Christian Leali'ifano is an Australian professional rugby player. He currently plays for the Brumbies in Super Rugby and Toyota Jido Shokki in the Japanese Top League and his usual position is inside centre or fly-half. In this episode we cover:  Chrisitan's role in dictating how he has led both the Brumbies and the Wallabies around the park and how to navigate the pressure of international rugby as a game driver His experiences with some of the Wallaby greats and his first experiences...

Mike Harris is a professional rugby player for Toshiba Brave Lupus in Japan's Top League. He has also been capped ten times for Australia. Harris began his career in 2007 with North Harbour in New Zealand's ITM Cup before moving to Australia in 2011. He played for the Queensland Reds and Melbourne Rebels in Super Rugby and then joined French club Lyon for two seasons from late 2016.  Mike is an eternal student of the game and in this podcast, you learn why. This podcast covers some real...

Just like Matt Dunning’s 2003 drop goal that left him in the rugby halls of fame as the first prop to slot a drop goal from 30 metres out this podcast delivers as much value if not more. Peter dives into the Rugby Bricks archives to find the top 10 pieces of passing advice from previous guests. From the world’s best number 9 Aaron Smith through to Olympic Gold Medalist coach Ben Ryan and everyone in between this is the best podcast we’ve made yet.   Here’s what we’re tackling: 10...

Will Greenwood is an English former rugby union player who played for Leicester Tigers and Harlequins and played 55 tests for England and was the centre for the 2003 World Cup-winning team and is our first repeat guest on the Rugby Bricks podcast. Will is a Sky Sports commentator and sports journalist for The Guardian having written over 1.5 M words for the publication on the game of rugby. He’s in the midst of publishing and writing his own book with his co-author Ben Fennell.  Will is a...

Mike Cron first began working fulltime with the All Blacks in 2004 and after many years as the All Blacks Scrum Coach, moved into a wider role as the Forwards Coach in 2012. Mike has been coaching since 1982 and is recognised as one of the most innovative and respected coaches in the world.  Mike has now retired from coaching the All Blacks forwards and is now focusing on creating a mentoring platform for young players and coaches who are coming through the ranks. This is the first time Mike...

Abby Gustaitis is an American rugby union player. She debuted for the United States against France in 2016. She was selected for the squad to the 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup in Ireland. Abby is currently working on her game during COVID-19 as she looks to the possibility of the Olympics Games in Tokyo, next year. Similar to Abby this episode had everything, here's what we covered:  How Abby is making the most of lockdown and the core skills she's been developing when you're not allowed at...

Otere Black plays as a first five-eight for Manawatu in the Mitre 10 Cup, Blues in Super Rugby Aotearoa and Maori All Blacks and someone I had the opportunity to play at the end of my playing days.  Otere is currently leading the top of the table Blues around the park as the starting first five-eighth and has been a standout this season. Just like Otere, this episode was classy and here's what we cover:  How Otere learns from Dan Carter and how this has allowed him to view the game ...

Will Greenwood is an English former rugby union player who played for Leicester Tigers and Harlequins and played 55 tests for England and was the centre for the 2003 World Cup-winning team. Will is now a Sky Sports commentator and sports journalist for The Guardian having written over 1.5 M words for the publication on the game of rugby.  This episode was just class. Will is an excellent storyteller, succinct copywriter and master craftsmen when it comes to communication. In this episode we...

In this episode, we go deep on the upcoming Detail series that is coming Rugby Bricks followers and a fireside chat with Aaron Smith.  One of the missing links I've found in rugby is the attention to detail. Some of the best in the world are making half centimetre adjustment to their hand position or ball drop and as a community, we've been missing this. This is where our new long-form content series "DETAIL" enters the picture, we're creating a subscription site that is based on bringing...

In this episode, we go deep with Australian Wallaby utility back Matt Toomua.  Toomua is an Australian rugby union player who has played over 35 times for Australia since 2013. He plays for the Melbourne Rebels in Super Rugby and his usual position is at fly-half or 2nd-five. He has previously played for the Brumbies and for Leicester Tigers in England's Premiership Rugby. In this episode we cover:  The business of rugby and Toomua's representation of Union players in the restructuring...

In this episode, we go deep on performance anxiety with sports psychologist Devin Markle.  Devin has experience working with athletes at every level, from youth development programs, high school, and college through to Olympic and pro-athletes. She's developed curriculums for the NFL and the NBA Pre-Draft programs.  Devin earned her Master’s degree in Counseling and Sport Psychology from Boston University. Following her training at Boston University, Devin earned certification by the...

Janet Main is a physiotherapist and strength and conditioning coach working out of Kinematics Performance here in Melbourne. Jay has worked with professional athletes nationally and internationally.  In this episode we cover a return play after COVID:   How to run so that you're carrying yourself with the appropriate back mechanics  How to prime your muscles and the key exercises to do this  Your most likely injury areas and how to remedy this before returning to practice and play ...

Stephen Larkham is a retired Australian rugby union player and World Rugby Hall of Famer, currently in the role of senior coach for Irish provincial side Munster, who compete in the Pro14. Larkham has been recognised as one of the best first-fives to play for Australia and during his peak, he was one of the best in the world at 10. This mastery has now been channelled into his rugby his coaching game and was one of the reasons behind the success of the Wallabies in the 2015 Rugby World Cup...

