The Rugby Coaching Tour Every Coach Should Experience

Japan has a way of exposing your coaching habits in seconds. The standards feel sharper, the respect is unmistakable, and the smallest details suddenly matter more than your favorite playbook. We’re joined by Matt Cobain to unpack why the Elite Coaches Tour of Japan is built to accelerate rugby coaching development through immersion, not theory.

We dig into what coaches actually gain from stepping into Japan rugby culture: learning to lead in a different context, seeing how relationships get built before tactics, and observing environments where discipline and preparation are baked into daily life. Matt shares what changed for him while coaching in Japan, especially how working through an interpreter forces you to communicate with clarity, ditch the fluff, and deliver feedback that lands. We also talk about the real “gold” of coach education: the conversations around sessions, the debates on bus rides, and the insights you only get when you sit with other coaches and compare what you’re seeing.

We cover the full rugby pathway you’ll encounter on tour, from high school and the massive university system that acts like an academy, all the way to professional clubs packed with world-class talent. Just as important, we get honest about coaching as a people business: networking, mentorship, and why the job can feel lonely without a trusted group around you. Expect practical takeaways on leadership, team culture, and building a reflective habit that asks, “Why do I do it this way?”

If you want your next leap as a coach to be real and measurable, listen, share this with a coach who should be in the room, then subscribe and leave a review so more coaches can find the show.

Want to go to Japan? Contact me ben@coachingculture.com.au

Include your phone number so I can have a chat. Ben

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Coaching Culture, the podcast about cultivating culture and leadership. I'm Ben Herring. I've been loving this side of the game for bloody ages. Today's guest is Matt Cobain, and we are diving into the Elite Coaches Tour of Japan. This is a coaching tour we are putting together for aspiring coaches who want to grow as coaches. It's designed to grow rugby coaches faster than any other way possible. And we are going to Japan, the cultural unique destination and a rugby hotbed. It is so different. And it is immersive rugby coaching tour, 10 days in December this year, and there's no other rugby coaching development tour like it. It does not exist. Ten days surrounded by aspiring coaches who are investing in their own betterment, their own growth, with two world-class coaches as their leads. I've been on so many of these courses, and without exception, the best learning is not always the presentations, it's the conversations and interactions around those presentations, which the real growth happens. The environment you are putting yourself in will shape you, so why not put yourself in one where the learning will be magnified through the roof? Your tour leaders are Matt Cobain, 63 tests for the Wallabies, member of the World Cup winning team, 90 plus appearances for the Queens and Red, and coached extensively through Japan. Joining him will be Sir Gordon Titchens, 12 World Cup Sevens World Series Championships, World Cup Champion, Commonwealth Games Gold Medalist, and widely regarded as the most successful Sevens coach ever over 20 years with the All Blacks. Now, wow, not every day do you get to go on tour with the likes of these two? Matt Cobain, welcome to the Coaching Culture Podcast, Elite Coaches Tour of Japan.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

How are you? Yeah, good, mate. Good to be back on the show and looking forward to a cracking trip up to Japan. Yeah, mate.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

Now you are very well versed in Japan. You've coached there for a long time. What's the joy of Japan from a rugby perspective?

SPEAKER_00 2:06

Oh there's so much. Just I think the biggest thing. Yeah, look, it's great, mate. It's it's such a great culture up there. Very respectful race and people. And it's and it's just uh a great way to coach your detail, but also have a real cultural connection to the place and learning that along the way is I think where it can bring out some really uh, you know, a good stimulus for yourself, I think, as a coach.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

Yeah, that's right, isn't it? Because it's so different to what wherever you're coming from, when you go to Japan, it is so different because Japan historically has had 300 years back in the 1600s where it shut its borders and it became this unique place where no foreign influence got in. And that's why Japan is such an interesting place where when you close borders and you get insular, you you really develop your own culture quite specifically and uniquely to yourself. And it's like no other place. When whenever you go to Japan, you're like, wow, this is different, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Yeah, it it is. It's a like you know, it's the culture and respect thing. They're exception exceptionally disciplined, you know, they've got a high work ethic and and they really tap into that with their rugby stuff as well. And and

