Coaching Culture with Ben Herring

Ben Herring
  • 5.0 (7)
  • RUGBY
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

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 coaches at every level to foster authentic connections, inspire their teams, and elevate their own coaching craft. If you believe that the real gold in rugby lies beyond the scoreboard, Coaching Culture is the podcast for you.

  1. Reflection: Learning from a master coach

    1D AGO

    Reflection: Learning from a master coach

    Pressure without panic. That was the standout energy we brought home from the Brisbane youth rugby coaches forum, where we watched Mike Cron turn complex coaching into something calm, sharp, and deeply human. We open up our notes on how sky-high standards can thrive without fear, why fewer cues and more silence often produce better reps, and how the right tech can transform players into self-directed learners. We talk through Cron’s approach to culture: make the standard crystal clear, keep the environment steady, and put responsibility on our delivery first. From there, the focus shifts to discovery learning. Instead of packing sessions with nonstop instruction, we explore how to set a clean target, let players feel the movement, and protect the space where reflection and peer discussion do the real work. You’ll hear how reading engagement beats watching the clock, and why a coach’s calm is the fastest way to earn attention. We also dive into practical tools. A simple live-cast video setup turns feedback into a player-led loop: watch, discuss, adjust, repeat. With prompts like “What did you see?” and “Did your body feel powerful?” athletes connect sensation to outcome and start coaching each other. That peer coaching multiplies understanding, ownership, and accountability across the group—exactly what you need when pressure rises on game day. If you want a team that thinks faster, learns deeper, and holds the standard together, this conversation lays out the shifts to make: set standards without fear, trim your talking, and use tech to unlock autonomy. If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a coaching friend, and leave a quick review to help more coaches find it. What’s the first change you’ll try this week? 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.

    10 min
  2. Nick Evans: Removing the Burden of Outcome

    4D AGO

    Nick Evans: Removing the Burden of Outcome

    What if performance starts with belonging, not tactics? We sit down with Nick Evans—All Black fly-half turned Harlequins attack coach—to unpack how culture, clarity, and a few well-chosen words can change the way a team competes under pressure. From honoring ancestry to owning identity, Nick shows why connection is the foundation that makes hard conversations possible and results sustainable. We trace his journey from player to coach, including the painful lesson of a 28-slide attack deck that put half the room to sleep—and the pivot to short, sharp meetings that land one idea and get the squad back on the field. Nick breaks down the identity pillars that fueled Harlequins’ resurgence—tempo, ruthless standards, unpredictability, and enjoyment—and explains Conor O’Shea’s radical act of leadership: telling players the result was his responsibility so they could play with freedom. We dig into personalization, balancing detail for different minds, and why shape should create chances rather than cage instincts. You’ll also hear practical tools any team can steal: interactive video reviews that build rugby IQ and leadership, match-day “no waffle” comms inspired by air traffic control, and a crisp “combat chat” glossary—like “next job” for reset and “60” for an instant energy lift. Threaded through it all is a mental model that keeps coaches and players moving forward: learn it or affirm it. Capture the lesson or the win, then let it go. If you care about coaching culture, player development, and turning pressure into clarity, this conversation will give you frameworks you can use this week. Subscribe, share with a coaching friend, and leave a review telling us your team’s one-word cue. 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.

