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 fingerprints and the mindset that flips good teams into ruthless, resilient units.

We start with the simplest signal that changes everything: show up as a rugby person first, a coach second. That posture earns trust fast, respects the jersey, and helps a leader amplify the team’s identity instead of importing a foreign system. From there, Brown’s hallmark emerges—give players simple pictures that free instinct and speed. Meetings get shorter, the field time gets longer, and the difficulty shifts to execution, not explanation. You can see it in how the Springboks back themselves, keep role clarity under stress, and turn belief into points regardless of who’s on the field.

We also dig into the fork every coach faces: recruit ruthlessly or coach relentlessly. Brown chooses growth. Develop the players you have, invest in their improvement, and build loyalty that runs both ways. The 2015 Highlanders become a proof point—written off on paper, they became champions by mastering clear frameworks and chasing precision at speed. For leaders beyond rugby, the takeaways hold: learn the local strengths, simplify the plan until it’s teachable at pace, and put the hard work into reps. When clarity meets commitment, performance compounds.

If you value culture as a competitive advantage and want a sharper playbook for execution, this one’s for you. Listen, share with a leader who cares about people and performance, and tell us what you’d simplify first. Subscribe for more coaching culture reflections, and leave a quick review to help others find the show.

If you can SUBSCRIBE, RATE, and SHARE the show and series, you would be doing your bit to grow this show. Very appreciated. Ben

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Leadership Focus
• 2:45 Springboks’ Surge And Team Belief
• 4:19 Tony Brown’s Impact And Philosophy
• 5:39 Respecting Identity Over Importing Systems
• 7:07 Simple To Learn, Hard To Execute
• 9:45 Develop Players, Don’t Replace Them
• 12:07 Highlanders Proof And Closing

