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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

61:04

They Built a National Champion by NOT Focusing on...

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2026/10/04

Most youth sports are built to sort kids into winners and losers. Jason Zemke built the Charlotte Cardinals to keep kids playing. We’re joined by Jason from Charlotte, North Carolina, the head coach behind one of the fastest-growing youth rugby programs in the United States. The Cardinals exploded from a brand-new club into a national powerhouse, but the real story is how they did it: treating rugby as a community first, a development pathway second, and a scoreboard a distant third. We dig ...

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12:10

Choose What You Inherit

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2026/09/30

My dad is about to turn 80, and it’s made me think hard about the quiet stuff we pick up from our parents: the phrases, the reflexes, the way we decide what’s “possible.” Some of that inheritance is gold. Some of it needs to be left behind. I share three lessons he gave me that still shape how I coach, how I lead, and how I try to build a life that actually fits. First, we dig into a line that still stops me in my tracks: take the bits of me you like and ditch the rest. It’s a reminder...

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62:38

Lost 7 Finals By One Point. Then Won | Club Newman

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2026/09/27

A rugby club with 1,500 players shouldn’t feel personal, yet Newman Club in Buenos Aires somehow does. Alfredo Cordone explains how Argentina’s club-first rugby pathway creates a level of belonging most countries have lost, where the club becomes a second house and the community is the culture. We talk about the values that sit underneath it all, from humility and respect to sacrifice and long-term development, and why rugby is used as a tool to build better people, not just better athletes.&...

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59:47

The Welsh Rugby Programme Punching WAY Above Its...

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2026/09/20

A lot of talent pathways talk about “development,” but few are honest about what it really takes to build better players without losing the person. We sit down with Euros Evans, Director of Rugby at Coleg Sir Gar and Head Coach at Llandovery RFC, to explore how one of Welsh rugby’s most productive 16 to 18 programs operates inside the Welsh Rugby Union pathway and the Scarlets region. The result is a hybrid model that manages workload, aligns coaching identity, and gives young athletes a clea...

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42:43

Building A British And Irish Expat Rugby Team

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2026/09/15

A lot of people talk about “culture” like it’s a slogan. Dan Elsom lives it, by building a brand-new representative rugby team for the British and Irish expat community in Australia, then turning it into a real platform for players who want more than a club season and a few match fees. This chat gets into the real work: selection standards, coaching alignment, logistics, media, and why making something legitimate matters when you want players and supporters to buy in. We also dig into ...

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64:50

Inside Canada’s Rugby Factory | Shawnigan Lake School

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2026/09/13

Watching pro rugby on TV can make school rugby look intimidating, but the truth is far more hopeful and far more practical. We’re joined by Tim Murdy, Director of Sport at Shawnigan Lake School, to talk about how a youth rugby program becomes a place where kids feel safe, challenged, and proud. Tim explains why rugby is a powerful shared experience for younger students, especially in a boarding school setting with athletes arriving from many countries and sporting backgrounds. We get specifi...

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63:04

Campese Ma’afu’s Incredible Road Back to Professional...

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2026/09/08

A lot of people talk about “culture” like it’s a slogan on a wall. We wanted something more real, so I sat down with Campese Maafu, a three-time Rugby World Cup prop and 63-test Flying Fijian, to hear what actually holds teams and people together when pressure hits. For Campese, culture is values plus standards, fueled by faith and the responsibility of “upholding your name” for your family, your community, and everyone watching you from back home. Campese’s journey is just as gripping...

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64:45

Merchiston Castle School | Inside One of Scotland’s...

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2026/09/06

Winning is loud. Development is quiet. And in school rugby, the noise can crush the very kids we are trying to help. I sit down with Roddy Dean, one of Scotland’s leading schoolboy rugby coaches and longtime Director of Rugby at Merciston Castle School, to unpack what actually builds a lasting coaching culture, especially when expectations, parents, and tradition all pull in different directions. We get into Roddy’s Borders upbringing and how being surrounded by elite players and strong comm...

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51:36

They Said It Couldn’t Be Done, So He Built the Asia...

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2026/09/02

A packed stadium, free entry, a brand-new team built across borders, and a cold email that ends with Northampton Saints landing in Colombo. We talk with Saabir Cader, the founder behind the Asian Pacific Lions, about how Sri Lanka rugby became the perfect home for a world-class showcase and why belief matters more than permission when you’re trying to build something that doesn’t exist yet. If you care about rugby culture, sports leadership, and what it takes to create opportunity, this story...

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44:19

The New Rugby Team That Could Change Asian Rugby |...

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2026/09/01

A captain’s job gets real when the message is hard and the stakes are higher than one person’s pride. Jamie Henry joins us to talk about the uncomfortable side of professional rugby: selection, disappointment, and the quiet way a results-driven environment can make players feel like decisions are personal. We dig into what actually earns respect inside strong teams, why “no one is bigger than the team” only works when it shows up in daily behavior, and how leaders keep trust intact when not e...

