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 calendars are relentless. Andrew doesn’t sell slogans; he shares systems. From the iceberg of unwritten behaviors to the moments a leader must step back and let the team “color in” the framework, he shows why ownership beats oversight and why challenge, delivere...
Jan 04, 2026•1 hr 4 min
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 who are in the arena. Along the way, we learned new crafts—audio, video, messy garage setups, timezone chaos—and hit 100,000 downloads, a milestone that matters only because it means ideas landed when people needed them. Two conversations shaped our thinking...
Dec 30, 2025•20 min
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 “snaps” are almost never sudden and how the minutes leading up to a mistake hold the clues coaches overlook. Warren shows how to decode patterns with robust profiling, translate data into action, and make leadership choices that are calm, strategic, and eff...
Dec 28, 2025•45 min
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 stronger culture and steadier performance. From youth to grandparents, everyone takes a role, and that shared ritual becomes a model for belonging, clarity, and care that any sports team or workplace can borrow. We unpack why traditions work so well: they m...
Dec 24, 2025•9 min
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, or 120 depending on the environment you build. From there, we unpack the daily leadership work that makes the “120” possible—where psychological safety meets accountability, and where connection fuels relentless standards. We get practical about selection...
Dec 21, 2025•1 hr 10 min
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. Across the mic, we share stories from the 10–7 connection, why the jersey’s history pulls more weight than any motivational speech, and how visible acts of courage and generosity become the signals that set standards without shouting. We dig into three pillar...
Dec 17, 2025•12 min
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 life in coaching. The story tracks an unlikely path from D team disappointment to Super Rugby, through concussion and identity loss, and into a craft that puts people at the center of performance. We dive into three formative gifts: learning to live with ...
Dec 10, 2025•17 min
Send us Fan Mail For all your sports equipment and some of the most innovative rugby products going around, head to silverfernsports.com . If you want to chat directly or explore options for your school or club, flick an email to ben@coachingculture.com.au . Great gear. Built for coaches. How to be a great coach Book Vol 2 is out on Amazon now Support the show Support those that support the show For the very best rugby gear shop here: silverfernsports.com...
Dec 07, 2025•59 min
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 talent into collective results. Mike traces a remarkable journey from South Africa’s hard-edged competitiveness to Bath’s winning heyday, through Italy’s tough rebuilds, Ireland’s detail-rich evolution, and now the Waratahs, where skill development meets ...
Dec 05, 2025•1 hr 2 min
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 lea...
Dec 03, 2025•12 min
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, and a sense of humor that makes hard work sustainable. From academy integration to senior leadership, from recruitment to mindset, Phil shares the frameworks and small rituals that keep Saints connected and competitive. We trace Phil’s pathway from player...
Nov 30, 2025•1 hr 4 min
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 without resentment. After nearly 50 interviews with elite rugby minds, Eddie’s lens still cuts the clearest path from theory to team habits you can see and measure. We start by redefining culture as what people correct in each other when it’s awkward. From...
Nov 26, 2025•21 min
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 director of rugby—to map the behaviors that make standards visible and repeatable under pressure. Nathan pulls back the curtain on selection and reveals the trait he hunts that tape often misses: intent. He explains why toughness is both physical and mental, an...
Nov 23, 2025•1 hr 3 min
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 your team identity and let it set the plan. From there, we lean into a DIY fitness culture that takes conditioning off your training clock and puts ownership in your players’ hands, using simple prompts and social accountability to make extra work normal and ...
Nov 19, 2025•17 min
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 Sean Graham, long‑time Director of Rugby at St. Joseph’s Nudgee College and founder of the Youth Rugby Coaches Forum, to unpack how he builds environments where kids can’t wait to train and coaches keep raising the bar. Sean explains why the coach is the sing...
Nov 16, 2025•1 hr
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 elite coaches identify them, speak them aloud, and build systems that keep emotion from hijacking the facts. Drawing on insights from Mick Byrne, John Mitchell, and Steve Hansen, I break down what happens when stress narrows perspective and why the first st...
