I started Rugbyology in 2010. At that time, it was simply a business name to keep track of all my invoicing and expenses for various coaching roles. Ice Station Zebra Associates was taken, so Rugbyology it was.

Shortly after forming the business, I, along with a fellow coach from the USA, launched the World’s first rugby coaching podcast, creatively titled “Rugbyology”. It was also one of the World’s shortest-lived podcasts, meeting its demise just a few episodes in.

From there, however, I began to create more content online, and eventually the focus of Rugbyology as business began to change.

I started spending more time delivering education to and consulting with coaches and programs worldwide. From the high-school level to Tier 1 National Team coaches on the 15s side of things (Women’s and Men’s) as well as National Team programs focussed on Olympic Qualification in the game of 7s.

Soon “the online stuff” faded into the background and eventually went away altogether.

So why the reboot online?

In 2022 I sat down with the idea of writing an in-depth book covering many of the topics I teach and consult upon. This would be a book covering many things I’ve never seen covered in any other educational resource.

But three issues were staring me right in the face.

Firstly, such a book would take a long time to write. Maybe several years. To go into the depth I wanted and to do justice to the ideas I wanted to cover, any less would probably not have sufficed.

Secondly, such a book would be hard to market and sell. There would have been a prohibitive price simply due to the nature of pricing physical paper and books. As I know, working with the rugby community for 15+ years, the written word isn’t always the preferred delivery method of information. Especially in a book possibly running close to 1000 pages.

Finally, my ideas are constantly evolving, and the supporting evidence continues to grow daily. Take, for example, my Rugby Activity Classification and Horizontal Coaching Structures concepts.

Two concepts that I have been theorising, developing and teaching for almost a decade. Yet, every year, I continue to find more and more pieces of evidence that help complete the puzzle. If I had written about those concepts 5 years ago, my thoughts would have been much the same as they are now. Still, even in the last 18 months, I have refined these ideas and discovered further pieces of evidence that not only support the ideas but help to explain exactly why they matter.

This left me with two apparent solutions.

Option one would be smaller books, less magnum opus but a more consumable manual. But again, problems presented themselves. The speed at which each could be published and the interconnectedness of ideas would create issues. An idea mentioned in the first book might need something from book three for context.

The second solution is the very one you are reading now. The website, blog, newsletter model. However you define it, it is a much more robust solution.

Ideas can be discussed in a logical sequence. If further information is required for understanding it can be added. It also affords the use of multimedia such as video and audio which I’m sure I will make use of.

What Can You Expect?

My goal is to create unique content emphasising the coaching and program architecture aspects of rugby.

Fittingly, the suffix “-logy” from the ancient Greek -λογία has in modern English come to refer to a body of knowledge or more simply, “the study of [field]”. In this case, Rugbyology would literally mean the study of Rugby. I hope to live up to that lofty definition in the level of content produced.

This won’t include drills, games, done-for-you sessions or activities. However, there will be plenty to improve the activities you already use.

There probably won’t be much for the myriad of “broken clock” coaches that fill the ranks around the world, those that refuse to grow as coaches because something worked once, twenty years ago.

I want the content to challenge. I want it to present an opportunity to think differently.

Specifically, at this stage, my goal is one piece of content/article a week as a starting point. I’m also toying with the idea of a curation newsletter and sharing the myriad of notes I have from hundreds of coach education events and opportunities over the years.

I’m deliberately leaving myself some wiggle room here as my goals are much bigger, but I want to see what resonates with others. If you subscribe and don’t find it resonates with you, you can unsubscribe anytime.

Another goal is to introduce a more affordable option for education and communication channels to my consulting services. This is something I hope to add in the coming months. As it is for now, I am not taking on any new consulting clients (you can however join the waitlist here).

Why this platform?

Honestly, I’ve been curious about trying the Substack infrastructure, where this is currently being hosted, for a long time.

I already have a separate website established and a fully functioning online learning centre which I may use down the road. For now though, due to the combination of experimentation and speed, I’m writing and posting this today rather than tinkering with website design for the next month. I’m launching this reboot right here, right now. Imperfect action and all that.

What to do now?

Subscribe.

Well only if you want to. But do it.

I’m planning my first content for the coming days as well as a few other ideas that I’m working through.

If you subscribe here and I move my content back to my dedicated Rugbyology website at a later date you won’t have to do anything at all, your information will move over to.

I appreciate anyone who took the time to read this far and hope you come on this journey with me.