Advertise on podcast: Coaching Culture with Ben Herring

You can feel a company’s culture in minutes, even if nobody explains it. Walk into the first meeting, listen to how people disagree, notice who gets included, and you already know what kind of place it is. We take that idea seriously and ask a challenging question: if a complete outsider spent a few hours with your team, what would they say your workplace culture really is? Not the culture you want. The culture they experienced.  Drawing on years inside elite rugby environments, we unpack why two teams with similar talent and resources can produce totally different results and energy. The difference is rarely the game plan or the facilities. It is the environment people step into every day, and that environment is shaped by leadership behaviors, unspoken norms, and what gets reinforced in small moments. We talk through a practical “outside eyes” culture audit, including how to invite honest feedback without defending yourself, and why curiosity is one of the most important leadership traits for building a high performance culture.  We also share a story about coaching in Japan where a club logo and the year 1941 sparked a deeper conversation about purpose. When a group finds meaning that is bigger than the work itself, it shows up in how they treat visitors, how they serve their community, and how they hold each other to a standard. Finally, we challenge the myth that culture is built at big events. Culture is built in meetings, decisions, and daily habits, the repeatable actions that compound into trust, ownership, and pride.  If you want to improve organizational culture, start by seeing the one you already have. Subscribe, share this with a leader who cares about team culture, and leave a review with the clearest culture signal you think most teams miss. Send us Fan Mail Silverfern Sports If you need great rugby gear, Silverfern are the best. Innovative high quality rugby kit. [email protected] Support the show Subscribe and Share, it makes a massive difference! Appreciation in advance.

Some leaders earn trust with speeches. Nili Latu earned it by taking hits, taking responsibility, and taking care of people when nobody else would. From captaining Tonga through chaotic tours and unpaid campaigns to coaching a new generation back home, Nili’s story is a masterclass in coaching culture, Pacific Island leadership, and what “service” really means in high-performance sport.  We talk about leaving Tonga at 10, learning rugby and English in New Zealand, and carrying the pressure so many Tongan rugby players feel to provide for family. Nili explains why he chose overseas rugby in Japan and beyond, how sport can bring a country together in dark moments, and what captaincy looks like when you’re also solving pay disputes, flights, and politics behind the scenes. If you’ve ever wondered what leadership is when the system is messy, this conversation goes there.  Then we get into identity and performance. Nili shares how he rebuilds team culture with mafana, the warm heart that makes Tongan teams fearless, and the kafa, a powerful symbol of being tied to your land and people wherever you play. We also talk about the reality of transitioning out of professional rugby, the isolation that can hit hard, and how Nili found peace by letting go of rigid goals and trusting God’s plan.  If you care about rugby coaching, leadership, team culture, or player development, you’ll take notes here. Subscribe for more conversations like this, share this with a coach or teammate, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway. Send us Fan Mail Silverfern Sports If you need great rugby gear, Silverfern are the best. Innovative high quality rugby kit. [email protected] Support the show Subscribe and Share, it makes a massive difference! Appreciation in advance.

The best coaching stories aren’t about the whiteboard, they’re about what happens years later when an old player stops traffic just to give you a hug. That’s where this conversation with John Plumtree goes fast: past trophies and into the parts of rugby coaching and leadership that actually last. Plum has coached at the highest levels with the Sharks, the Hurricanes, Ireland, and the All Blacks, and he brings a grounded view of culture that cuts through the usual slogans. We talk about the hidden cost of high performance sport, especially the way coaching can swallow your time and identity if you let it. Plum shares how he thinks about being the best version of himself for his wife, his kids, and his team, plus what changes when you start stepping back from full-time head coaching. From there we get into the real mechanics of pressure: aligning with owners, boards, and stakeholders, and why head coaches are constantly managing three very different relationship groups at once. Then we go deep on building a winning team culture. Plum’s definition is refreshingly direct: culture is the quality of the people in the building. We unpack what that means for hiring, coaching staff cohesion, and the “triangle” between CEO, head coach, and high performance leadership. He also reflects on international coaching, where selection can matter as much as training, and he shares a rare hindsight lesson from his time with the All Blacks that every ambitious coach will recognize. If you care about rugby leadership, coaching culture, and building teams that stay connected under stress, you’ll get plenty from this one. Subscribe, share it with a coach who needs it, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway. Send us Fan Mail Silverfern Sports If you need great rugby gear, Silverfern are the best. Innovative high quality rugby kit. [email protected] Support the show Subscribe and Share, it makes a massive difference! Appreciation in advance.