    1h 5m
  3. Reflections: Bens Coaching Playbook

    JAN 21

    Reflections: Bens Coaching Playbook

    https://www.coachingculture.com.au/Bens_Culture_Playbook Download Ever notice two teams run the same drills with the same energy, yet one takes off while the other stalls? We dig into the invisible factor that decides that split: culture. Not the poster on the wall or the pregame speech, but the lived behaviors you tolerate, the way mistakes are handled, whose voice carries, and what gets ignored. Drawing on years of coaching across countries and age groups, we share a practical Culture Playbook designed to help you start quickly and build deliberately, so you’re not stuck firefighting after standards slip. We talk about why coaches default to what’s measurable—reps, times, systems—because it feels safe. The gray zone of culture is harder to quantify, but it decides risk-taking, cohesion, and resilience on game day. You’ll hear specific prompts to diagnose your environment, simple starting points to protect psychological safety without lowering standards, and a clear picture of what culture is and isn’t. We also explore the generational shift shaping modern teams: younger athletes crave clarity, purpose, and connection. Ignore that and players will play small or check out; design for it and your group grows faster than your drill plan alone ever could. This conversation is a map, not a manifesto. You’ll leave knowing where to begin, what to reinforce, and how to make your systems land in soil that helps them grow. If you’re a coach, manager, or leader who’s ready to coach the gray with intent, grab the free Culture Playbook from the link in the show notes, listen through, and choose one behavior to reinforce this week. If this helped, subscribe, share it with a coaching friend, and leave a review so more leaders can build environments that truly perform. 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.

    12 min
  4. Ben Darwin: Why coaches get sacked.

    JAN 18

    Ben Darwin: Why coaches get sacked.

    Want to know why the “hot coach” from a powerhouse program often struggles at your club? We sit down with Ben Darwin of Gain Line Analytics to unpack the data behind coach hiring, culture, and the compounding power of cohesion. The conversation challenges easy narratives and asks harder questions about why stability, system fit, and patience routinely beat short-term fixes. We break down a striking contrast from the NRL: assistants leaving the dominant Melbourne Storm win far less elsewhere than the small group of coaches who’ve departed the West Tigers. That flips common wisdom, and it makes sense when you zoom out. Stable teams create deep habits, shared language, and automated trust. Exporting that playbook into a chaotic environment often fails because the receiving club lacks the scaffolding to absorb it. Meanwhile, coaches shaped in turbulence learn to navigate churn and expectation shocks. From there, we map the real trade-off boards must name: delivery coach or builder coach. One chases immediate wins by importing senior talent and accepts the hidden costs to youth, depth, and future cohesion. The other sets a long horizon, aligns academies to the first team, and lets detail compound across seasons. We show how action bias—doing something to “look active”—can reset hard-won progress and why decisions echo for years. Along the way, we explore surprising performance drags: first-time jersey color changes that dent passing accuracy and attack, venue effects, injuries in the wrong positions, and small tweaks that cause big drops. This is a practical playbook for smarter reviews and better questions. What are we truly up against? When do we expect to win? Can our players actually play the system we want? What will it cost to change, and who do we lose if we sign one? Move beyond the scoreboard and into the inputs that matter—shared experience, system familiarity, and player-to-player understanding. If you’re ready to replace hiring hype with evidence and build a culture that keeps people long enough to get to the good stuff, this one’s for you. Subscribe, share with a colleague who needs it, and tell us: what would you change first at your club? 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.

    1h 12m
  5. Reflections: Twenty Years, Five Lessons In Love And Coaching

    JAN 14

    Reflections: Twenty Years, Five Lessons In Love And Coaching

    Download Bens free Culture Playbook here: https://www.coachingculture.com.au/Bens_Culture_Playbook 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 debriefs that turned into our best leadership practice. We start with the story of proposing after just eighteen days and why listening to a strong gut signal can be powerful if you’re willing to back it up with commitment. From there, I talk about the years abroad—Japan, new languages, schools for the kids—and the resilience that grows when your partner turns uncertainty into momentum. The heartbeat of it all is feedback at home: a brave foil who calls you out, asks better questions, and helps you see the person on the other side of your decisions. That habit built our family culture as an environment for growth and made my coaching calmer and more humane. Parenting four kids taught us to coach different personalities without slipping into nagging. We focused on intent, timing, tone, and the shared good. And we chose health as a daily promise, training together to stay present, confident, and sharp for each other and for the teams I lead. If you care about leadership, relationships, or the craft of coaching, these lessons are practical, lived-in, and ready to use. If the conversation resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs it, and leave a quick review so others can find it. 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.

