Coaching Culture with Ben Herring

Epizódy

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  Why Good Coaches Don't Always Pick the Good Players 29.07.2026 11min

  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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  Pressure Made Me Forget Who I Was | Joey Mongalo 26.07.2026 1h 6min

  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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  How to Break Through as a Coach (Without a Playing Career) 22.07.2026 13min

  A Champions Cup-winning rugby attack coach who never played professional rugby should not make sense and that’s exactly why Noel McNamara’s story matters. We sit with the uncomfortable truth that the “perfect CV” is often overrated, and the real separator is how you think when an opportunity is risky, unglamorous, or confusing to everyone around you. We dig into what stood out most from Noel’s journey: a very low fear of failure and a willingness to say yes early. One move leads to the next,...
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  How a maths teacher became a world class coach | Noel McNamara 19.07.2026 1h 8min

  Winning a major trophy is supposed to be the moment, but Noel McNamara doesn’t romanticize it. He explains why a title can feel like relief for ten minutes, and why the harder, more meaningful work starts immediately after: rebuilding energy, sharpening clarity, and chasing improvement in a world where success keeps moving further away the moment you get close. If you coach rugby, lead a team, or care about high-performance culture, this is a grounded look at what it takes to stay ahead witho...
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  What 23 Years at Leicester Taught Me About Leadership | Geordan Murphy 12.07.2026 1h 4min

  Some teams win because they have better players. Leicester Tigers, at their best, won because they had a culture that could survive anything, including brutal training, relentless internal competition, and the pressure of living up to an identity everyone could see from the stands. We sit down with Geordan Murphy, Leicester player, captain, coach, and senior leader across 23 years at the club. Geordan tells the story of arriving from Ireland on what was supposed to be a three week tria...
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  THE NEW MASCULINITY OF COACHING Craig White 05.07.2026 1h 5min

  Most teams don’t lose because they lack information. They lose because pressure hijacks attention, connection, and decision making. Craig White joins us to unpack a simple truth that too many coaches miss: your team feels your nervous system before they hear your message, and what you model becomes the culture. We dig into conscious leadership and the difference between regulated and dysregulated coaching. Craig breaks down the “to me, by me, through me, as me” framework, why victim language...
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  How the Hurricanes Value Culture. Tom Kindley 28.06.2026 1h 7min

  A 60-5 final score makes headlines, but the real story is what has to be true inside a team for that kind of performance to show up when it matters most. We’re joined by Tom Kinley, General Manager of the Hurricanes, to break down the culture systems and leadership habits that turn a talented roster into a connected, resilient, high-performing group. We dig into how Tom defines team culture as shared patterns of thinking and behavior, and why the “intangible” edge is often the difference bet...
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  The Power of In-Person Conversations 24.06.2026 11min

  Getting selection wrong isn’t only about who you pick. It’s about how you tell people. We dig into one of the most uncomfortable parts of coaching: delivering news that changes an athlete’s week, their confidence, and sometimes their future. Whether you coach school teams, club sports, or high-performance environments, we make the case that face-to-face communication still beats texts, calls, and “finding out in the meeting” because humans are wired for connection, tone, and intent. We break...
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  The Real Job of a Coach Isn't What You Think...John Dams 21.06.2026 1h 11min

  Ever wonder why some teams click faster, learn quicker, and bounce back stronger? We unpack the real levers behind high performance—where data sharpens intuition, language creates buy-in, and framing turns meetings into movement. With performance strategist and developmental coach John Dams, we trace his path from early rugby roles to shaping elite environments, pulling out lessons any coach or leader can use tomorrow. We dig into the mindset side first: emotional intelligence as a practical...
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  The Hardest Transition Of My Life Nemani Nandolo 14.06.2026 1h 2min

  What happens when a record-setting, globe-trotting winger trades the try line for a whiteboard? We sit down with Nems to explore how he’s building the Fijian Drua development pathway with a people-first approach that still demands edge. From Leicester’s cold logic of the kicking game to the Crusaders’ obsession with nailing roles, he unpacks the methods that actually travel—and the ones that don’t. We get honest about what it takes to coach in Fiji, where players often support entire familie...
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  Coaching Your Own Kid 10.06.2026 10min

  Coaching kids is one thing. Coaching your own child can feel like stepping onto a field where every word carries twice the weight. I’ve been thinking about why so many coaches avoid coaching their son or daughter, even when they love the sport, and I’ve come to a simple reframe: the real question isn’t “why is my kid hard to coach?” It’s “what changes in me when the athlete is someone I love?” I walk through three shifts that quietly sabotage parent coaching. First, we stop seeing the child ...
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  Dark Moments Build Great Players. Joe Rokocoko 07.06.2026 1h 3min

