Captains sees rugby legend joined by series of sporting leaders

Sam Warburton Crowd Network Captains podcast

Crowd Network has launched the latest in its sport star driven podcasts, Captains, hosted by rugby union legend Sam Warburton.

The series will see the former Wales and British & Irish Lions captain speak to sporting leaders, sharing experiences and insight into how the most successful teams come together, grow and ultimately win. They will also speak about the captain’s life, the lessons learned along the way, and Warburton’s own experiences. 

Early episodes include Chris Robshaw, former England rugby union captain, who shares his experience of handling the pressure of captaining England in the World Cup and dealing with failure; Ryder Cup-winning captain Paul McGinley discussing learning from Sir Alex Ferguson and what makes a good captain; Wes Morgan talking about captaining Leicester to win the Premier League title; and England cricket captain Heather Knight recalling having to play men’s cricket growing up.

Captains Sam Warburton podcast Crowd Network

Captains is the latest show from Crowd Network’s new sports division, which launched last year. Creative director Tom Fordyce and head of sport Rob Roberts-Facey spoke to Broadcast Sport about how the company is aiming to make use of famous sporting hosts to create communities through audio.

Other hosts include Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas (The Geraint Thomas Cycling Club), golfing folk hero Andrew ‘Beef’ Johnston (Beef’s Golf Club) and former world boxing champ George Groves (The George Groves Boxing Club).

Warburton said: “Being a leader is something that’s always fascinated me, and it’s something that I’ve done and learned so much from, so to work on a podcast all about leadership has been an incredible experience. Reliving and recounting all the highs and lows I experienced as a captain, as well as listening and learning from some of my peers who all have such insightful stories to share, has been very rewarding.

“Working with the team at Crowd has been a true collaborative experience, and has allowed us to build a podcast we can all be proud of. I can’t wait for listeners to finally come on this journey with us, and hopefully take away something valuable from each episode, regardless of whether they’re a sports fan or not.”

Roberts-Facey added: “It’s been a pleasure to work with Sam on this exciting new show and welcome him to the Crowd. Having built an incredible career and proven himself as a true leader, Sam has heaps of experience to share with our listeners. We’re thrilled to have so many big-name sporting guests join us too, to bring their thoughts on leadership. It goes beyond the world of elite sport though – listeners will find the podcast insightful and applicable for any area of life.

“Captains provides such an important and timely message for people of all ages and from all walks of life, teaching us how we can push ourselves to achieve the best, or deal with setbacks and failure. The podcast makes for yet another strong addition to our rapidly growing Crowd Sports division, where we work in close partnership with some of the best sporting talent to build proper communities of listeners. We’re thrilled to have Sam as part of this.”