Awareness Creates Culture that Lasts.
What if culture didn’t need a slogan? Mick Byrne, head coach of the Flying Fijians and former All Blacks coach, joins us to unpack a disarmingly simple idea: culture is values, standards, and beliefs lived every day. No fanfare. No buzzwords. J...
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1:04:22
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Why Treating Parenting Like Coaching Creates Stronger Families And Teams
What if the best parenting lessons come from the locker room—and the sharpest coaching insights come from home? I share how a sudden end to a playing career and the birth of my first child collided, starting a sixteen-year stretch where coachin...
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18:22
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Sam Wykes: Building Team Culture Through People, Not Facilities. A Sunwolves Casestudy.
What if the best culture you ever built came after a 90-point loss? That’s not a stunt—it’s the backbone of our Sunwolves story, where people, not facilities, carried an underdog through brutal travel, language barriers, and constant roster chu...
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1:13:09
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Define Culture Or Drift: Why Writing It Down Raises The Bar
Ever wonder why some teams lift their standards from the inside while others grind for results that never stick? We dig into a simple chain that explains it: vision shapes leadership, leadership shapes culture, culture shapes performance, and p...
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14:30
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Ben Darwin: You Can't Out Coach the Numbers. Heres the Data to Prove it.
Ever notice how the “genius coach” story never mentions the stacked deck? We dig into the Monopoly Effect—a coin-flip advantage that people later mistake for skill—and use it to decode why some teams look unstoppable while others keep rebuildin...
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1:18:18
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How to reduce the anxiety your players feel
The fastest way to unlock performance isn’t a new drill or a sharper playbook—it’s lowering the mental noise your athletes carry in with them. We share a simple story from a doctor’s office that proves how precise care changes state without cha...
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11:00
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Glen Jackson: Talent doesn't always win: Building culture in the Fijian Drua.
Glenn Jackson's remarkable rugby journey defies conventional paths. After an impressive playing career with Bay of Plenty, the Chiefs, and Saracens (where he earned Premiership Players Player of the Year), he pivoted to become a professional re...
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53:06
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Ken Grover: The World Is Your Classroom: How Rugby Tours Build Character.
Want to find out more for how to organise a school tour:https://gullivers.com.au/rugbyschooltours/What happens when young athletes step outside their comfort zones and exper...
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58:28
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Eddie Jones on culture, risk, and advice to all coaches.
Want a culture that actually lives on the field? We sat down with Eddie Jones to unpack the coaching choices that create real belonging, sharper decision-making, and braver rugby. From leaving a safe career to grinding through 100‑player univer...
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1:01:39
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Jimmy Gopperth: What the Best Do Differently. Coaching Insights from the Worlds Most Capped Player.
526 professional games !How do elite rugby teams cultivate environments where players willingly run through brick walls for their coaches? Jimmy Gopperth, with an unprecedented 526 professional games across 23 years at the highest levels...
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1:05:50
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Five Ways Great Coaches Anchor Teams in Tough Times
The hardest weeks test more than your game model—they test your culture. When results wobble and the temptation is to drown the room in clips, we take a different route: start with why, connect the people, and then coach the work. Drawing on st...
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21:48
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Alando Soakai: Know your product, 'The game will take care of itself'
What transforms a drinking club with a rugby problem into championship winners? According to Alando Soakai, it begins with crystal-clear values that everyone truly lives by.In this captivating conversation, Alando takes us through his r...
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48:34
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The Gold You Didn’t Know You Were Mining
Have you ever had a moment when someone's casual comment completely transformed your thinking? In this deeply personal reflection, I share three unexpected insights from players that revolutionized my coaching philosophy over decades in profess...
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13:57
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Dan McKellar on Discipline, Culture & The Dressing Shed
Have you ever wondered what truly makes a championship team culture? Dan McKellar, current Waratahs head coach with a coaching resume spanning the Brumbies, Wallabies, and Leicester Tigers, cuts through the noise with refreshing honesty and cla...
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53:23
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Pat Lam on Culture: Why Love Defines High-Performing Teams
What if the secret to building championship teams isn't found in tactics or talent, but in a single, powerful word? Pat Lam, architect of the Bristol Bears' transformation from strugglers to European powerhouse, offers a refreshing...
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59:39
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Jim McKay: The Stresses and Strains of Professional coaching. How that Journey Shapes you.
What truly defines a coach's legacy? For Jim Mackay, it's not the championship trophies or international honors – it's the journey of becoming and the meaningful experiences along the way.In this enlightening conversation, Jim shares hi...
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1:14:12
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Ryan Schultz: The Path From Digging Holes to Elite Rugby Coaching
Ever wonder how a guy who started his working life digging holes transformed into a rising star in rugby coaching? Ryan Schultz's journey from manual laborer to head coach at Canberra Vikings reveals the gritty reality behind professional coach...
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52:58
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REFLECTIONS: Off field equals on field
What makes championship teams truly exceptional? The answer might surprise you. It's not extraordinary talent, cutting-edge tactics, or even flawless execution during competition—it's what happens when nobody's keeping score.Drawing fro...
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21:06
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Greg Peters: The Shift Every Coach and Leader Must Make
What does it truly mean to build an authentic culture in high-performance sports? Greg Peters, whose remarkable 25-year career spans leadership roles at Bay of Plenty Rugby, New Zealand Rugby Union, the Hurricanes, Argentina Rugby, SANZAR, and ...
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51:16
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Wal Herring: Feed Your Potential: Concussion, Womans high performance and Personalized Nutrition
If you want to book Wal for your team you can reach her here: wal@walherring.comor check out her womans wellness programs here: Walherring.comWhat if everything you see on your body was made from what you ate at some point? This p...
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1:13:48
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Mike Friday: Rugby Is What You Do, Not Who You Are
What does it really mean to build a winning culture in sports? Few coaches can answer this question with the depth and global perspective of Mike Friday, international rugby sevens coach whose 25-year journey has taken him from England to Kenya...
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1:04:12
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