Tour Overview And Why Japan

SPEAKER_00 3:14

it's almost around building the the relationship side of it first, and they'll, you know, the old term is they'll run through brick walls for you and they will. You know, over here you can sort of in I guess New Zealand and Australia, it's they they're after the kind of the X's and the O's a little bit more, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

Yeah. And it's such an interesting place too, as a coach, too, because you just have to sometimes sit back and just observe and and let this new experience wash over you, which you don't always get coaching wherever you are locally, right? Like the this is such a different experience. Sometimes this sort of stuff opens your eyes, doesn't it? Like, did you have that experience when you went to Japan and started coaching there? You just went, oh wow, I never thought of it like that. Or wow, look how they're doing it here. Is that an experience you had when you first got there?

SPEAKER_00 4:03

Yeah, I mean, a lot of the nuts and bolts and the schedule stuff is is similar. The thing with a lot of teams, and this is changing a little bit around the professional side of the game, is that they still all work for the company. So I think in a lot of ways, that's almost a good thing because they've got this thing outside of rugby that sort of takes their attention and they still work for the company. So they've got that pride in that in their company, and they they take that through to their rugby, you know, training and playing. And a lot of to be fair, or some teams I've been involved with, there's some players that were only doing the rugby because they got it out out of their work for a bit. But that that mix of right uh you work for this team, but you also play support for this team is is I don't think it's sort of anywhere in the well that that's the case. And that's great. As a coach, that's great to work with because you know they're going to turn up and be ready to go. They're very well prepared, the majority of them as well. So it's finding the right, I guess, communication style. When I first went over there to coach, you'd ask any questions and and there'd be there'd be nothing. And and and even in private and or one-on-one, they they'd very much shy away from asking

Respect And Detail In Japanese Rugby

SPEAKER_00 5:11

too many questions. So learning, I guess, to deal with that and learning to prompt them, I think, is is a good learning experience for a coach.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

It's actually quite cool because you are coaching, unless you're Japanese, you're coaching in a foreign language, so that's the first thing, right? Where you you've got to learn ways to teach people things without being able to necessarily talk them through how to do it. So it changes you, right? Like you've forced a different way of coaching where you've got you've almost got to take your voice away and and work out how to present something simply without the verbal cues, using your body language, using your your coaching skill, right? To more than just being able to say do something and expect it done, you've got to develop as a coach. You've got to bring all these other coaching key things in. How do you build rapport, for example, without being able to talk to someone? How do you build trust? How do you build connection when you can't speak the same language as something? It's a fascinating process for a coach to go through, right, Matt.

SPEAKER_00 6:11

Well, it is. I mean, uh you're coaching through an interpreter. So the first thing about that is that your delivery has to be broken up into chunks. Obviously, to give that translator time to sort of process through his brain and spit it out into Japanese. And so being clear, I think what coaching in Japan does is it sharpens your message and probably cuts out a lot of fluff and slang and and that that we tend to use with our own people. So it almost forces you to be more direct in the way you communicate with the players in a social environment. Uh things like the old you know, beer and barbecue still have plenty of value over there. I think that's the case anywhere you go in the world, really. And and then that's where you you know, you probably still got your translator close by, but you're trying to really converse in a little bit of, you know, that's like they're trying to talk in English to me, and I'm trying to talk in Japanese to them. So you get that little bit of crossover there. So I know last year um when I was uh back coaching up at Jeeps there, we had a couple of Japanese players playing with us, and and I always tried to talk to them in you know Japanese, my limited Japanese, just to sort of try and keep keep it front of mind a little bit still, and but they'd always reply to me in the in the because they were learning English, they'd always replied to me in English. So uh and we even sort of had a couple of uh plays that we named after some Japanese words. So yeah, it was it was good to have those guys over and and certainly provided something different for our team to sort of connect with as well.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

Yeah, mate, I love that. Like coaching in Japan sharpens your message, it cuts out the fluff and the slang that you sometimes say, and that is so true. And on this tour, all coaches will get that opportunity to experience a bit of coaching with a translator and and speaking through a translator, and that in itself is something uh very a great opportunity as a coach to understand how your messaging when it has to

