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
86 episodes
Nick Evans: Removing the Burden of Outcome
What if performance starts with belonging, not tactics? We sit down with Nick Evans—All Black fly-half turned Harlequins attack coach—to unpack how culture, clarity, and a few well-chosen words can change the way a team competes under pressure....
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1:05:08
Reflections: Bens Coaching Playbook
https://www.coachingculture.com.au/Bens_Culture_Playbook DownloadEver notice two teams run the same drills with the same energy, yet one takes off while the othe...
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11:57
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Ben Darwin: Why coaches get sacked.
Want to know why the “hot coach” from a powerhouse program often struggles at your club? We sit down with Ben Darwin of Gain Line Analytics to unpack the data behind coach hiring, culture, and the compounding power of cohesion. The conversation...
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1:11:38
Reflections: Twenty Years, Five Lessons In Love And Coaching
Download Bens free Culture Playbook here: https://www.coachingculture.com.au/Bens_Culture_PlaybookA 20-year anniversary felt like the right moment to unpack how ...
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12:47
Zane Hilton: I Was A Bad Player, So I Coached Instead
What if the most important part of coaching isn’t the playbook, but the five-minute chat before training? We sit down with Zane Hilton, assistant coach of the Queensland Reds, to unpack a career built on process, simplicity, and relentless huma...
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1:05:26
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Reflections: Bens Book Review
A dusty bookshelf turned into a wake-up call. While sorting old favorites, we found a box of Tuesdays with Morrie—and that rediscovery became a fresh look at how culture, love, and emotion shape the way we coach and lead. What starts as a short...
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12:12
Andrew Hore: Hard Conversations Keep Standards High
What if the toughest conversations are actually acts of care? We sit down with Andrew Hore—veteran leader across the Crusaders, Ospreys, New Zealand Rugby, and the Blues—to unpack how culture really works when the stakes are high and the calend...
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1:03:02
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Reflections: Privilege, Context, And The Real Measure Of Coaching
A year can teach more than a stack of textbooks when you commit to showing up every week. We look back on a season built on a simple promise: open a door to world-class coaching minds so any coach, in any town, can learn directly from people wh...
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20:10
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Warren Kennaugh: Your Team Is Not A Democracy, And That’s Okay
Pressure doesn’t invent behavior; it reveals it. That’s the heartbeat of our conversation with behavioral strategist Warren Kenor, who brings three decades of coaching across elite rugby, cricket, golf, and Olympic equestrian. We dig into why “...
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43:27
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Yes, We Ran A Christmas Beep Test And Loved It
Want a team that shows up, leans in, and stays connected when it matters most? Start with one small tradition. Ben shares a simple holiday story—a family beep test before Christmas lunch—and turns it into a clear playbook for leaders who want s...
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9:04
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Chris Lendrum: Leading the leaders, running the NZRU
What truly turns a collection of talented individuals into a team that outperforms its parts? Chris Lendrum, GM of Professional Rugby and Performance at New Zealand Rugby, reframes culture with a striking idea: ten times eight can equal 60, 80,...
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1:09:05
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Reflections: Small Players Tackle, Big Players Run
One sentence can tell the truth about a team: small players want to tackle and big players want to run. We took that line apart and found the blueprint for a culture that turns comfort zones into competitive edges and effort into belonging. Acr...
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11:20
Reflections: From D Team to the Working with the Worlds Best
A team list can teach you more than a scoreboard. Ben opens up about growing up in New Zealand rugby culture, missing A teams year after year, and how that sting forged a durable kind of resilience that later powered a professional career and a...
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16:53
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Mike Catt: No Dumb Questions. Building Brave Team Cultures
A golden Sydney evening sets the scene, but the real heat in this conversation is Mike Catt’s blueprint for durable, high-performing teams. We go far beyond tactics to unpack why love for the game, genuine care, and trained calm turn individual...
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1:01:09
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The Tony Brown Effect. How he has got the Springboks to a new level.
A 70-point demolition tells one story. The way South Africa kept shape with cards, shuffled roles without panic, and attacked with conviction tells the real one: culture, clarity, and coaching aligned. We trace that edge back to Tony Brown’s fi...
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11:59
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Phil Dowson: How A Director Of Rugby Shapes Behavior, Balance, And Belief
If culture is just words on a wall, it won’t survive a 30‑game season. We sat down with Northampton Saints Director of Rugby Phil Dowson to unpack how a top Premiership club actually lives its values: clear behaviors, blunt but caring feedback,...
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1:02:36
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A reflective look at the philosophies of Eddie Jones.
Coaches love big ideas until pressure hits and the ideas melt. Today we share our drafted chapter on Eddie Jones and pull out the hard, usable lessons that survive heat: culture as behavior, observation as a craft, and high standards delivered ...
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20:57
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Nathan Grey: Toughness is a talent. Coaching the Red/Blue Head Mindset.
What if the best culture in your team is hiding in plain sight—in the way players clean a table, put plates away, or stick around for a coffee that really means connection? We sit down with Nathan Gray—Wallaby, defense specialist, and now direc...
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1:02:09
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You Don’t Need More Time; You Need Simpler, Sharper Sessions That Fit Your Team’s Identity
Ever feel like two practices a week can’t possibly cover skills, systems, set piece, and fitness? We unpack a practical blueprint that turns time pressure into sharper sessions, starting with the one choice that clarifies everything: define you...
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17:04
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Sean Graham: Youth Rugby Coaching Masterclass. A Playbook for School Rugby Success
What does a team feel like when the culture works? Players show up early. Coaches look for solutions when it rains. Conversations flow before and after practice because care and connection aren’t slogans—they’re the system. We sit down with Sea...
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58:47
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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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