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PODCAST

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

sports rugby

All Episodes

12:47

Reflections: Twenty Years, Five Lessons In Love And...

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2026/01/14

A 20-year anniversary felt like the right moment to unpack how love, family, and coaching actually work together in real life. I share five lessons that kept our marriage strong and made me a better pro rugby coach: trusting instinct, choosing adventure together, building a home that tells the truth kindly, parenting with intent, and staying fit to protect connection and clarity. It’s the honest version—fast decisions that paid off, moves across continents that stretched us, and late-night de...

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65:26

Zane Hilton: I Was A Bad Player, So I Coached Instead

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2026/01/11

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 human connection—despite never having played professionally. Zane’s story spans Italy, Japan, Samoa, Tonga, and Australia, revealing how culture becomes real only when it shows up in behavior under pressure. We dig into his coaching methodology—train well,...

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12:12

Reflections: Bens Book Review

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2026/01/06

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 memoir about weekly visits to a dying professor unfolds into a clear-eyed syllabus for living with purpose when the world keeps pushing speed, status, and more. We walk through the story’s simple structure—Tuesdays as classes—and pull out the lessons ...

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63:02

Andrew Hore: Hard Conversations Keep Standards High

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2026/01/04

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, deliv...

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20:10

Reflections: Privilege, Context, And The Real Measure...

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2025/12/30

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 thin...

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43:27

Warren Kennaugh: Your Team Is Not A Democracy, And...

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2025/12/28

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 ...

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9:04

Yes, We Ran A Christmas Beep Test And Loved It

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2025/12/24

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: th...

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69:05

Chris Lendrum: Leading the leaders, running the NZRU

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2025/12/21

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 selec...

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11:20

Reflections: Small Players Tackle, Big Players Run

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2025/12/17

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 pi...

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16:53

Reflections: From D Team to the Working with the...

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2025/12/10

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 w...

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57:42

Augustine Pulu: How Coaches Can Create Monsters!

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2025/12/07

Send us a text If you can SUBSCRIBE, RATE, and SHARE the show and series, you would be doing your bit to grow this show. Very appreciated. Ben To subscribe to the newsletter or to get a copy of the book, jump onto: www.coachingculture.com.au Support the show Share this show with your mates, rugby, coaches, leaders! Dont be shy.

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61:09

Mike Catt: No Dumb Questions. Building Brave Team...

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2025/12/05

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 mee...

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11:59

The Tony Brown Effect. How he has got the Springboks...

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2025/12/03

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...

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62:36

Phil Dowson: How A Director Of Rugby Shapes Behavior,...

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2025/11/30

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 pl...

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20:57

A reflective look at the philosophies of Eddie Jones.

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2025/11/26

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. ...

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62:09

Nathan Grey: Toughness is a talent. Coaching the...

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2025/11/23

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...

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17:04

You Don’t Need More Time; You Need Simpler, Sharper...

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2025/11/19

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 a...

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58:47

Sean Graham: Youth Rugby Coaching Masterclass. A...

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2025/11/16

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 ...

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15:17

Coaching Under Pressure: Owning Your Dark Traits

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2025/11/12

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 firs...

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64:22

Mick Byrne : From All Blacks to Fiji. How Self...

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2025/11/09

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 th...

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83 results

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