Coaching With A Translator

SPEAKER_01 8:07

go via another person, and you can it's almost like the Chinese whispers type game you used to play as a little kid and seeing how sharp your delivery is when it has to go via another person, and it's great feedback for coaches. And Maddie, I'll I love what you talked about. Like we are going to professional teams, both myself, yourself, and Gordon. We have good connections over there. We're going around a number of uh professional clubs where we're gonna go in and watch the training, so our connections there, and give coaches this awesome insight um to what pro clubs are like over there. And it's not every day you get you you get to go into the likes of Kobe, uh Toyota, Panasonic, these type places where you've got some of the world's best players like that's hidden away in Japan. You've got the likes of Richie Mirwanga, uh Peter Steph de Toy, but the world international players of the year that are playing their professional rugby then, we get to go in and see how they train on a on a daily basis. And then you talked about the off-field stuff, the social side, and that's where a lot of connections are made in Japan. And this is part of this tour too, right? Like it's where coaches learn isn't always just watching the X's and O's. It's then the discussions, the intent, the chats over those barbecues or those uh yakinekus, which uh is a Korean barbecue, which are popular in Japan, which we will go to a lot of, where you sit down next to yourself and you just chew the fat. And the little things you pick up are so invaluable, right? Those little interactions are the magic when you go on these sort of tours, right?

SPEAKER_00 9:38

Yeah, yeah, 100%, mate. Like it's that's you know, the gold between all the, I guess, the the structured stuff around going to a session and sort of looking at, again, the X's and O's and the detail of of the skill or or or what they're what they're doing, whether it's set piece or backline. But that other the other part around it it's always like a networking type of thing, isn't it? Like, you know, you can you can form a group and connect with people who are, you know, both like-minded and different to you, so you can get a different perspective and see through different eyes how you may what you may take back to your own coaching. So that's that that will be, I think, the most uh enjoyable part about being able to uh, you know, sit down with 20, 30, whatever, how many coaches are coming on this tour and and being able to just as you said, just chew the fat over a beer and and uh I think you know, we'll like we'll learn as much from them as they'll learn from us. You know, I guess I've got that experience of being in Japan and can sort of fill in a few blanks there for guys who've got questions, but yeah, you know, I'll be certainly asking enough questions around my own stuff, you know, like it's sort of you you never, you know, in coaching you talk about it, you never stop learning, do you? And it's just sort of if you're at that point where you don't when you think you know it all, then you probably should give it away.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

Yeah. Mate, I think this is the phrase, isn't it? Never stop learning. And the fact that you're saying you're gonna pick up so much from this tour by being around uh, you know, 20, 30 like-minded coaches, it is just it's the point of this tour. It's this sort of um interactions, this when you get like-minded people together, it's like the cultural thing, right? Like you don't always know how a good culture is gonna rep uh explode, but this is exactly the same: a group of people, 30 people coming together, chewing the fat. Man, the learning is magnified. And I and I did love what you said, like-minded yet

Pro Club Access And Off-Field Learning

SPEAKER_01 11:33

different. And that's important too, because it's that diversity of thought, and we are not just going to pro clubs here, we're also gonna pop into a university system, which is huge in Japan. Which, if you don't know Japan, the university system is the biggest system around. It is they have 150 players in a squad largely, and we're going to uh a couple of the big ones. We're also gonna pop into a school boy, so you can actually see the type of training the young Japanese school kids do. And you as you will know, Matt, the hard dirt tracks which they train on will would probably fail the health and safety for most other countries. And I certainly know my boy played on some of those, and I couldn't believe what they went through. So it's a real experience. And to to go through the full range from school to university to professional and also going into the national body, you will see a full spectrum of rugby being played at a in a country which is so unique and different to what anything you've been used to. Have you s seen that university system? You got any thoughts on how that plays out, Matt?