Nov 12, 2025•16 min
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. Just behavior. From a Fijian security guard celebrating effort after a loss to rival teams singing together post‑match, Mick shows how joy and humility can power high performance without softening the competitive edge. We dig into the tools that make this r...
Nov 09, 2025•1 hr 6 min
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 coaching and parenting ran in parallel and taught me the same truths about growth, standards, and care. We unpack tough love the right way: not harshness, but honest care with clear expectations. I explain how to deliver hard feedback without breeding resentment—...
Nov 05, 2025•19 min
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 churn. We dig into a season that forced clarity. With 13 cultural backgrounds and minimal prep, we taught through images and objects, opened meetings with music, and played noughts-and-crosses to train communication and poise. We asked players to share three ...
Nov 02, 2025•1 hr 14 min
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 performance shapes legacy. The magic happens in the middle. Culture isn’t a side project or a mood; it’s the daily environment that leaders design on purpose. We start by contrasting two visions—a high-performance push to top the table versus a community-fi...
Oct 29, 2025•15 min
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 rebuilding without getting better. With Ben Darwin of Gain Line Analytics, we map the hidden architecture of performance: feeder systems that quietly lower error rates, stable combinations that turn instincts into shared reflex, and board decisions that either prot...
Oct 26, 2025•1 hr 20 min
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 changing a single variable on the whiteboard. That shift in state turns scattered attention into readiness, and readiness into better outcomes. We walk through why care is not a soft extra but a performance lever. When players feel seen beyond the jersey, the...
Oct 22, 2025•11 min
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 referee, officiating 32 Test matches before transitioning to coaching. Now head coach of the Fijian Drua, Jackson occupies a rare position of having played, refereed, and coached at elite levels. What makes Jackson's perspective so valuable is his deep under...
Oct 19, 2025•54 min
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 experience the world through the lens of rugby? Ken Grover, the 79-year-old founder of Gulliver's Travel, has been answering this question for over four decades through more than 4,000 tours worldwide. From his early days touring with Norths Rugby Club in 1973 to organizing massive contingents for Rugby World Cups, Ken has witne...
Oct 15, 2025•1 hr
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 university squads in Japan, Eddie shows how risk, clarity, and context build both teams and coaches who last. We dive into designing culture through the game itself—why a clear playing model unites diverse squads better than slogans, and how fundamentals must be...
Oct 12, 2025•1 hr 3 min
Send us Fan Mail For all your sports equipment and some of the most innovative rugby products going around, head to silverfernsports.com . If you want to chat directly or explore options for your school or club, flick an email to ben@coachingculture.com.au . Great gear. Built for coaches. Support the show Support those that support the show For the very best rugby gear shop here: silverfernsports.com...
Oct 08, 2025•14 min
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, provides rare insights into what truly builds championship team cultures. Drawing from experiences at powerhouse clubs like the Hurricanes, Leinster, Wasps, and Leicester, Gopperth reveals that authentic team culture can't be manufactured or forced. The most s...
Oct 05, 2025•1 hr 7 min
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 stories from pro rugby and lessons from coaches who’ve been in the fire for decades, we map out five anchors that keep a team steady when the scoreboard isn’t your friend. We begin by reshaping the meeting everyone dreads. Instead of leading with 34 errors, ...
Oct 01, 2025•22 min
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 remarkable coaching journey from player-coach to his current roles with Moana Pacific and the Tonga national team. His perspective on culture development comes alive through concrete examples rather than coaching platitudes – from filming players embodying team va...
Sep 28, 2025•50 min
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 professional rugby. The first revelation came in Japan, where after stubbornly trying to implement systems that worked at Leicester Tigers, a captain gently explained, "Just because it works there doesn't mean it works here." That simple observation fundamentally...
Sep 24, 2025•14 min
