The Rugby Coach's Corner Podcast

Jonny McMurtry is originally from Northern Ireland and is now based permanently in Brisbane, Australia. He has been involved in numerous coaching roles since 2010, including junior club, colts, as well as Queensland and ARU age grade programmes such as the Junior Reds and Junior Gold. He is also heading up a study through the University of Queensland that looks at the needs of adolescent elite rugby players. On top of this, Jonny runs an excellent blog titled Coaching the Coaches - Website: https://www.coachingthecoaches.net/ Twitter: @coachingcoach_

Charlie Morgan is a rugby reporter at Telegraph Media Group Limited in the UK and has been in that role for almost 2 years. Before that, he was a freelance writer and was also an assistant editor for the RFU for 4 years. In this episode, we discuss some of the playing trends that he has observed during the 2018 end of year tours and how they will move into the 6 Nations and RWC 2019.Twitter: @CharlieFelix

Francois Ratier is the Technical Director for Rugby Quebec in Canada. Born and raised in France, he played in the French Championship for SC Angouleme where he also coached their under 20s team. Shortly after, he relocated to Canada and has had various coaching roles in club, university, provincial elite, regional elite, and age-grade national. His most recent roles have been with the Canadian national women’s team as head coach for 2 World Cups and the Canadian national men’s team as interim head coach.Twitter: @FrancoisRatier

Daniel Ritchie is the Director of Rugby at Brisbane State High School in Queensland, Australia. He spent his playing days at Norths Rugby Club in Brisbane as well as a few years at Falkirk Rugby Club in Scotland and a 1 year stint as a player/coach for Meraloma Rugby Club in Vancouver, Canada. Along with his coaching and teaching duties at BSHS, he was manager of the Brisbane City U19 team that won the inaugural 2018 URC National U19 carnival.Twitter: @RitchieDan9

Chris Silverthorn is the head coach of the Ontario Blues in Canada and has held that position for 8 years. He is also the head coach for one of Major League Rugby’s potential newest franchises, the Ontario Arrows. Along with these roles, he has been involved with the Canadian senior men, Canada A, Canada U17 and U19, as well as some age-grade representative coaching with Ontario.

Dan Cottrell is the Editor of Rugby Coach Weekly and comes with 25 years of coaching experience.Originally a teacher, he took on the Rugby Coach Weekly role full time in 2005 and now mixes it with coach education, tutoring, and coaching. He has had roles with age-grade rugby in Surrey and the Ospreys region, along with an assistant coach role with the Welsh Women.Twitter: @Dan_CottrellWebsite: www.rugbycoachweekly.net

Nick Leah was formerly in charge of the Brumbies Academy for a number of years and has held numerous development roles with the organisation since 2011. Outside of the Brumbies, he’s had coaching roles with the Kubota Spears in Japan, the Melbourne Rebels, and University of Queensland among others. Nick holds a Bachelor of Coaching Science from the University of Canberra and is now the General Manager of Ignite Rugby, along with Mick Byrne and Rod Kafer.Email: [email protected]

Dan van Zyl played for the Springboks between 1997 and 2000, captaining the midweek side on various occasions. He also played both professional Rugby and Cricket in SA and UK. Dan moved to Ireland 16 years ago to start a career in coaching and worked at Leinster for 11 years in Coach and Player Development. He’s coached Leinster u18, 19s and Women's teams, Irish Youths and Irish Universities, and is a World Rugby Coach Educator. He’s recently started up a business called Rugby Academy Ireland.This episode is brought to you by Bula Boots. If you are a UK-based rugby club, please assist this amazing charity to continue their excellent work in the Serua Province of Fiji. For more details on how you can help, please go to: https://www.bulaboots.com/Dan van Zyl:Twitter https://twitter.com/vanzyl_danRugby Academy Ireland:Website http://rugbyacademyireland.ie/Twitter https://twitter.com/academy_irelandEmail [email protected]

Matthew Taylor is the defence coach for Scotland. He is a 46 year old father of two, former flanker who played in Australia and Scotland with clubs such as Souths, Sunnybank, Edinburgh and Borders. He started coaching at Exeter Chiefs in 2005 then went home to coach in Australia at Sunnybank Rugby Club and The Southport School. This led to working with the QLD REDS and following 2013, Matt returned to Scotland to coach with the Glasgow Warriors and the Scotland National team.