SPEAKER_00 12:37

With the the system, the way it works over there, for for guys that don't know, is that you know, no one's really contracted younger. So there's no real academy systems over there in Japan. It's like they utilize the universities to be their academies. So there are connections between top uh division clubs and universities. Um and so they rely on these university graduates, so 21-ish is is about the time they come in to, you know, play play that professional level rugby. So they're you you know generally a bit older, the the recruits that come into, you know, that that professional those professional teams. Uh whereas in Australia here, you know, we can get someone like say a a Trayvon Pritchard who's 18 years old and in the academy, but then playing, you know, for the Queensland Reds in super rugby. So that's I think a real rarity over there. I think there's been a couple of cases of that changing now where some younger guys have been playing teams like Panasonic. I think of one, they had one that uh young guy there that came in underage, I guess you'd call it. But yeah, they really rely on this these universities to, you know, act like academies and provide a conveyor belt of players that that that then go into professional rugbies. It's a little bit probably more what it'd say, probably old school in the way that they coach at universities. It's more like do this now. Whereas I think in the professional sense over there, it's uh it's it's run a l much more like uh probably a traditional super rugby franchise is run. They'll I try and ask questions to get the players to answer it. Whereas I think in the university and definitely in the high school sessions, they're probably told this is what you do. Guys probably will notice some of those differences, I think.

SPEAKER_01 14:22

Well, mate, that's that is the joy too. You will notice on this tour, you will notice this the difference. They'll they'll smack you in the face, how obvious the the the way some of this is done, particularly at that school and university level. But then the discussion around this, which will happen over those on the bus rides, on the train rides, because we're going on the Shinkansen, the bullet train. And when you sit down next to someone and you just chew the fat of what would you have done? What did you think of

Schools Universities And Player Pathways

SPEAKER_01 14:47

that? How would you bring that back to your your environment? Is there any good in what they're doing? And those sort of discussions like ignite the brain up, right? Like from a coaching perspective, it's it's so different that it's it's forcing you like a slap in the face, wakes you up, wow, have I just been in my narrow little channel? Or and then it forces you to think, is can I take any of this? I I know coaching in Japan for seven years now. I I have taken so much back, and and a lot of the stuff I've taken back initially wasn't stuff that I thought I ever would, but I went, actually, seeing that and talking about it with my fellow coaches, there's actually a lot of value in in that aspect. I might just tweak it like this. But that side of things, the discussion you have with 10 days away with people who are all thinking the same stuff, there's real value for your coaching development, isn't there? Have you taken anything, Matt, away from Japan, which you still use today?

SPEAKER_00 15:43

Be direct with my communication, I think. You know, cutting out some of the fluffiness that you tend to be descriptive with, and and and some of that language is probably uh inappropriate language, but just got its time and place, of course. But uh yeah, I I think I really think that that if you can communicate clearly through a translator and get the mix right there, again, like saying for the translator to work properly, you have to say enough, but not too much. And again, it depends on how good the translator is. Obviously, a really good one, you can just talk as normal and they're able to spit that out. But I think it still sharpens your message, and I think bringing that back here, uh, that's probably what I utilise as the most in terms of like just trying to be quite direct and and not beat around the bush. Uh, and I think that promotes honesty and in your in your feedback and delivery as well.

