Beauden Barrett

“If you overthink things, you end up doing things without the right reasons in mind.”

“I was more than happy to not wear shoes. The only time we wore shoes was on Sunday when we went to church.”

“In the back of your mind there's always these contractual things you have to deal with. You try to put that aside when it comes to training and playing.”

“I'm a Kiwi country boy, approachable, genuine, never getting too far ahead of myself, a straightforward kind of bloke.”

“To me, being an All Black means following our dreams.”

“I grew up on a farm playing backyard footie in my bare feet.”

“Mum always encouraged us to run, she was very athletic.”

“When you lose for the All Blacks it's not a nice feeling. Expectations on us are pretty high. We have high standards and we know if we've let ourselves or let the jersey down.”

“Every season is hard, every season has its ups and downs.”

“For some reason, the more the pressure comes on, the more enjoyable it gets.”

“I grew up dreaming of being a Hurricane and I'm so proud of playing the number of games I have for them.”

“Japan is an appealing place for a young family and comparatively safe in health terms.”

“A lot of the values I have come from the farm and from my parents, of grafting and of giving, and of always striving to be the best you can be. It's about teamwork.”

“I just remember, it seemed to be the thing to do to get up a three o'clock in the morning and watch the All Blacks play England or South Africa.”

“At 17 I was graduating and didn't know what to do. I was seriously contemplating going to Melbourne to play Aussie football.”

“We pride ourselves on preparing well and genuinely. It's quite easy to brush over the small details, your recovery, the little one percenters. There are so many little things that add up to the performance.”

“You've got to understand and accept that nothing in the world is perfect. The sooner you understand that, the better it will be.”

“I learnt a lot from a psychological point of view about having to move on and flush things and not live on previous mistakes.”

“Time flies. It seems like just yesterday I was playing my first game against Ireland, when I came off the bench, full of energy and flying into tackles, even though I couldn't tackle back then.”

“I don't read anything. I don't read the press. I've always valued my supporters and my haters are supporters in disguise. That's just the way it is. I run a couple of social media accounts and you can't help but look at comments every now and then.”