10 Event Topics for Your Evening with a Famous Rugby Speaker

The perfect event hosts, special guests and after dinner speakers, rugby players are the perfect additions to all styles of event. They can tailor their anecdotes to your audience, ensuring attendees come away with actionable strategies for improved performance.

Whether you require an entertainer or an educator, a rugby coach or player, discover the event topics on offer, below:

Leadership

Fierce competitiveness and drive are a feature of great leaders. From captains and coaches to the management behind the scenes, the ability to make decisions quickly and effectively, in the best interests of the team, is what makes them stand out. The best rugby speakers can discuss what it takes to motivate and inspire a team to victory.

Few are better placed to discuss what it takes to keep a team together, happy and working for one another than 2003 Rugby World Cup-winning captain and former England coach, Martin Johnson CBE. If you require a leadership speaker for business, he is one of many rugby stars whose skills are broadly relevant to all areas of corporate performance.

Teamwork

Teamwork is what separates the best teams from the rest, and with many shining examples of great togetherness in rugby, leading professionals such as Brian O’Driscoll can explain what it takes to win as a collective and can talk about the sacrifices players make to reach the top.

Former Ireland and British Irish Lions captain, he is the highest-scoring centre in rugby union history and was consistently a key team player. Being able to take responsibility at the right moments as well as work for each other shows teamwork is one of the most important talking points in rugby.

Peak Performance

To play rugby at the highest level, your mind and body need to be in perfect sync; physical and mental toughness can drive players to the top. As a sportsperson, like in business, peak performance means committing yourself to every cause, every training session, every match.

It requires outright focus and determination to eat right and train hard in the gym and on the field. Leading rugby players can explore this topic at your event, to teach audiences the secrets of peak performance from the perspective of a sporting icon.

Dealing with Pressure

When the pressure is on, you need someone with a calm head, someone able to put their fears to the back of their mind and step up for their team. Who better to talk about pressure than rugby legend, Jonny Wilkinson MBE, who scored the dramatic, last-ditch dropkick to win England the 2003 Rugby World Cup.

His level-headedness, with under 30 seconds on the clock inspired the next generation of rugby players and fans and thus has a place in sporting history. The ability to overcome pressure can make the best players better, and inspirational speakers like the famous fly-half can talk on such topics with passion and poise.

Adaptability

An engaging rugby speaker will be able to talk about tactical changes and mindset shifts that went some way in changing a team’s fortunes. Whether over the course of a season or a match a team must find a way to break down an opponent.

They must also find a way of finding that extra inspiration when things are going against you. Leading sports speakers can discuss what it takes to change a streak.

Drive & Determination

When tails are down, and you are seemingly chasing a lost cause, how do you change a game? Where does that extra motivation come from, that final push? Who steps up to change it all? The coach, the captain, the team must work in perfect harmony, with complete confidence in themselves and each other. This desire and drive to continue to the dying moments have seen rugby play host to some of the greatest sporting comebacks in history.

Take the Six Nations of 2010 when Scotland was leading by ten points with just 3 minutes left on the clock. After Leigh Halfpenny took them within touching distance with a try in the 77th minute, Shane Williams MBE threw himself over the try line with just over a minute to play to secure a famous victory.

Sporting Success

It is no accident that the greatest players have finished their careers with tons of accolades. They inspire their team to perform better each day in training and matches and have thus ended up winning personal and team trophies. Listen to how serial winners like Neil Back MBE achieved big throughout his career, helping England to the 2003 World Cup and Leicester Tigers to a 2001 Heineken Cup final win.

Sporting success is down to the sacrifices and talent of the players and leading rugby after dinner speakers like Neil can articulate what it takes to audiences.

The Spotlight

For some stars, the spotlight shines more brightly than for others. The likes of Ben Cohen MBE and Matt Dawson have had success on television since retiring, with Cohen featuring on Strictly Come Dancing, and Matt becoming a captain on BBC’s Question of Sport. Dan Carter of New Zealand and George North of Wales are also a particularly influential presence on social media.

For some, like England’s Danny Cipriani and Wales’ Gavin Henson, their media presence in their early career brought them different hardships. Professional rugby takes extreme focus and hearing how stars like these managed to set aside the media attention they received to become better players and earn national team recalls is both entertaining and inspirational.

Rugby

It sounds obvious to mention but one of the most fascinating topics in the repertoire of a rugby speaker is when they talk about the sport that they love. It can be a great opportunity to learn about the game’s finer details from major professionals.

They can talk about where the game is heading, how it is changing as well as discuss tactics and stories from their careers, including anecdotes about their teammates. These intense insights can be a wonderful addition to speeches.

Maximising Success

Success is tough, replicating success is a different ball game altogether. The elite athletes in this world always want more than they have in their trophy cabinet. For some, that means moves elsewhere in the domestic games, for others that means motivating their team season upon season to get the best out of each other.

Through this engaging topic, you can see how success changes players and separates the stars that are glad to have won something from the mentality of the stars who want to win everything. Where longevity is concerned, there are few success stories as impressive as the one of Mike Tindall MBE.

Book a Rugby Speaker for Your Event

Whether you are looking for an inspirational and motivational speaker, our expert team are on hand to help you find the right personality for your corporate events, gala dinner, product launch, award ceremony and charity events. To read more about the stars that grace the great game, you can browse our selection today.

If you would like to book, simply contact the Champions Rugby Speakers agency by filling in our online contact form. Alternatively, call a booking agent directly on 0207 1010 553.