SPEAKER_01 16:36

Yeah. Mate, I I certainly have the same man. Like, I I I know my delivery is so much better now than it ever was after my time in Japan. And it's the same thing, cutting out the fluff. I I remember like the first couple of sessions I had to lead, I I did a whole lot of you know video clips and things, and it just it didn't land because I I knew the translation wasn't capturing the point I wanted. And so I had to simplify and simplify and simplify until I just got the message I need. And that came through a lot of discussions as well. And also, this is where this whole culture piece came from me, uh, really, my really passion to do it. Because I had a I tried to bring in a system when I was at NEC Green Rockets and uh a line out system, and I came from Leicester and I thought it was absolutely tops, and it was because it won a lot, and it didn't work. And the captain came to me, he spoke pretty good English, and said, This doesn't work, mate. And I said, It does. And he goes, No, no, it doesn't work because you don't understand who we are, you've got no idea why we're here, you've got no idea about our education, how we learn, all this stuff. And he smacked me in the face with it, and I went, He's right. I like I was regurgitating something from over there and trying to bring it into a whole different context, and it didn't work. And I from that day forth I went, I need to know the people first, I need to connect and understand about them. And then it sparked this whole journey for me around this this nature of how important culture is for your coaching and and leading anything. And for me, that's the the joy of a place like Japan. It's so confronting and this it sparks so many conversations. And I just I'm so excited for coaches that are brave enough to jump on this trip and and really put um time and effort into their own development and to invest in themselves. Because we as coaches, we ask our players to learn and keep learning and get better and better. But where do we do it as coaches? And this tour is one of those ones where it's like here's the opportunity. Are you brave enough to take it? Jump on board 3rd of December to the 13th of December with Matt Cobain and Gordon Titchens running around Japan, going to schools, universities, professional clubs, national bodies, watching games together, drinking yuck, yakineku, Korean barbecues all over the show, right, Maddie? That's the joy of this thing. And you talked something else which is is worthwhile talking about too is the networking stuff. And certainly, I I think you'll be a big uh proponent of this, is that networking in rugby, if you're trying to develop and get up the ranks at any level, having a little mastermind group and people that have done it in the head of you, like yourselves, and understanding the networking, how powerful it is to help your coaching journey, because rugby is a people sport, and the more people you know and can help you on your networking journey is massive, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:21

Yeah, that's right. I mean, coaching is a people business. Um, it is around creating relationships and connections initially, and then you know, the X's and the O's, as we said later on, come into it. But yeah, I mean it's it's trying to find good people and almost like look at it like a mentor situation where you know if you can find someone that you that you trust and you feel like you can connect with, and having the ability to sort of go to them if you've got you know maybe some problems or or or go to them just for for a chat every now and then to have a bit of a a catch-up, I think's pretty valuable. You know, coaching's uh can be a tough, lonely business at times. You've got to sort of set the direction and you know, particularly if you're a head coach and and and sort of you know figure out if you're on the right path, uh you know, if things aren't well, do we change or do we keep you know shoulder to the to the wheel and and and work through it? Like all these things, and and that's where uh another another brain uh that you can sort of work with can can you know make it a little bit easier, maybe sort of uh give you a little bit of more clarity, or you know, they might have to have a different approach that they could suggest that that they could help you through it. But again, ultimately it's about what's best for the team, what's best for the group, and and and each group is different, and figuring out what those differences are will lead you to to the right path.

SPEAKER_01 20:46

That's right, mate, because you are right. In some regards, coaching can be lonely, even though you're often working in a in a group, you are sometimes the only one coaching, and you've got 20 to 30 people, players, but this is not that. You this is a a coaching team you're going with. 20 to 30 coaches going together. So you will have support, you will have camaraderie, you will have upskilling, you will have another set of eyes and ears, you will have a network, you'll have a brainstrush, you'll have people you can call on both in the trip, but then prior and post, we are going to do a pretty comprehensive pre-tour catch-up and then post-tour follow-up and make sure we're all connected as a group. Because when you share an experience for 10 days in a very different country like Japan, and you have that shared experience as a group, you get tight, you you you form this alliance, this camaraderie, this shared bond. And we know that players and teams have that, but now we're offering this for coaches to have like a real sense of connection to another group of coaches who you share intimate time with. And when you expose to what we're going to be exposing, this this tour of, your connections will be through the roof. It's so much fun. And it's so joyous to be doing this sort of thing. And to be doing probably the first trip of this nature that's been done in a place like Japan with people like yourselves is just

Networking Mentors And The Lonely Job

SPEAKER_01 22:09

going to be so special. And I take my head off to those that are that are putting their hands up to jump on board with that. Maddie, what will you, um, if you're sitting on the flight home, what what do you think the coaches will be talking about? And and why do you hope that the coaches that come away with you on this tour will come away with?

