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 ...
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...
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...
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 resentm...
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 th...
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 communit...
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 p...
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,...
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 u...
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 w...
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 mus...
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.
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 mo...
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 erro...
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 tea...
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 fundament...
Have you ever wondered what truly makes a championship team culture? Dan McKellar, current Waratahs head coach with a coaching resume spanning the Brumbies, Wallabies, and Leicester Tigers, cuts through the noise with refreshing honesty and clarity. "Culture is just the actions of the people in the building," McKellar explains, offering a deceptively simple yet profound definition that frames his entire leadership approach. "When the last person at night shuts the door and turns the lights o...
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.
What if the secret to building championship teams isn't found in tactics or talent, but in a single, powerful word? Pat Lam, architect of the Bristol Bears' transformation from strugglers to European powerhouse, offers a refreshing perspective on leadership that challenges conventional wisdom. At the heart of his philosophy lies an unexpected foundation for team culture: love, defined as "sacrificing oneself for the benefit of others." This conversation reveals how Lam has masterfully...
What truly defines a coach's legacy? For Jim Mackay, it's not the championship trophies or international honors – it's the journey of becoming and the meaningful experiences along the way. In this enlightening conversation, Jim shares his remarkable path from coaching amateur clubs in England to leading the Queensland Reds to Super Rugby glory and eventually becoming Australia's attack coach. His story is a masterclass in resilience, culture-building, and authentic leadership. Jim reveals h...