The Rugby Bricks Podcast

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...

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 i...

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 plat...

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 ma...

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...

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 storytell...

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 ser...

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...

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 Un...

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...

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 g...

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 Je...

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...

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 lik...

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...

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...

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 wor...

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...

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...

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...

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 Mel...

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 sc...

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 tea...

Sione Faumuina was a professional rugby league player who has played for the New Zealand Warriors, Canberra Raiders, North Queensland Cowboys and has earned a couple of caps for New Zealand between 2003 - 2004.  Today, Sione is building  Athlete Empire  a company focused on building the brands and businesses of what athletes can achieve outside of their playing careers and sharing the lessons of t...

Lima Sopoaga is a professional rugby union player who has played for the Wellington Lions & Southland Stags in New Zealand's provincial competition before joining the Highlanders and eventually making his debut for the All Blacks in 2015. Sopoaga is now playing for the Wasps in the Gallagher Premiership. Lima shares some incredible insights in this episode of the podcast and if you're a goal kicke...