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
102 episodes
When Kids Tackle Their Dads They Learn Faster
Watching kids train can tell you everything about a coaching environment in minutes. Are they going through the motions, or are they lit up with purpose? We share a small, practical idea that creates a huge shift in youth rugby coaching: stop l...
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10:53
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Greg Cooper: Character will beat talent.
Winning teams aren’t built on slogans. They’re built on agreed standards lived every day, and Greg Cooper shows how to get there with clarity, compassion, and competitive edge. From record points as a player to head coaching across New Zealand,...
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1:00:45
How Rugby Coach Sam Vesty Prepares A Team For A Final
Pressure doesn’t have to create panic. Sometimes it can create your best performance, if you coach the week the right way. Today we reflect on two powerful lessons from Sam Vesty, head coach of Northampton Saints, shared in our new release How ...
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11:57
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Gavin Hickie: What Rugby can learn from Navy Culture
Purpose isn’t a slogan at Navy Rugby; it’s the engine. We sit down with head coach Gavin Hickey to trace his journey from Ireland and Leicester to Annapolis, where a career-ending injury became the start of purpose-driven coaching. Gavin opens ...
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1:00:31
Matt O'Connor: The Harsh Truths of Coaching Winning Teams
Pressure makes culture visible. With Matt O’Connor, we go inside elite rugby environments to show how trust, standards, and brutally honest conversations turn potential into performance. Matt’s coached at Kubota, the Brumbies, Leicester Tigers,...
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1:00:01
Reflections: Farewell To A Quiet Architect Of Rugby
A quiet architect just left the building—and the story behind his work is a masterclass in leadership. We take a clear-eyed look at Chris Lendrum’s two decades inside New Zealand Rugby, showing how a behind-the-scenes operator shaped player pat...
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12:49
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Stu Woodhouse: Leading a school rugby program and an International side
What does it take for a national team with little budget and less infrastructure to climb from 71st to 40th in the world? We sit down with Stu Woodhouse to unpack a decade leading the Philippines—where family, identity, and bravery weren’t slog...
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1:09:15
Stu Edwards: Looking after Coaches Mental Well Being
Add to the research here:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeEaFJl2Iks5RDGq93lTXyOv3RS5SoNJsibRPVWytiQgSWarg/viewform?pli=1What if the biggest performance edge your team is missing is the well-being of the person leading it...
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57:15
Craig Newby: Losing Teaches What Winning Hides
What do you do when the scoreboard won’t budge? We sit down with Cambridge head coach Craig Newby for an unfiltered look at leadership, culture, and performance in the middle of a 14-game winless run—and why this stretch might be the most rewar...
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1:10:09
Reflections: Work Rate Beats Game IQ More Than Coaches Admit.
What if the fastest way to a stronger culture isn’t a better speech but a better session plan? We take a hard look at Gordon Tietjens’ legendary methods with the All Blacks Sevens and unpack why brutal fitness, unbendable standards, and purpose...
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10:37
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Gordon Tietjens: I Coach Intensity Before Tactics
What if the hardest session you’ve ever done became the moment your team truly bonded? We sit down with Sir Gordon Tietjens, the architect of All Blacks Sevens dominance, to unpack a culture built on honesty, humility, discipline, and relentles...
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1:02:00
Reflections: How to deal with Pressure
Pressure isn’t a detour in coaching—it’s the road itself. We open up about the weight leaders carry, from constant decision-making to public scrutiny, and why stress doesn’t signal failure but commitment. Instead of wishing problems away, we ta...
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14:14
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Joey Mongalo: How to Deal with the Pressures of Coaching
Ever feel like your work is judged on the tiniest slice of time while everything that matters happens in the shadows? We sit down with Sharks coach and leadership consultant Joey Mongalo to unpack how identity, conviction, and a clear model hel...
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1:19:09
Reflections: How First and Last Moments Shape Coaching
A surgeon’s simple habit changed the way we coach. We dig into how the first and last moments of any experience anchor the emotion, memory, and meaning people carry forward—and how that insight can turn ordinary sessions into powerful learning ...
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13:17
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Andre Pretorius: Understand And Assist
A late-night training, a tired team, and a coach who missed the real story—that’s where everything changed. Andre Petorius shares how a single moment of misread effort led him to apologize, “break the chain” of how he was coached, and build a p...
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1:13:19
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Reflection: Learning from a master coach
Pressure without panic. That was the standout energy we brought home from the Brisbane youth rugby coaches forum, where we watched Mike Cron turn complex coaching into something calm, sharp, and deeply human. We open up our notes on how sky-hig...
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10:46
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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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1:06:23
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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12:16
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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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1:12:53
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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13:06
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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1:06:42
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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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12:30
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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1:04:18
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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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20:29
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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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44:43
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