Richard Shuttleworth has over 20 years coach education and support experience in elite level sport, focusing on skill acquisition. He has worked at the Australian Institute of Sport with Olympic level coaches, various national sporting organisations, Super Rugby franchises, the NRL, Football Federation Australia and Australian Rules clubs. He was the Professional Coach Development Manager for the RFU for 4 years before moving into his latest role as a High Performance Coach Development Consultant. Richard has a BSc in Coaching Science, a MSc in Sport Psychology and a PhD in Skill Acquisition.Twitter: @skillacq

Rameses Langston is based in Vancouver, Canada, and is the head coach of the University of British Columbia men’s rugby team. His home club is Capilano RFC, and he has had coaching roles in schools, junior age-grade, and senior club. He’s a father of 3, a teacher and an Athletic Director.

Barry Maddocks is the Skills Coach at the Welsh Pro 14 club, the Dragons and I recently met him there on a professional development trip. Previously Barry worked at Bath, where he was responsible for the management of senior academy players as they transitioned into the senior squad, as well as supporting senior coaches with technical and tactical delivery. He was also the former head coach for the England Women’s 7s team.Twitter: @barrymad

Ross Munro Williams is from South Africa and started coaching rugby at age 19. He has been involved with every age group, from U7s at school to adult Super League A, club, and Varsity Cup U20s. He owns 2 businesses, is currently the U21 coach at the University of Cape Town and runs a coaching blog titled Ross Rugby.Twitter: @RossRugby Blog article mentioned in the show: https://rossrugby.co.za/2017/09/after-10-years-of-coaching-heres-what-i-think-i-know/

Will Precious is the head video analyst at the Welsh Pro 14 team the Dragons who I met during a recent professional development trip. After completing a Sports Science degree from Brunel University in London, Will went on to work as an analyst with the Ospreys in the first season of regional rugby. From there, here worked with the Welsh U21 and then U20 sides before taking on the Dragons role.

Nate Osborne originally hails from Queanbeyan in Australia where he played a lot of his rugby in Canberra as part of the Brumby Runners. After moving to the US, he’s had coaching roles with Metropolis RFC in Minnesota, the USA Eagles as backs coach for the 2015 RWC, and was recently named as the head coach for NOLA Gold, based out of New Orleans.David Williams is the head coach of the Glendale Raptors. Originally from England, he played for both the USA Eagles 7s and 15s teams. Between 2006 and 2015, David was the head strength coach for USA Rugby Men's national teams, and skill and assistant coach for the men's 7's team for some of that time. He was assistant head coach for the Denver Stampede, in the PRO Rugby competition, who were winners of the 2016 season. He’s been the head coach of the Glendale raptors since then.Twitter: @Daviewilliams9

Mark Bennett is a British Commando and has been involved in coach development since the early 90’s. His business, Performance Development Systems (PDS), began out of his work in “training the trainer” courses for the military. From this experience, Mark left the military to focus on his business full time. Mark believes in a practitioner-based approach to maximise real-world performance and PDS has worked with England Rugby, Bath Rugby, Warrington Wolves RL, NBA teams, the British Military, along with a host of schools, universities and businesses. He was honoured with a Member of the British Empire in 2006.Website: https://www.pdscoaching.com/Email: [email protected]: https://twitter.com/PDScoachLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markb5/

This episode will be the first of a series on coaches involved in the new Major League Rugby (MLR) competition starting up in the US for 2018. Curry Hitchborn is no stranger to the podcast, as he was guest number 10 of #TRCCP and is the first to rejoin the show. He was recently announced as the new Director of Rugby Development at the Seattle Seawolves.Twitter: @CurryHitchborn Tony Healy is a former Canadian national player, receiving 15 caps in the late 90’s. Professionally, he played for Bordeaux, Bayonne, and Mosley RFC to name a few. He was the BC Bears head coach in their undefeated 2017 CRC campaign and has also had roles with Canada U20, James Bay, and Brentwood HS. He’s going to be the head coach for the Seattle Seawolves in 2018.Twitter: @arah1707