A school with 2,100 students shouldn’t feel like a family, yet that’s exactly what we found at Grange School in Santiago, Chile. I’m joined by Francesco “Pancho” Pinha, former Chile captain, lifelong teacher, and the proud tradition keeper who helps explain why this program keeps producing an extraordinary share of Chile’s national team players and leaders. We talk about what “culture” looks like when it’s lived for decades: consistency over many years, coaches who care, and fundamentals done well. Pancho breaks down a simple leadership system that’s anything but easy, giving young players real roles early, letting them make mistakes, and expecting them to own the results. That repetition turns leadership into a habit, not a speech you give before kickoff. We also get into the power of rituals and standards, from house colors and school traditions to the famous striped kit that has to be earned. Along the way, Pancho shares why rugby uniquely teaches respect, how alumni keep the program thriving, and what he hopes every student carries into adult life long after the last whistle. If you care about coaching culture, youth leadership development, rugby values, and building a team identity that lasts, hit subscribe, share this with a coach or teacher, and leave a review. What’s one small standard you’d protect in your own program? Send us Fan Mail Silverfern Sports If you need great rugby gear, Silverfern are the best. Innovative high quality rugby kit. [email protected] Support the show Subscribe and Share, it makes a massive difference! Appreciation in advance.

A state school winning at Twickenham sounds like a fairy tale until you hear how Northampton School for Boys actually built it. We sit down with Phil Beaumont and Simon Heffer, the leaders behind NSB rugby’s decade-long rise from six teams to 18 teams and hundreds of players, all in a non-selective, lottery-intake comprehensive where rugby is optional. What makes it work is not a single golden generation, it’s a repeatable system that keeps producing confident players and tight-knit squads year after year. We dig into the real mechanics: rebuilding the fixture card so more boys get meaningful games, funding long trips with sponsors and volunteers, and creating a true community rugby model with local clubs. Phil and Simon explain why partnerships beat isolation, how aligning terminology with the Northampton Saints pathway helps player development, and why their goal is bigger than silverware. For most kids, success means staying in the sport for life, whether that’s a first team jersey or a club’s fourth XV on Saturday. Culture is the through-line. You’ll hear how NSB builds a player-led environment, why “blind trust” becomes a core value, and how leadership is trained with defined roles plus a simple ritual: Monday lunch with the team’s leaders to reflect, plan, and own the week. If you coach youth sports, run a school program, or care about grassroots rugby growth, this one is packed with ideas you can steal. If you enjoy the conversation, subscribe, share it with a coach or teacher who needs it, and leave a quick review so more people can find the show. Send us Fan Mail Silverfern Sports If you need great rugby gear, Silverfern are the best. Innovative high quality rugby kit. [email protected] Support the show Subscribe and Share, it makes a massive difference! Appreciation in advance.

Poor culture doesn’t just create problems you can see. It quietly steals the best parts of your team: the extra effort people would have given, the performance you expected from talented staff, and the potential that never gets a chance to emerge. We bring a high performance lens from elite sport into everyday leadership, because the same culture patterns show up in offices, businesses, and teams of every kind. We unpack three big costs. First, lost effort: when people do “just enough” because they don’t feel connected, valued, or involved. Second, lost performance: when fear of mistakes turns smart people cautious, and accountability becomes pressure without support. Third, lost potential: the ideas never shared, the growth never attempted, and the future leaders who stay quiet because the environment teaches them to play it safe. Along the way, we share practical culture tools you can use immediately, including one ownership-building question to ask your team, and a better way to respond when something goes wrong: focus on intent and learning, not blame. If you care about employee engagement, psychological safety, accountability, and building a high performance culture that actually delivers results, this one is for you. Subscribe for more leadership and culture insights, share this with a teammate, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What’s one small change you could make this week to lift your culture? Send us Fan Mail Silverfern Sports If you need great rugby gear, Silverfern are the best. Innovative high quality rugby kit. [email protected] Support the show Subscribe and Share, it makes a massive difference! Appreciation in advance.

A school can have great buildings, strong results, and a proud sports history and still miss the thing that actually makes young people thrive. We sit down with Andy Turner, principal of Tauranga Boys’ College in New Zealand, to unpack what he calls “invisible strength” and why school culture and team culture start with beliefs and values long before they show up as traditions, standards, or slogans. We get specific about boys’ education and leadership: the biggest message young men share is simple and confronting, they want to know someone believes in them. Andy explains how belief works like a jump start, activating identity and helping a student reconnect with what matters to him. From there we talk practical culture tools, including a cornerstone of respect, the challenge of creating alignment across classrooms and sports programs, and why consistency matters more than having the perfect script. The conversation also goes deeper into intrinsic motivation, emotional regulation, and resilience. We explore how boys navigate modern pressures around identity, how leaders can give permission to try and fail safely, and why learning to fall is essential in a world where “failure” is often simulated and reset online. Andy’s final analogy, grandma’s cooking, nails the point: two environments can look the same on the surface, but care and intention change how it feels to belong. If you care about coaching, culture, education, or raising confident young men, you will take something useful from this one. Subscribe, share it with a coach or teacher you respect, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway. Send us Fan Mail Silverfern Sports If you need great rugby gear, Silverfern are the best. Innovative high quality rugby kit. [email protected] Support the show Subscribe and Share, it makes a massive difference! Appreciation in advance.