SPEAKER_00 22:30

I think it's just obviously ref you know self-reflecting on it and uh probably ask themselves a question, why do we do it this way? You know, maybe challenge what what you've done in the past and try some different things. See how they land, if they land well then and you know, you carry that on and and and take it forwards. Watch and observe and say, you know, you take bits and pieces from everyone. Like, you know, when you're a player, you you you do that, you know, you have a number of different coaches over your playing careers and you sort of take bits and pieces with you. Well, I certainly have from you know some of the coaches I've had in the past. And um and I think that's probably the the the the real thing to sort of for for you know on the way home and why do why do I do things the way I do things? And then maybe look at that and and make some changes and and and yeah, see how they go. Because you can always go back to what you were doing. Um and it and and that may be okay, but it's these it's little tweaks and little uh one percenters that we're looking for to try and get improvement through through your own coaching and your own rugby programs.

SPEAKER_01 23:41

And mate, do you think traveling is one of the best ways to grow as a coach?

SPEAKER_00 23:45

Oh yeah, I mean seeing seeing it through different eyes, you know, uh being in a different in culture, probably out of your comfort zone a little bit as well, because you're you know you are traveling and you're not in your own environment, I think just provides a different perspective on on the way you would look at every everything, I think.

SPEAKER_01 24:02

Yeah, and I mate, I I'd double down on that and say that getting out of your a lot of coaches you can become very comfortable in your own environment. Uh but what happens when we stop seeing or when we start seeing how other people do things? And there's the there's the brain explosions, there's when the synapses connect things and you go, oh right. And that's the joy. That's getting out of your comfort zone, that's pushing yourself as a coach. And for me, I like I know, having traveled a lot around the world and making a policy to do so, it's my my advancement as a coach because of that, getting in different situations, getting in that uncomfortable space is is the real joy.

SPEAKER_00 24:40

Yeah, yeah. I agree, mate. It's uh and it's just fun too. Like there's that little bit of excitement there that you know, we're gonna go and watch Kobe train today and you know, see if a lot of good players running around up there, as you mentioned before, a few names there, and there's so such a quality, there's a number of quality players, world-class players that play in a Japanese competition. I learned from when I was coming through playing, and and you know, I just grabbed a little bit here and and I'd again try it. If it worked for me, it worked. If it didn't, I bend it and and you know, went back to what I was doing and then looked maybe for something else to to replace that. So I think it's very similar as a coach as well.

SPEAKER_01 25:17

I loved how you talked about fun, Matt. Like that that is the big thing too. This will be uh an incredibly fun trip. Like the social side of it uh will be phenomenal. Uh and the food over in Japan, the the social side. So whether you're you drink or not, there are some wonderful options there from cold coffee and tins, which is wonderful stuff. I got addicted to that stuff, to to world-class beers and the chats which happen around that, the unfiltered conversations with the likes of yourself are just uh awesome. And the the food is just so exquisite.

SPEAKER_00 25:51

The three things I think about people say, What do you love about Japan? I said, It's the food, the people, and the transport. You know, because you can you can go out, connect with some great people, you know, try uh a couple of your Japanese words that you've learned, have a few beers or a coffee or whatever, and then it's easy to get home because you just jump on a go to any train station and you wait three minutes and you can get home on your train. And so, yeah, it's it's really uh they're they're the three highlights for me around uh when when people ask me that, you know, the the people, the food and the and the transport are are all top notch.

SPEAKER_01 26:25

Mate, what's your favorite food over there? Well, what would you be what's the first thing when when the coaches get off the plane? You'll say, follow me, I'm gonna get show you this. What is it? What's the experience you're gonna say?

