Crusaders Coaching Course About Connection, Standards, and Being Part of the Rugby Family

01.19.2026Int'l News, Camps and Clinics

Scott Bracken with Crusaders star Ethan Blackadder.

Author: Alex Goff

The Crusaders Global Coaching Course will be held May 18-29 in Christchurch, NZ, and there are still spots available.

This course, which costs about $2,500 (US) for the two-week coaching experience, will bring coaches in to work with Crusaders Global coaches, immerse in the culture of Crusaders Rugby, and elevate their coaching.

“I loved it,” said San Diego State Head Coach Scott Bracken, who went in 2024. “Everyone knows that the whole thing about the Crusaders has been their culture. But when you’re there you really feel it.”

Learn More About the Crusaders Global Coaching Course Here>>

Bracken said the most common word used during the course was “connection.”

“And when you’re at Rugby Park, where the course is held, you walk into that building and you feel that connection,” said Bracken. “When anyone there asks you how it’s going, they really want to know. The coaches, the staff, the players, they really want to know. They want to know how you’re doing and what you’re about."

Scott Bracken with Crusaders star Codie Taylor.

"Players would come up to us and have long conversations. I was mesmerized. These are some of my favorite rugby players and I’m talking to them right now!”

“It opened my eyes to a lot of things,” aded Miami of Ohio Head Coach Killan Mulkern, who attended the course in 2025. “At the same time, it actually validated me in a way that a lot of the stuff we are doing here in the US is actually on the right track. So a lot of us are doing the right things. It's just, of course, with rugby you see all the pro athletes and the high-level players in New Zealand, and just the speed at which they do the exact same skills is just mind-blowing.”

Life-Changing Experience for US Coach at Crusaders Program in NZ

Overseeing the who plan is Grant Keenen, and he makes sure coaches feel comfortable in their journey.

“You feel at home,” said Bracken. “They want their people to feel like you’re home and in that I think they hit it out of the park.”

“Grant was the one who taught these little mini breakdowns; how to break down all those skills from top to bottom, not just looking at it at a broad view,” added Mulkern. “It was a good tool to have in my repertoire now as a coach, and even if it's as a skills coach or a head coach, you learn ho to break down each individual skill and really learn to be in depth from a professional.”

There’s a standard, too.

“In that environment there’s that level of accountability, as well,” said Bracken. “If anyone is not doing what they’re supposed to, if anyone is not doing something the Crusader way, the ones who make them accountable are their peers. There’s no magic solution, the stuff they do at training that anyone else, but you add in the team-building and the culture-building allowed me to see how I can bring it to another level.”

Mulkern and Bracken both keep in contact with Keenan and the coaches they met at the coaching course. Keenan followed up the course with a visit to the Miami of Ohio training sessions (which you can have him do, also), and Bracken will be sending a group of San Diego State players to the Players Academy this coming summer.

“I got so much out of it,” said Bracken, “and I would love to go back.”

Learn More About the Crusaders Global Coaching Course Here>>