Coaching hasn’t gotten softer, it’s gotten more human. We’re seeing it in sport, in business, and in everyday workplace leadership: the old model where players and employees simply adapt to the coach does not hold up the way it used to. So we share the framework we teach in our Coaching Culture workshops and keynotes, built for modern coaching, modern teams, and modern expectations. We walk through the Three Bs of modern coaching: Build, Bring, Become. First, we build the environment and team culture before we obsess over tactics, drills, and technique. Using a classroom analogy, we explain why the “content” is often the same everywhere, yet the best leaders create conditions where people learn faster, feel safer, and perform better. Then we shift to bringing out the best in people, including practical tools you can use immediately: win the first 30 seconds with real connection, use a five-to-one ratio of positive reinforcement to constructive feedback, and catch people doing things right, then recognize it publicly. Finally, we dig into becoming a better coach and leader through reflective practice. We challenge the idea that experience automatically equals development, talk about why teams mirror the leader, and share simple methods like recording yourself and asking three quick questions after each session: what worked, what didn’t, and what you’ll do differently next time. If you care about modern coaching, leadership development, team culture, employee engagement, or high-performance environments, this one is packed with actionable takeaways. Subscribe, share it with a coach or manager, and leave a review with the one “B” you’re working on right now. Send us Fan Mail Silverfern Sports If you need great rugby gear, Silverfern are the best. Innovative high quality rugby kit. [email protected] Support the show Subscribe and Share, it makes a massive difference! Appreciation in advance.

A coach can win games and still lose the room. Sean Skehan joins us to get brutally honest about what actually holds a rugby program together when pressure hits, emotions run high, and real life at home is waiting after the final whistle. We start with parenting and identity, because becoming a dad forces Sean to rethink anxiety, post-loss frustration, and the discipline of being fully present, lessons that transfer straight into leadership and coaching culture. From there, we dig into the nuts and bolts of team culture in schoolboy rugby at Terranure College and across Leinster Schools. Sean defines culture as the daily reality of an environment, then explains why the best programs run on a few clear trademarks instead of a bloated playbook. For Terranure, it’s fight, flare, and community. We unpack how those ideas show up in training design, gym standards, review habits, and what Sean calls emotional defense, where defending becomes an act of love for teammates, supporters, and the institution itself. We also get practical about performance and development: success intentions that go beyond win-loss, mission control versus command control, and how to hand ownership to players through scenario training and player-led review. Sean finishes with a hot take that sparks debate: why a knockout cup format can be great for long-term player development because it raises preparation standards and creates transferable high-wire pressure. If you care about rugby coaching, leadership, team culture, or building a youth sports program that lasts, this one is packed with tools you can use today. Subscribe, share it with a coach or parent, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway. Send us Fan Mail Silverfern Sports If you need great rugby gear, Silverfern are the best. Innovative high quality rugby kit. [email protected] Support the show Subscribe and Share, it makes a massive difference! Appreciation in advance.

An American-developed rugby coach taking a professional job overseas is rare, and Brendan O’Meara knows exactly why. His path runs through years of volunteering, uncomfortable learning curves, and the kind of persistence that doesn’t look dramatic from the outside. Now he’s heading to Japan rugby with the NEC Green Rockets, and we get specific about what it actually took to earn that step and what it will demand next.  We unpack the “self-made coach” reality in American rugby and why expanding your environment can matter more than waiting for a perfect pathway. Brendan shares how he handled imposter syndrome by “making up the reps,” how real relationships open doors, and why effort only counts when it turns into better coaching habits. We also get into the modern coaching craft: tight training time blocks, load management constraints, video analysis and film review, and the brutal but freeing discipline of turning too much information into a few clear messages your players can execute.  From there, we go deeper on leadership and coaching culture. We talk people over rugby, winning the room without trying to “prove” you’re smart, and how vulnerability inside a coaching staff creates trust, honesty, and better collaboration. To close, Brendan challenges the lazy narrative that structure kills creativity and explains why detail can be the platform for great attacking rugby when the balance is right.  If you coach rugby, lead teams, or want a real-world blueprint for growth, hit play, then subscribe, share this with a coach who needs it, and leave a review. What’s one change you’ll make to your coaching this week? Send us Fan Mail Silverfern Sports If you need great rugby gear, Silverfern are the best. Innovative high quality rugby kit. [email protected] Support the show Subscribe and Share, it makes a massive difference! Appreciation in advance.