SPEAKER_00 26:37

Yakineku, which is the Korean barbecue that you mentioned before, where you cook your own meat. And if you get some of that stuff melts in your mouth, it's so nice. We found a good ramen place when I was last coaching at uh NTT Dokomo in Osaka, and it's down at a little back street and you know, quite hidden, I guess, but it was the ramen there was sensational. You can go to a sushi train, and even the you know, the stock standard sushi sushi trains over there are good, you know, it's a hundred yen, so what's that, about 90 cents these days or something for us with the exchange rate. It's gone up a fair bit, so it's good for for travellers. Uh, you know, the 100 yen, you know, sushi trains are are are are just as good as well. So I I mean, yeah, it's and then you got dishes like Economy Yaki, which is a can sai based dish, which is the uh Osaka area. So that's where you get the cabbage and uh egg, uh some meat, and they sort of cook that in front of you on a hot plate. Uh uh Sukiyaki as well, which is the boiling pot. Uh, and you crack an egg in a in a a small bowl and you whip that up with your chopsticks and then you you boil boil the food in front of you, then you dip it in that and you eat it, and and it sounds gross, but it's actually quite delicious. So oh yeah, there's that's just a few. There's even more, I reckon. But yeah, probably Yuki Niko is a favourite, and then the that that ramen place would be a close second for me. And I think we are going to Andy's Hinamoto, aren't we, in central Tokyo. That is one of the best restaurants I've ever been to, and and that'll be a great night, actually, because Andy's he's uh he's a pommy and he's been in Japan a long time. He's run this restaurant under the train line there, and he's a rugby nut and he's got a bunch of jerseys up in his restaurant. I I think I gave him one of my jerseys as well, so hopefully that's still up there. We'll go and check on that when we when we go. That the seafood there is unbelievable. The crab that he brings out brings out this big king crab, and it's just it's delicious. I I mean I don't eat crab, that's the only place I eat crab, is there, so it goes to show how tasty it is. And yeah, so there's that that's gonna be a great night. That'll be a good experience. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:46

No, I'll geeze. I'm excited just thinking about it already, Matty. It's that's just I'm just flashing back to all those then sensational eat outs we had when we were there. It's gosh, it's a good time. It's yeah, it's and even the one that a lot of people actually quite enjoy too. And this is a for those who don't know, the the Combini shops, which are essentially 7-Eleven type shops, they're everywhere. You'll be able to walk to one in in two minutes wherever you are, and they're just phenomenal, aren't they? Like

Food Transport Fun And Final Invite

SPEAKER_01 29:13

you just like on a on a start of a day, you just roll in there for break uh for breakfast, and you can for you know five, ten bucks, you can stock yourself up all day, and it's just the choice, the selection. On a Geddies, which are the rice balls for a buck, and you're like, this is exquisite. And yeah, my I used to send my kids in the five dollars for lunch for school, and they just thought it was Christmas.

SPEAKER_00 29:35

Yeah, yeah. No, it's it's it's a cheap place to eat, yeah. I think yeah, food's generally quite low cost over there, and yeah, that's a good shout. 7 Eleven's the egg sandwiches there are the best egg sandwiches you will eat in the world. They are they are delicious.

SPEAKER_01 29:51

If if you're going for nothing else on this tour, an egg sandwich from the 7-Eleven is the reason for going on this tour, right, Matt?

SPEAKER_00 29:59

It might be the mascot or something of the tour or the the tour symbol is the egg sandwich.

SPEAKER_01 30:05

I will I will double down and agree with you. I have not had an egg sandwich, home cooked or otherwise as good as those 7-Eleven egg sandwiches.

SPEAKER_00 30:14

They reckon the hack is the um the fried chicken. So you get the fried chicken out of the out of the the the hot oven you know, keeper thing, and you buy a piece of that and you get your egg sandwich and you put the hot chicken on top of the egg and then put the top back on and then munch on that. So you got a hot chicken egg sandwich is is the 7-Eleven hack, they reckon. So I might have to try that one. I never tried that one while it was there.

SPEAKER_01 30:38

Well, this is the beauty of this trip. You've got Matt Cobain with all his Japanese knowledge giving you the little insight on how to hack an egg sandwich to make it to supersize it and make it better by buying a piece of fried chicken on the side. So there you go, coaches. You won't just learn the rugby and the networking and all the joys of the sport. You will learn a new Matty Cobain's uh cuisine for the Japanese lifestyle.

SPEAKER_00 31:02

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:04

Matt, mate, I I look forward to the to the sensational group of coaches that will join you on this elite coaching tour of Japan for aspiring coaches of all levels to grow as coaches and to become better versions of themselves and take that back to their own teams. Uh, it's just gonna be amazing. So thank you for putting your hand up to lead this tour.

SPEAKER_00 31:24

Uh, thanks for having me. Very much looking forward to it.