Dr Nick Winkelman has been the Head of Athletic Performance and Science at the IRFU since April, 2016. Before that he held various roles at EXOS in the United States. Initially, he completed his Bachelors in Exercise and Sports Science at Oregan State and then undertook a Masters in Strength and Conditioning at Edith Cowan University and a Doctorate at Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions. He is certified through the NSCA, the USA Weightlifting Association and the USA Track and Field Association and is an internationally recognised speaker and author on topics pertaining to skill acquisition, coaching science, movement skill development, and athletic profiling.Twitter: @NickWinkelmanArticles:https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313368925_Experience_level_influences_the_effect_of_attentional_focus_on_sprint_performancehttps://www.researchgate.net/publication/311780294_Attentional_Focus_and_Cueing_for_Speed_Development

Simon Thomas is the Head of Physical Performance at the BNZ Crusaders in Super Rugby and has been a full time S&C coach in rugby for ten years. He’s had involvements with the Tasman Makos, Canterbury Academies, NPC teams and two U20 World Rugby Championships with New Zealand. He began his career as a volunteer with the Crusaders in 2005 and now heads up the physical performance programme, consults across various rugby teams, sporting organisations and business.Twitter: @stsandc

Will Webster is the assistant coach for the Kenya men's 7s team on the HSBC world series and just finished his 1st year with the group. Will went to Kenya in 2014 as Director of Sport at Kenton College Preparatory School, coached several clubs in Kenya's top-flight league as a skills coach, defence coach, and then as a head coach. His playing career involved stints at U.S. Oyonnax in France, the Western Province Institute of Rugby, and he was also a member of the Exeter Chiefs Academy.Twitter: @willowebbos

David Wessels is the Head Coach of the Western Force, who finished 2nd in the Australian Conference of this year’s Super Rugby competition. He started coaching Under 9’s as soon as he left school and worked his way up for there. He won the Varsity Cup in South Africa with the University of Cape Town, coached with Jake White in his first year at the Brumbies, and then joined the Western Force in 2013 as a defence coach, before being promoted to senior assistant coach and then head coach for the 2017 season.Twitter: @DaveWessels

Damian McGrath is the head coach of the Canadian Men’s 7s team, who finished 8th in the World Rugby standings for the 2016-17 season. Born in Yorkshire, England, he played and coached professional rugby league, both for the Leeds Rhinos and England (Coaching) before Sir Clive Woodward offered him the opportunity to cross codes in 2001. After this, he had multiple roles with England, Leicester, Spain, Wales, Samoa and now Canada.Twitter: @mcgrath_damian

Andy Evans is a strength and conditioning consultant based in British Columbia, Canada. He holds a Bachelor of Human Kinetics and is currently completing a Masters in High Performance Coaching and Technical Leadership, both at UBC. He was the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at Rugby Canada for 2013 to 2016, and prepared the senior men’s team for the 2015 Rugby World Cup. He recently created Strength School, with the goal to establish a way to help any athlete, anywhere, with affordable and effective training programs. Website: https://www.strengthschool.ca/Twitter: https://twitter.com/AndyEvans_SSBronco video with the Chiefs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgTCk3rb_gg

Russell Earnshaw is an International Performance Coach. He is currently involved with the England U18 program and works for the RFU, providing support to coaches throughout England. Russell also coached England 7’s for 7 years. His playing career was with Bath, where they won the 1998 European Cup, and he also represented England in 7’s at the 1998 Comm Games. On top of that, he taught economics at Eastbourne College for 2 years.Email: [email protected]: @russellearnshaw360 rugby video: http://bit.ly/2qBfwE6

Nick Hill is a former professional player of 9 years with Northampton Saints, Exeter Chiefs, Bedford Blues and Nuneaton, and also represented England U19 in the 1999 Junior World Cup. Being a rugby coach for 17 years and PE teacher for 15 years, Nick has worked in schools and clubs where he has coached players from 8 years old through to 58 years old in both the northern and southern hemisphere.Website: http://nickhillcoaching.com/Twitter: @NH_Coaching_