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57:25

The Culture Behind 54 All Blacks | Auckland Grammar...

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2026/08/29

What if the strongest teams aren’t built by hype, slogans, or “high performance” talk, but by a few clear rituals everyone can count on? I sit down with Dave Askew, deputy principal and First XV coach at Auckland Grammar School, to get a behind-the-scenes look at how one of New Zealand’s most storied schoolboy rugby programs builds culture that holds up under pressure. We talk about the daily assembly as the “big hall” that creates belonging, recognition, and a shared start line for 2,000-pl...

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69:05

Paarl Boys High School | Inside the Program with Sean...

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2026/08/23

Rugby can fill a stadium. Culture can shape a life. We sit down with Sean Erasmus, head coach at Paul Boys High School, to unpack what it takes to build a values-led rugby program inside one of the most tradition-heavy environments in the world. His core idea is simple and demanding: culture is a living thing, and if we do not feed it and prune it every day, it drifts into something we never intended. We get specific about what that looks like with schoolboys who face modern pressure that pr...

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53:28

How Ryan Martin led Northland’s Historic Ranfurly...

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2026/08/22

The Ranfurly Shield isn’t just a trophy. It’s a pressure cooker that turns every home match into a final, pulls entire towns into the story, and asks players to carry something heavier than a scoreboard. After Northland’s first Shield win since 1978, head coach Ryan Martin joins me to explain how his group handled the moment and why the celebration and the responsibility can actually fuel performance instead of distracting from it. We dig into Ryan’s simple coaching framework for big games: ...

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67:43

Why Winning Teams Still Have Culture Problems | Ross...

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2026/08/19

If someone had to “explain” your culture to a new hire, would it fall apart the moment pressure hits? Ross Neal joins us to get brutally practical about what culture actually is: what you do and how you do it, so clear that a person could sit in your environment for a week and tell the truth about it. From pro rugby locker rooms to corporate leadership teams, Ross shows how culture is built in the small moments leaders leak through mood, reactions, and what they choose to reward. We dig into...

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62:59

Newington College GPS Champions | Inside the Program

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2026/08/16

A championship season can tempt coaches to talk only about tactics, but the real story sits in the spaces between school, sport, and growing up. We sit down with Tim Rapp, head coach of Newington College First XV and Australia U16 head coach, to unpack how a winning schoolboy rugby program is built on values, relationships, and the daily experience players have when they arrive at 3:40 pm carrying the rest of life on their shoulders. We get practical about coaching culture: why “the la...

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48:22

Why So Many Good Coaches Are Struggling | The...

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2026/08/11

You can spot a coach on the sideline in seconds. What’s harder to see is everything they carry home afterward: the player who’s struggling, the conversation they should have handled better, the pressure from parents or committees, the fear of judgment, and the constant need to stay calm for everyone else. That hidden weight has a name, and once you name it, you can finally do something about it. We’re joined by Stu Edwards, newly appointed Finland head coach and author of The Invisible Load,...

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64:36

Ex-Wallaby Reveals How Culture Is Really Made | Ben...

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2026/08/09

“Culture” is the most overused word in sport, and we’ve both heard it used as a lazy explanation for everything from blowout losses to surprise championships. So we put the uncomfortable question on the table with Ben Darwin from Game Line Analytics: is culture a load of crap, or is it just misunderstood? What follows is a grounded, data-informed look at what culture actually looks like when you strip away the mystique and focus on behaviors you can see, coach, and repeat. We dig into normat...

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64:52

Ex-All Blacks Analyst Reveals the Danger of...

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2026/08/02

You can know the “right” answer as a coach and still miss the point if your environment pushes people in the wrong direction. That’s the thread we pull on with Al Rogers, who spent nine years as an All Blacks analyst during a golden run, then moved into coaching across Super Rugby, international rugby, and Japan. We get honest about what actually changes performance: not a wall of slogans or a spreadsheet of stats, but the daily culture you create and the behaviors you reinforce when things g...

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11:58

Why Good Coaches Don't Always Pick the Good Players

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2026/07/29

The hottest debate in any team sport is selection, and we get why it drives people crazy. From the stands, it looks like a simple list of the most talented players. From the coach’s seat, it’s risk management, culture building, and performance under pressure all rolled into one call. That’s the contrarian idea we’re unpacking: selection isn’t about picking the best players, it’s about picking the best team. We walk through three practical filters that shape real coaching decisions. First is ...

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66:57

Pressure Made Me Forget Who I Was | Joey Mongalo

Coaching Culture with Ben Herring ·

2026/07/26

Pressure doesn’t usually change a coach with one big blow. It changes you slowly, one compromise at a time, until the season ends and you realize you’ve been walking around in fog. Joey Mongalo joins us for a contrarian round of questions on coaching culture and leadership, starting with a deceptively simple one: are holidays just as important as seasons? From tornado-speed weekly cycles to the need for pockets of quiet, we talk rest and recovery as a performance skill, not a reward you earn ...

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152 results

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