Jesse Kriel is a South African professional rugby union player for the South Africa national team and Canon Eagles in the Japanese Top League. He is a utility back who can play centre, wing or fullback. Jesse has played 46 test matches for the Springboks and was a part of their Rugby World Cup-winning squad in 2019.   This episode was simply special we get everything from World Cup practices to Jessie’s own examination of the micro-skills of the game. We cover:    Jesse’s drive to get...

Ben Ryan is an English rugby union coach who is best known for coaching the Fiji sevens team to a gold medal in sevens rugby at the 2016 Rio Olympics. As Fiji's sevens coach from 2013 to 2016, he guided the team to their first-ever Dubai 7's title and set the record of tournament titles won by a Fiji Sevens coach with nine. The gold medal was the first-ever medal won by Fiji at any Olympics.  Fiji is one of the most underfunded and under-resourced countries on the planet and in this episode...

Andy Ellis is a halfback who was previously playing for the Kobelco Steelers until COVID-19 hit. Ellis has played for Canterbury, then the Crusaders and made 28 appearances for the All Blacks.  This episode was special. We get a look at what it was like for Andy to play alongside some of the greats of the game from Dan Carter and Richie McCaw and how the Crusaders culture is built with legends like Justin Marshall and Reuben Thorne. We get some nuggets on:  What it means to have a...

Bryn Hall is New Zealand Half Back who has played 89 Super Rugby Caps earning the majority of these at the Super Rugby franchise The Crusaders. Hall has played for NZ Under 17's, captained the NZ Under 20's and has played 3 games for NZ Māori.  This is one of the most detail orientated podcasts we've had and is filled with gold that you can use during this lockdown period. In this episode, you're going to get an in-depth look into:  The skill work and attention to detail and training that...

This episode of the Rugby Bricks podcast is a bit different. I'm joined by my business partner Kale Panoho who takes on the role of interviewer and we cover:  How to deal with the lack of rugby right now physically and psychologically How coaches and athletes that have lost their livelihoods can pivot to improve their skills  Where we're headed at Rugby Bricks and the future of the business during this time  How to grow your own Instagram and build a business around the game of...

Charlotte Caslick is a member of the Australian Women's Rugby Sevens Team. The team reaching the pinnacle when they won Gold in the Rio summer Olympics in 2016.   Caslick is a key member of the team has established herself as one of the best rugby sevens players in the world winning World Rugby Sevens Player of the year in 2016. In this episode of the podcast, we discuss: What it takes to be a world-class sevens player and how he made the transition from age group touch rugby at 16 years...

Perry Baker is a member of the USA Eagles 7's and the highest-scoring American rugby sevens player having scored over 200 tries in Rugby 7's. Baker has established himself as one of the best rugby sevens players in the world and has won the World Rugby Sevens Player of the year award alongside being named in the World Series Dream team in 2017 and 2018.  In this episode of the podcast, we get the nitty-gritty details on:  What it takes to be a world-class sevens player and how he made the...

Henry Bates is a talent-manager at Halo Sport who represents and advises athletes and coaches on a wide range of on and off-field matters and specialise in contract negotiation, player placement (both in NZ and overseas), sponsorship, commercial matters and judicial/misconduct procedures. In this episode, Pete goes deep with Henry on:  What a talent agency actually does and how to locate and work with one  What it looks like for players in the first four to five years after being...

Annika is a rugby player currently campaigning with the Melbourne Rebels in the Super W. Annika loves playing rugby almost as much as she loves having a yarn.  Annika has a double degree in Law and Arts, a Diploma of Legal Practice and is admitted as a Solicitor by the NSW Supreme Court. More recently, she has spent 3 years in corporate development and marketing for a Newcastle based spatial data analytics company. In her free time, Annika throws her energy into social media projects and...

Tamati Ellison is a rugby union player who has played rugby across all forms of the union code. He was chosen as one of four new caps for the All Blacks 2009 end of year tour to Europe. As well as the All Blacks, Junior All Blacks and the New Zealand Maori, he played for the New Zealand Sevens and was a part of the New Zealand Sevens team that won a gold medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.  In this episode, Tamati shares:  What it's like to grow up in a low...

Kees Meeuws is a former professional rugby player with a career spanning 20 years representing the All Blacks, Highlanders, Blues and three-seasons in France. Meeuws was seen as one of the toughest props in the game and was a figure-head for New Zealand Rugby with his time at the All Blacks from 1998 - 2004. His physical style of play and uncompromising ability to dominate his opposition in the scrum was the cornerstone of his game. A strong connection to Maori culture meant he had a...

Mike Friday is a former national representative for England sevens and has coached England, Kenya and the United States sevens team. Friday's work as a head coach has led Kenya and the US to their best performances in the HSBC World Rugby Sevens series. The U.S. and Friday began the 2015–16 Series by "shocking the world" when it defeated New Zealand for the first time at 2015 Dubai Sevens. The team beat the 12-time World Series champion in pool play and again in the tournament's...