Paul Clarke is the coach-in-chief with Match-Fit Ireland, a company that looks to integrate all performance elements into every coaching session in order to cater for holistic player development in terms of an athlete’s physical, mental, technical and tactical needs. He also operates the European arm of VX Sport, which is an athlete monitoring system used by some of the world’s leading teams to help drive performance-based decision-making.Paul is also a technical and tactical Gaelic Football coach in Ireland who has a passion for rugby.Website: www.matchfitireland.com Facebook: http://bit.ly/2o40dH0Twitter: @matchfitirelandInstagram: matchfitirlEmail: [email protected]: "Ready? There is no substitute" http://bit.ly/2l8axt2YouTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyZGXwa2bBIShane Horgan crossfield kick receipts: http://bit.ly/2kZccja

Philippe Saint-André. Philippe is a former national player for France and earned 69 test caps between 1990 and 1997, mostly on the wing. After retiring, Philippe went into coaching, starting at Gloucester, who he also played professionally for. He then moved to Sale, where they won the Challenge Cup and Premiership title, after which, he returned to France to lead Toulon for 2 years before taking over as French national coach until the 2015 RWC. He now spends a lot of his time heading up PSA Academies, which the Tignes Rugby Academy in France is a part of.PSA Academies:Website: www.psaacademies.comTwitter: https://twitter.com/PSAAcademiesPhilippe Saint-André:Twitter: https://twitter.com/PSaintAndre

Murray Kinsella is a sports journalist based in Ireland who writes extensively about the technical aspects of rugby. He works primarily with The42.ie, a news source for Irish sports fans, but has also worked with TV3, Eir Sport and The Rugby Site. His analysis work is a great resource for rugby coaches around the world.Twitter: @Murray_Kinsella

Daniel O’Brien hails from Australia originally and is just finishing up as the attack, defence and backs coach for the Coca Cola Red Sparks in Japan’s top league. He has held numerous coaching roles in the Canterbury region of New Zealand, Dublin, Ireland and Brisbane, Australia and continues in his pursuit as a full time professional coach.Twitter: @obie_22

Bernard Jackman is the head coach at FC Grenoble in France and has been with the club in a variety of roles since 2012. During his time with the club, they have been promoted from Pro D2 to the Top 14 to where they now have the 4th best attack in the league. Considering the club’s available budget and access to national players, this is a considerable achievement. His professional playing career include 9 caps with Ireland and 4 with Ireland A, along with stints with Leinster, Connacht and Sale. He played under coaches such as Declan Kidney, Warren Gatland, Michael Cheika, Alan Gaffney to name a few.

Stuart Lierich is a specialist kicking coach from Australia and comes from an Aussie Rules background. After a semi-professional playing career, he began coaching with a VFL team and really connected with the process. With a keen interest in Kick/Catch, Stu then found himself in Rugby Union and Rugby League after moving to Brisbane 15 years ago. He’s now with the NEC Green Rockets Rugby in Japan’s Top League and was recently appointed as the Account Manager Aus/NZ for Coach Logic.Contact details:Twitter - https://twitter.com/stuartlierichEmail - [email protected] (mentioned in the episode) - http://bit.ly/2kNIbao

Scott Allen is the assistant coach for the Wallaroos, the Australian Women’s Rugby team, and is currently in the midst of their 2017 WRWC campaign preparations, which will take place in Ireland during August. He’s had previous senior coaching roles with the University of Queensland and was also a prominent analyst on The Roar website and Green and Gold Podcast.

Dr. Wade Gilbert holds degrees in physical education, human kinetics, and education and has taught and studied coaching at the University of Ottawa (Canada), UCLA, and Fresno State. He has more than 20 years of experience in conducting applied research with coaches around the world spanning all competitive levels, from youth leagues to the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games. He is widely published, including his recent book Coaching Better Every Season (Human Kinetics) and is frequently invited to speak at national and international events. Gilbert is Editor-in-Chief of the International Sport Coaching Journal and is a regular contributor to coaching seminars for Olympic and national team coaches in the United States and Canada.Book:http://www.humankinetics.com/products/all-products/coaching-better-every-seasonHuman Kinetics Coach Education Centre: http://www.asep.com/theCoachDoc.cfm?International Sport Coaching Journal:http://journals.humankinetics.com/journal/iscjInternational Journal of Sports Science and Coaching:http://journals.sagepub.com/home/spo

