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Speaker 1: Two from two for the All Blacks Grand Slam Dreamers

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Speaker 1: Alive and it's Real England this week at Twickers. Of course,

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Speaker 1: Elliot's call. At ten past four, Bowden Barrett.

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Speaker 2: Is with us.

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Speaker 1: Good morning, Good morning, Mike, first time we talked to

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Speaker 1: you this tour, So just take us through it briefly,

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Speaker 1: the travelog Barrett's style. How's the tour feel so far?

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Speaker 2: Yes, So we started off in Chicago and now it

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Speaker 2: was a fun week. Really, Chicago has a lot to

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Speaker 2: offer and we made sure that we had fun off

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Speaker 2: the field, but probably not as much as we had

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Speaker 2: in sixteen when we come up against the Irish that time.

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Speaker 2: It's obviously a place we can get distracted quite easily

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Speaker 2: with so many sporting events and Sixtus going on and

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Speaker 2: so on. But we I thought we nailed that week.

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Speaker 2: And then we flew straight into Edinburgh straight out of

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Speaker 2: the game actually, and that's a great city. We enjoyed

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Speaker 2: that also. So it's been a tour of making sure

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Speaker 2: that we enjoy ourselves off the field, but when it's

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Speaker 2: time to put the boots on, we make sure we're

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Speaker 2: tuned in and we do a job.

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Speaker 1: What about the psychology of what's going on, So you

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Speaker 1: get Ireland, so they would you could argue your biggest

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Speaker 1: hurdle Scotland. They're improving, but they're not England. Do you

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Speaker 1: sort of worry about becoming complacent as you chase a

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Speaker 1: Grand Slam in all four winds?

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Speaker 2: Look, we were quite weary of Scotland. They were quite

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Speaker 2: confident amongst themselves and even potentially publicly, and we also

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Speaker 2: respected them for sure. England are obviously a powerhouse nation

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Speaker 2: in recent times. In fact history, shows have always had

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Speaker 2: a tough encounter against them, and they toured last year

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Speaker 2: so each of those test matches was a close tussle,

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Speaker 2: and we expect the same at Twickenham, which is a

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Speaker 2: place they obviously love playing it and you throw their

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Speaker 2: fans into the mix and it's a hell of a fortress.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. The yellow cart thing is Is that a thing?

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Speaker 1: Has it been talked about or not?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just a little bit of self control or

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Speaker 2: lack of from individuals. It's not a major thing. It's Yeah,

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Speaker 2: it's a tough one to put the finger on. Other

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Speaker 2: than you know, everyone's just got to be aware of

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Speaker 2: it and everyone can't control it. So the harsh reality

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Speaker 2: is it affects the team just based on one person's

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Speaker 2: lack of self control. So yeah, we obviously got put

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Speaker 2: in a hole and allowed Scotland to come back on

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Speaker 2: the weekend and we've learned from that so hopefully we

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Speaker 2: won't be facing that again this week.

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Speaker 1: And as a tour, are you getting better or are

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Speaker 1: you getting tired?

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Speaker 2: Probably a bit of both. Hopefully that's what we want

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Speaker 2: to do each day is get better. But at the

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Speaker 2: end of these longer or long seasons. Look, I tell

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Speaker 2: you one thing, we've been managed very well. Our trainer,

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Speaker 2: Gilly and the coaches. I've been keeping an eye on

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Speaker 2: our load, training load that is, and making sure that

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Speaker 2: we're peaking on Saturday rather than flogging us during the week.

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Speaker 2: So it's something that we're all conscious of.

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Speaker 1: How hard are you working off the field, Because there's

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Speaker 1: been a lot of commentary back here about you know,

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Speaker 1: the whole corporate thing of the All Blacks and sponsorship

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Speaker 1: in America and advancing the game, and they're rolling out

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Speaker 1: the old Barrett magic to you know, shake a few

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Speaker 1: hands and take a few photos. Are they wearing you

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Speaker 1: out at that end of the spectrum.

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Speaker 2: No, it's managed well and they make sure that everyone's

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Speaker 2: doing their bit in terms of sharing the load so

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Speaker 2: to speak. It's a hell of a vehicle and brand

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Speaker 2: I suppose the All Blacks. But the main thing is performance,

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Speaker 2: so it always comes back to that. And yeah, like

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Speaker 2: I say, we've been managed accordingly and ultimately it's all

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Speaker 2: about us doing our job on Saturday night.

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Speaker 1: Where's a Grand Slam sit for you? Four out of four?

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Speaker 1: And the broader question if you get the Grand Slam,

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Speaker 1: how does that fit into your season overall?

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Speaker 2: Oh, it's one that's clearly. I haven't done it before

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Speaker 2: and we haven't had the opportunity in my time as

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Speaker 2: an All Black to do it, so it would set

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Speaker 2: right up there. Obviously England are in the way right now.

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Speaker 2: And yeah, look you can I guess the Rugby Championship

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Speaker 2: wasn't a success because we didn't win it, and South

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Speaker 2: Africa you know, beat us up in Wellington, which was unfortunate.

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Speaker 2: And often we're judged by trophies and cups and so on.

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Speaker 2: But a Grand Slam, if we can achieve that, I

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Speaker 2: think that would mean we're probably losing two test matches

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Speaker 2: out of a decent number, which in the scheme of

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Speaker 2: things is pretty good, but we know that we can't

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Speaker 2: look or talk too much about there. We've got England

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Speaker 2: right in front of us and obviously Whales the following week.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, that's plan.

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Speaker 1: Good stuff. Will you go well? Will be watching Buden

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Speaker 1: Barrett out of London for us this morning.

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