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 into what “stewarding the game” looks like in a developing rugby nation, including the bold move of mixing jerseys at halftime to prevent 100-point blowouts that drive families away. We also get practical about culture and coaching: why the third half matters, how the Cardinals police sideline behavior, and why “don’t be a dick” is more than a joke, it’s an operating system. Jason shares how standards create winning without chasing winning, how simplifying structures builds confidence, and how outreach and scholarships remove barriers so any kid can belong. If you care about coaching culture, youth rugby, leadership, and growing the game in the US, this one’s packed with ideas you can steal. Subscribe, share this with a coach who needs it, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway. Send us Fan Mail Silverfern Sports If you need great rugby gear, Silverfern are the best. Innovative high quality rugby kit. [email protected] Support the show Subscribe and Share, it makes a massive difference! Appreciation in advance.

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 that your upbringing is a default pattern, not a destiny and that real agency starts when you decide what you’ll keep. We connect that to leadership development and coaching, where the goal isn’t creating clones, but giving people room to build their own “Lego tower” of skills, habits, and beliefs.  Then we tackle the “T” in can’t. I talk through how one small language shift from “I can’t” to “I haven’t learned yet” changes everything, from public speaking and confidence to leading teams, having hard conversations, and learning the craft of leadership. Finally, we zoom out to purpose and time: don’t let society write your timetable. If you won the lottery tomorrow, what would you do and would it look anything like your current life?  If this resonates, subscribe, share it with someone you lead or coach, and leave a review with the lesson you’re choosing to inherit. Send us Fan Mail Silverfern Sports If you need great rugby gear, Silverfern are the best. Innovative high quality rugby kit. [email protected] Support the show Subscribe and Share, it makes a massive difference! Appreciation in advance.

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.  We get practical about coaching culture, too. Alfredo shares simple behaviors that scale, like treating every player as a person first and making it a non-negotiable that coaches learn every name. We also unpack what it takes to run a huge amateur program like a real organization, aligning dozens of volunteer coaches, coordinating professional medical staff, and creating routines that keep people connected, including late-night trainings and the legendary Thursday barbecue that turns “team bonding” into real life.  Then we go to the hard place: losing seven semifinals and finals by one point. Alfredo breaks down how purpose bigger than results and commitment to process kept Newman growing until the championship finally arrived, plus the long-term selection decisions that prioritize the future over short-term fixes. We finish with an honest look at ego and leadership, including what it means to step aside so the team can thrive. If you care about leadership, team culture, and sustainable player development, you’ll take notes from this one.  Subscribe for more conversations on coaching and culture, share this with a coach or captain who needs it, and leave a review if it helps. What’s one small behavior you’ve seen that instantly builds belonging on a team? Send us Fan Mail Silverfern Sports If you need great rugby gear, Silverfern are the best. Innovative high quality rugby kit. [email protected] Support the show Subscribe and Share, it makes a massive difference! Appreciation in advance.

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 clear view of what professional rugby actually demands. We dig into the nuts and bolts: how the season structure works, what “elite player” means, and why facility investment, S&C, physio support, and coaching time are not luxuries, they are the foundation. Ross shares what has changed most over two decades, including the rise of agents at school games and the growing need to educate parents and players about realistic timelines, selection, and rejection. The heart of the conversation is culture and holistic development. Euros lays out the standards he cares about most: education first, professionalism, punctuality, discipline, integrity, and resilience. We talk late developers, why the journey is rarely linear, and why “don’t write yourself off at 16” is not motivational fluff, it is a practical truth backed by real careers. If you care about schoolboy rugby, player welfare, leadership, and building a sustainable high performance pathway, this one will stick with you. Subscribe, share this with a coach or parent, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway. Send us Fan Mail Silverfern Sports If you need great rugby gear, Silverfern are the best. Innovative high quality rugby kit. [email protected] Support the show Subscribe and Share, it makes a massive difference! Appreciation in advance.

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 the bigger vision behind the Heritage Cup, a new annual fixture that pairs British and Irish Expat Rugby with the Pacific Warriors to celebrate the heritage that shapes Australian rugby every weekend. Dan shares what it means to create unity across different backgrounds, how you build a “we” fast with limited prep time, and why exposure through live streaming can be a game-changer for semi-pro talent across the Shoot Shield and beyond.  The most human part of the story is what happens off the field: cold outreach for sponsors, self-funding before there’s proof, juggling the stress of launch while raising a newborn, and learning the hard way about the admin nobody warns you about. We close with the charity partnership with Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY), honoring Dan’s mate Max Oliver, and why purpose makes the grind worth it. If you enjoy conversations on leadership, team culture, grassroots rugby, and building community through sport, hit subscribe, share this with a rugby friend, and leave us a review. Send us Fan Mail Silverfern Sports If you need great rugby gear, Silverfern are the best. Innovative high quality rugby kit. [email protected] Support the show Subscribe and Share, it makes a massive difference! Appreciation in advance.