Nathan Parnham is a Sydney-based S&C coach whose goal is to inspire others to achieve their personal best and aims to positively impact his athletes’ lives everyday that he goes into work.He is the Director of Strength and Conditioning at Newington College in Sydney, which is a member of the GPS, where he oversees the programming for senior rugby.In this episode, we discuss how Nathan and his S&C staff at Newington College embrace the LTAD model when it comes to physically preparing their high school rugby players - who are also multi-sport athletes - from grade 7 through to 12. Website: https://nathanparnham.com/Twitter: @NathanParnham

Ray is the PRO Rugby San Diego Head Coach and originally hails from Ireland where he developed his rugby at Cresent College School and Young Munsters RFC. He then moved to England to attend Loughborough University where he continued playing but also coached the University’s women’s side. After university he returned to Ireland and began working for the IRFU and Munster as an S&C coach, and later as an Elite Player Development Coach. He has had coaching roles with Munster and Ireland underage and senior teams and began coaching Belmont Shore RFC when he moved to the US with his wife. He now heads up PRO San Diego and is also involved with the Eagle Selects.Along with being married with 3 boys, Luke Gross is the Head Coach of the Sacramento Express PRO Rugby Team and took that position on after 7 years working for USA Rugby in numerous roles. Luke arrived relatively late to rugby, at age 24, after a university basketball career, and went on to be awarded 62 caps for the USA, which included 3 World Cups and a 12 year professional career in Europe. http://www.prorugby.org/

John Lavery is the Rugby Canada U19 forwards coach and has had numerous roles coaching both men and women. Whether it’s high school, university, senior club, age-grade regional, national and senior women, Lav’s made some great contributions to the game over the past 10 years. Links mentioned in our conversation; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS-xlNEab-whttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTsHmqbQLM4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pPLi3vNlPs

John Alder hails from Gloucester, UK and comes from a rugby family who passionately support the Cherry & Whites. John was a junior international player, Gloucester academy member and then played senior rugby at the Exeter Chiefs before being forced to retire young, at 23, following a niggling shoulder injury. John has since established himself as an international coach developer who brings experience in crafting and delivering leadership and learning solutions to coaches and sport organisations around the world. He worked extensively with New Zealand Rugby League and, during that time, completed a PhD in High Performance Sport Management with a particular focus upon culture-driven leadership and change. John is currently the Talent & Performance Coaching Manager at sports coach UK.Twitter: @LeadCulturallyNSSU-ICCE Coach Developer Programmes: https://cda.nittai.ac.jp/program/index.html

Kieran Crowley was born and raised in Taranaki, New Zealand where he played 200 first class games for that province. He was an All Black between 1983-1991 and lifted the very first Webb Ellis Cup in 1987. He has coached professionally since 1998, which involved 9 years with Taranaki, including 2 with New Zealand’s u-20, and then 8 years with the Canadian men’s side. He has recently relocated to Treviso in Italy to take on the head coaching role at Benetton Rugby.

Dr. Starrett is the author of the New York Times bestseller Becoming a Supple Leopard, which has revolutionized how coaches, athletes, and everyday humans approach movement and athletic performance. He is a co-founder of San Francisco CrossFit and the website MobilityWOD.com, where he shares his innovative approach to movement, mechanics, and mobility. He travels around the world teaching his wildly popular Movement & Mobility Course and works with elite athletes from the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB, and has also worked with a number of professional rugby clubs, including the Harlequins. He believes that every human being should know how to move and be able to perform basic maintenance on themselves.https://www.mobilitywod.com/http://playrugbyusa.com/http://www.xptlife.com/

Natascha Wesch is Assistant Professor at Western University Faculty of Health Sciences and a Mental Performance Consultant in private practice. She was a Canadian Senior Women's National team athlete, from 1992-2002. Towards the end of her playing career, Natascha was Canadian Junior Women's National team head coach and then moved into the Canadian Senior Women's 7's team head coach for 3 years. She coached Western University Women's Rugby team for 22 years and retired from that role last season to focus time and energy on family and her private practice in Performance Psychology Consulting. She holds a PhD in Sport Psychology, Masters in Counselling Psychology, Masters in Exercise Biochemistry, and Bachelors in Exercise Science.Below are the resources mentioned in the show;http://www.elitemindperformance.com/resources.htmlhttps://www.facebook.com/elitemindperformance/?nrhttp://www.ausport.gov.au/ais/performance_support/psychology/brainwaves