  Ever been told to start at zero? Joe Rokocoko has—and he calls it the sentence that rebuilt his standards, his respect, and his career. From a Fijian village to Parisian match nights, Joe opens up about the unseen work behind greatness: how culture lives like a village, why tone matters more than volume, and what it takes to make the dark zone feel like home. We go deep on the soul of French rugby—why stadiums are packed, how small towns treat game day as a family event, and what Racing 92 i...
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  The Power Of Little Hooks 03.06.2026 11min

  A small moment can change an athlete more than a big speech ever will. We’re digging into the idea of “little hooks” the tiny wins, cues, and shared moments that get players latched onto learning and pulling themselves forward. We start with a simple family story: an alphabet game where an eight-year-old learns a country for every letter. The real magic isn’t the trivia. It’s what happens after he feels competent. He starts lighting up when he hears new country names, asking questions, looki...
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  Alex Laybourne: Swedens rise to Top 30 on a shoestring 31.05.2026 1h 2min

  What does it take for a fully amateur national team to punch above its weight and chase top-30 ambitions? We unpack Sweden’s rise with head coach Alex Laybourne, tracing a bold shift from “show up and play” to a no-excuses culture where standards, clarity, and innovation fuel results. From the outside, it looks improbable: limited budget, a shallow depth chart, and COVID-era hurdles. Inside, it’s a masterclass in identity, ownership, and doing more with less. We start with culture as lived b...
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  How to Make and Break Confidence 27.05.2026 12min

  If you’ve ever walked into a team review wondering which clip will make you look stupid, you already know how confidence gets crushed. We talk about coaching confidence through the most common tool coaches use and misuse: feedback. When reviews become a public list of everything that went wrong, players don’t just feel corrected, they feel exposed. And once fear shows up, learning slows down, decision-making tightens, and team culture quietly deteriorates. We unpack why so many coaches defau...
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  Gary Gold: What Coaches Get Wrong With Culture. 24.05.2026 1h 12min

  If “culture” makes your eyes glaze over, try this: design the environment and make excellence a habit. That’s the heartbeat of our conversation with international head coach Gary Gold, who has led in South Africa, England, Japan, and the U.S. We dig into what truly differentiates winning clubs when talent is close—and why it’s rarely another page in the playbook. Gary reframes culture as daily, observable behaviors anyone can own, from chasing a kick to resetting your attitude after a loss. H...
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  What If Your Best Coaching Is Silence 20.05.2026 9min

  Send us Fan Mail Is your school the best in your country? Let me know Ben@coachingculture.com.au Silverfern Sports If you need great rugby gear, Silverfern are the best. Innovative high quality rugby kit. Contact Ben direct: Ben@coachingculture.com.au Support the show Subscribe and Share, it makes a massive difference! Appreciation in advance.
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  Filo Tiatia: Edge And Empathy In Coaching 17.05.2026 58min

  Culture isn’t a slogan; it’s the air your team breathes. With Filo Tiatia, iconic loose forward turned pro coach across New Zealand, Japan, and Wales—we unpack how identity, empathy, and non-negotiable standards create environments where people feel safe, stretched, and proud of how they do things here. From Samoan and Japanese customs to the daily rituals inside a professional club, Filo shows why clarity of behavior and belonging beats hype every time. We dig into the hardest pivot a coach...
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  How Community Rugby Sustains Elite Performance, and How You can See it 13.05.2026 12min

  Elite rugby loves to talk about high performance, but the uncomfortable question is simpler: what happens when the clubs empty out? We dig into the community game and why participation is the true performance metric that quietly decides a nation’s future. With a powerful snippet from David Nusafora, we unpack the idea that high performance can’t operate in isolation and that the relationship between performance and participation has to stay healthy for both sides to win. From there, we head ...
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  David Nucifora: INSIDE IRELAND’S RISE 10.05.2026 1h 3min

  Most teams say they want a great culture. Far fewer leaders can explain what culture looks like on a random Tuesday, or how to build it when pressure is high and everyone is watching the scoreboard. We sit down with David Nucifora, a longtime performance director and high performance leader across international rugby, to get concrete about what actually moves performance: daily behaviors, clear standards, and leaders who stay close enough to the work to feel what’s really going on. We dig in...