    13 min
  6. Zane Hilton: I Was A Bad Player, So I Coached Instead

    JAN 11

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

    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, understand the game’s detail, embrace aggression as mindset, and work hard—and why the order of care, connect, then challenge turns feedback into lasting growth. Zane shares how learning Italian and Japanese unlocked trust and clarity, letting him coach without a translator and proving that language is a competitive advantage. He recalls a turning point with All Blacks legend Chris Jack, who demanded to be coached harder, and explains why elite players often need more precision, not less. From dynamical systems thinking to practical practice design, Zane shows how to add purposeful stressors that teach accountability, reduce perfectionism, and prepare for game-day chaos. We explore cultural lessons from around the world: Japan’s systems and work ethic, Italy’s passion, and the Pacific Islands’ deep sense of purpose. Finally, we challenge the myth of recruiting only “good blokes,” arguing for a balanced lens of character and capability so players can truly add to the environment. If you lead teams—or want to—this conversation gives concrete tools: finish prep before players arrive, talk to everyone daily, keep calls and cues simple, and be yourself without apology. Subscribe, share with a coaching friend, and leave a review with the one practice you’ll try this week. 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.

    1h 5m
  7. Reflections: Bens Book Review

    JAN 6

    Reflections: Bens Book Review

    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 that stick. First, the culture you inherit is not the culture you must accept. When status and achievement drown out meaning, leaders have the right and responsibility to choose a different path. Then we get to the heart of it: love is the point. Not soft or vague, but the kind of connection that builds trust, fuels standards, and makes hard feedback land without breaking people. Love shows up in how a team trains, how a staff supports each other, and how we stay human on tough days. We close with the most uncomfortable and useful skill: feeling emotion fully and moving through it. Maurie refuses to harden, and that choice becomes a model for performance under pressure. Emotional honesty creates stronger rooms, better decisions, and real resilience. As the book’s final pages remind us, high standards and deep care can live together, and leadership is not only what you demand; it’s what you give. If you’ve ever questioned what you’re chasing—or how to build a culture that actually helps people thrive—this conversation will meet you right where you are. If this resonated, follow the show, share it with someone who needs a reset, and leave a quick review to help others find it. Then grab Tuesdays with Morrie and tell us the quote that moved you most. 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.

    12 min
  8. Andrew Hore: Hard Conversations Keep Standards High

    JAN 4

    Andrew Hore: Hard Conversations Keep Standards High

    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, delivered well, strengthens trust. We trace turning points across teams and regions: the Crusaders’ academy foundations, Ospreys stabilizing finances while protecting identity, and the Blues aligning a multicultural city with the “many waka, one direction” idea. Andrew explains why building from the bottom up—competition structures, facilities, coaching development—creates sustainable high performance, and why over-centralizing at the top can hollow out the game beneath it. He’s blunt about tradeoffs: you can’t fund everything at once, so pick clear pillars, invest deeply, and accept that some will disagree. If you hire leaders, you’ll love his take: forget the “culture coach.” Look for character, a real technical specialty that earns credibility, and a context fit for the politics and pressures of your environment. Then support that head coach with a GM who shields, staffs, and thinks in horizons. Along the way, Andrew shares practical habits: set entry and exit rituals so work doesn’t invade home, build rooms where honest debate is safe, and start negotiations on the same side of the table by mapping shared problems first. Care is not softness—it’s precise feedback, consistent standards, and visible follow-through. Subscribe for more candid, practical conversations on culture, leadership, and performance. If this resonated, share it with a colleague and leave a review to help others find the show. 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.

    1h 3m
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
7 Ratings

About

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 coaches at every level to foster authentic connections, inspire their teams, and elevate their own coaching craft. If you believe that the real gold in rugby lies beyond the scoreboard, Coaching Culture is the podcast for you.

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