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 1:35

Welcome to Coaching Culture Reflections, the midweek spark for anyone who loves leading teams and growing through that journey. I'm Ben Herring and I've been loving this side of the game for bloody ages. Each week I'll break down key components of leadership from culture building to communication, from mindset to motivation, all to help you lead with more impact, heart, and clarity. And level up. Let's get into it. Hey team, we are going to look this week at uh the Spring Box and Tony Brown in particular because we've just come off the autumn series and the South African rugby team was absolutely sensational, smashing records and results all over the show, putting 70 odd points to nil against Wales. Like that's sort of unheard of stuff. And they're just playing with a team that has got so much belief in themselves, unbelievable belief and confidence in everything they do. We've just got to have a look at what they're doing. And what they're doing culturally is massive. Now, one of their coaches who's come into the mix is Tony Brown, who's been on the show and did a wonderful episode earlier on. And I want to just review him because it's no surprise at all to anyone that knows rugby and knows Brownie that that shift, where the South African team has got to has a massive part to play in the way he coaches and how he is as a person. He has got those guys to jump to an entirely new level. And you don't have to be a student of the game to watch South Africa, South Africa and go, wow, look at the way this team is playing. You don't even need the full complement of players. You can have players carded and off the field, and that team still plays with such confidence, such belief in themselves, belief in the whole squad. You've even got guys playing out of position to start in other positions. They just back themselves and go. And I and I really love what they're doing. And I just want to dive into a little bit like of Tony Brown, because I know Tony well. I played rugby with Tony, coached with him, and at both super and international level, and he is, in my head, the best coach in the world at the moment. What he is a technical coach, but he's also an incredible culture coach. He gets people. And when you've got that very rare combination of someone who's got the technical prowess and can deliver it to people and connect the people when he's doing it, my goodness, that is the dream. So he's he's the uh go-to guy. If you ever get the chance to go and watch him or chat to him, he's uh he's the exemplar. So here's a couple of things just to overview it, and then I'm gonna talk about a couple points which I want to reflect on for Brownie. So what he hasn't done, he hasn't gone in South Africa and tried to make it a New Zealand team. He's a New Zealander. You can clearly see uh that South Africa are just doubling down on their attacking strengths. You know, they still lean into their identity. Guys like uh Ebon Ethabeth and Peter Steph the Toy set like that huge physical tone. But at the backs that have come through, Damian Cheslin, Kurt, they you can tell they know exactly what they're doing. They've been given simple pictures that free their instinct up. And that is Brownie all over. He goes in there, sees what's there, then works out how he's gonna maximize what they've got. So his kind of theories is take who you have, honour their way, make the picture simple, and then push the execution standard through the roof. And that is Brownie, that is his philosophies on coaching. And what happens when you get those things right is you get a team that are so committed, and what we can see at the moment is that uh the performance and results are just next level. So here's a couple of things, three things, in fact, from that conversation we had earlier on the podcast with Tony Brown, best coach in the world right now, and probably for the next 10 or 15 years, I reckon. So here's his first statement, which is a cultural piece for us. Brownie says, quote, I'm a rugby man first and a coach second. I'll just repeat that. I'm a rugby man first, then a coach second. Now that sounds simple, but culturally, this is massive. It means he doesn't show up as the guy with the laptop and the PowerPoint. He shows up as one of the team. He loves the games, loves trainings, the people, the competitive edge, the postseason beers, the whole thing. That is Brownie. And players can feel that. They can feel that he would be on the ground even if there was no cameras, no contracts, no titles, he'd be doing it for nothing. And he would be, because he just loves it. Because he sees himself as that, as a rugby man first, he doesn't try to bend environments to his way. He when he goes to South Africa or Japan, where he was previously, he doesn't walk and saying, this is how we do it in New Zealand or Otago. He actually studies their way and then he commits to it. And only then does he add the value. I reckon that's a huge cultural signal. It's kind of this concept of respect the jersey you're in, respect the history you're walking into and add to it rather than trying to override it. Now that's a big one because as coach, it's easy to have your way, and this is the way I want to do it, and you feel like that's why you're coming into a team. But culturally, the trust that that builds, when players know he's not trying to build on something himself, like his own personal brand, he's trying to make the their team and their style as good as it can be. And man, because he's lived in the game in different eras and countries, he connects with the old school values, things like loyalty, toughness, preparation. With he combines that with the modern demands of professionalism. Now, the culture becomes we're serious about performance, but we're never forgetting we're rugby people first. That is awesome, man. Quote, rugby man first, coach second. Buy into the game of it, understand the game of it and the people that are playing it, even if you haven't played it yourself. And that is Brownie, you can see it when you chat to him. Number two, and this is his philosophy. Now, this is a great cultural philosophy for coaches. It's this it's gotta be easy to learn, simple to understand, but challenging to execute. I'm gonna repeat it because that is gold in my head. I've heard Brownie say this a million times. It's gotta be easy to learn, simple to understand, but challenging to execute. He was chatting to me about he sees when coaches fall in love with their own sort of complexity when they're spending hours trying to perfect a presentation while outside the players are just hanging out for a meaningful conversation and a decent training. And he calls that the coaching disease. You know, that belief that a beautiful slide deck equals good coaching. So by contrast, his environments are built around clarity and time on the grass. And he and he talks about a couple of phrases. If a player can't learn it quickly, he cuts it. He just cuts it. If if he if they can't explain it simply, it gets simplified. And then the difficulty lies in the execution, not the explanation. The difficulty lies in the execution, not the explanation, and that has huge cultural impact. It respects players' time and their brains and it makes their role clarity, you know, an absolute non-negotiable. Now, because it's clear, you know, when things are clear, when it's simple to understand, you go, okay, cool. And you buy into it. Now you're willing to attack that challenge. And training becomes, right, oh, we understand it. Now let's see if we can nail it super fast. And you that's the difference. Whereas if you're not quite sure of the plan or the why, or it's a bit complex, you're you're mucking around on that first bit, trying to understand it. And then you never really like commit to nailing it full speed. And that's what Brownie's so good at shifting that kind of that thought process. We know what we're doing, we all got it, we're all on the same page. Now we're trying to just you know do it as fast as we can at training. That is cool in my head. Easy to learn, simple to understand, challenging to execute. Brownie's second point from the interview on the podcast. Lastly, third, this is his you know, bigger thing, is he's here to make players better, not just replace them. And I think this is the South African team as an overall whole. When players are in that group, they're in. And they're part of that team and they're important. Um, he believes that this is a quote from Browning, give me the players and I'll coach the players to be the best they can be, which is then going to make the team be the best they can be. And he's very honest that there's two coaching paths. One is a ruthless recruitment. You decide who isn't good enough, replace them, collect some stars, then coach that star team. The other way is his way, is the longer way is take what you got and make each player better and let them grow into something special. And he knows, he admits that's slower, and it might cost you some silverware in the short term. But if he believes they've got some improvement in them, he's into them. He he will work with them. Now, that is a big distinction. It's it's back in yourself as a coach and your enjoyment. It comes back to his, he's a rugby guy first. He can he knows he's seen people improve and get better. And it just tells players as well, they're not disposable, they're important. And you can see in that South African team who are picked from all over the world, regardless of what standard competition they're playing in. 12 of that team from the last year's World Cup final played in Japan and all different levels. But a Rassi and the team, they just pick their boys because they back them. This this is our this is our group, we're gonna keep picking them. And what that builds is just that loyalty both ways, you know, because everyone's all in on their development. And I love that. And what one of the great ones from Brownie is uh that 2015 Highlanders, they won the super rugby. Now, for those that don't know, on paper they were the weakest team. They were the weakest team on paper and in New Zealand. They were called discarded players, and they went on to become champions and internationals. And that season is basically Brownie's philosophy sort of made super fresh. You take the players you've got, you teach them simple, and you make them believe they're all matters as much as the try scorers. I loved it. So that is uh the sum up of Tony Brown, and it's so topical after his team that he's been a big part of that, a big jump they've had. I reckon if you like you you jump back to Tony Brown's episode on the podcast and you hear from him and you get his insights because he's the best in the world. Until next time, stay well.