Jake Schuster is an American strength coach who is currently completing his PhD in New Zealand. He is looking at how to best train speed in 7's and worked very closely with the New Zealand women's 7's team, the Black Ferns.He has worked with Cressey Performance in the U.S. and the Netherlands Olympic Federation, as well as various other roles in the Germany and the U.K.Jake is the host of the Well Traveled Wellness podcast and can be be found via @W_T_Wellness and @CoolHandJakeGS

In this episode, I continue my conversation with Keir about pre-season programming. He discusses in detail blocks 2, 3 and 4 and we explore some concepts around triphasic training at the end.

This episode is based on a consultation call that I did with Keir to programme the S&C needs of a representative side that I coached this year. It's not your regular podcast but provides a good theoretical blueprint for those interested in the field, as well as the solo head coach who needs to be a Jack of all trades.

Jocelyn Barrieau is the head coach for Rugby Quebec's Women's 7's programmes. She’s a stalwart of rugby in that region and has assisted in the development of countless female rugby players. Having played 7’s for Canada in 2007 when the programme was initially set up, she has continued to play and coach both 15’s and 7’s, with the primary goal being to help young women represent their country. Check out #LeanInTogether which is mentioned in the interview.

Originally from Edinburgh, Scotland, where he played and worked for Currie RFC in Scottish Premier Division, Graeme moved to Canada in 2010 to be Director of Rugby for the Calgary Hornets, spending 4 seasons with the club. He then moved into his current role of Director of Rugby for Rugby Alberta. He is the head coach of the Prairie Wolf Pack, who are the current CRC Champions and has had roles with Canada as U20 Assistant coach, Senior Men’s skill’s coach at the 2015 RWC and attack coach Canada in 2016 Americas Rugby Championship.

Ben Darwin played Super Rugby with the Brumbies and is a former Wallaby who received 28 caps before retiring after a neck injury. He's had coaching roles with Northern Suburbs in Sydney, Western Force, Shining Arcs and Suntory in Japan, and the Melbourne Rebels.After coaching, Ben went on to start the company Gain Line in 2013 which is involved in developing predictive models and understanding why some teams not only win, but win consistently.http://www.gainline.biz/

Michael Cheika is the head coach of the Wallabies and became a coach after a successful playing career with Randwick, where he played over 300 games, including 7 Shute Shield victories and a few stints in Europe. He started his coaching career in Italy and then returned to Randwick for several seasons before heading to Leinster for a very successful 5 years, guiding them to their first ever European title in 2009. After a period of time at Stade Francais, Michael took over the head coaching role at the NSW Waratahs, who won the Super 15 title during his second year in charge. He’s currently preparing the Wallabies for their upcoming encounters against England and the 2016 Rugby Championship.

Joe Payton is the Player Development Manager for the Hawkes Bay Rugby Football Union in New Zealand. Having been in the role for over 7 years, Joe is also involved as the defence technical adviser for the Hawkes Bay Magpies in the ITM Cup. On top of this, he’s one of the key people involved in the Hawkes Bay Rugby Global Academy. He’s had numerous coaching and analyst roles with the NZRFU, Hurricanes Development, Samoa, NZ U20 and more.For more information on the academy go to http://www.rugbyacademy.nz/

Tyler is based in Toronto, Canada, and is head coach and director of the academy Upright Rugby. He played rugby for 15 years in Canada and Australia, as well as some time with the Canadian Classics. He started coaching when he was 20 and has been involved in school, club and university rugby ever since. He now dedicates his time to Upright Rugby and its player development programme, where he specialises in skill acquisition assessment and refinement.

David Joyce is a sports physiotherapist as well as a certified strength coach. He has had roles lecturing on the Masters of S&C at Edith Cowan University, Australia, as well as the Masters of Sports Physiotherapy course at the University of Bath, UK. Previously, he was Chief Physiotherapist and Performance Specialist for the Chinese Olympic Team, Head of Athletic Performance at the Western Force in the Super Rugby competition and is now the Head of Integrated High Performance Unit at the AFL club, Greater Western Sydney Giants.