Who’s Coaching You? Inside the Elite Coaches Tour of Japan

It's the question Ben Herring puts to every coach on most episodes of the Coaching Culture podcast, and it's the reason the Elite Coaches Tour of Japan has been curated. Coaches spend their careers demanding growth from their players, then quietly stop investing in their own. This December, that changes.

From 3rd – 13th December 2026, a small group of ambitious rugby coaches will spend ten days inside Japanese rugby with two of the game's most formidable figures: Sir Gordon Tietjens, Commonwealth Games gold medallist and widely regarded as the most successful Sevens coach in history, and Matt Cockbain, World Cup winner, 63-Test Wallaby, and a coach with seven years' experience inside the Japanese game.

There is no other rugby coaching development tour like it. Not in Japan. Not anywhere.

Why Japan?

Japan isn't just a rugby hotbed, it's known as a rugby ecosystem unlike anything you've experienced. Centuries of cultural distinctiveness have produced a game built on discipline, work ethic, and relationships first. As Cockbain puts it, "Japanese players will run through brick walls for a coach but only once you've earned it. Where Australian and New Zealand rugby chases the Xs and Os, Japan starts with connection".

That difference is precisely the point. Being confronted by a completely different way or approach is what forces you out of your narrow channel, and that's where coaching growth actually happens.