BEAUDEN BARRETT

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

I must say I'm a bit more daunted about changing a nappy than I am making a tackle... unless it's Ngani Laumape or Ben Lam.

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

I live in Wellington now but I love going back to the farm where all you can hear are the cows or the sea crashing in about a kilometre away. Our uncle's farm is on the beach and we are one up from that towards the mountain.

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

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

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.

I'm such a perfectionist and I want to do everything right, kick every goal, do everything perfectly, but that is not reality.

Our mental skills expert Gilbert Enoka is just amazing the work he does.

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

Whatever role the coaches decide for me and the team, I'm happy with that.

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.

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

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

We grow up in New Zealand from a young age getting up at 3am to watch the All Blacks play South Africa or England, it's part of who we are. So to be an All Black now is amazing.

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

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

It certainly helped just having acres and acres of green grass, a back lawn where there's goal posts and plenty of siblings and cousins around to compete with and play against.

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 think New Zealand Rugby do an exceptional job, the way it's set up from the All Blacks, right down to grassroots. There's a clear path young players can take if they want to be an All Black, if they're talented, or if they get opportunities.

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

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

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.

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