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[Music] James Jimmy Marshall what a l welome welcome to my podcast mate thanks for
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having me on it's um yeah a true honor to be in here like I've been following
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your journey right from when I saw that you had launched it and remember messaging you thinking or knowing how
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good you're going to go but it's been awesome watching your progression and
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see where we are now interviewing some of the excluding me but some of the biggest stars in New Zealand feel a
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little bit uncomfortable on here but um no looking forward to it oh no it's um
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it's an absolute honor to have you here like you you've um been super supportive
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from day one like you you've had your incredible what L podcast going for maybe two or three years before I
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launched and um yeah you very helpful I remember in an early episode I I I had one mic that wasn't working properly and
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the levels were all over the place and you just messaged me out of the blue and told me about some app I can use to fix
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that and I've um it's been like crack to me I've used it ever since it's um and I
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I have loved that about the um like the sort of podcasting Community like it's
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really supportive and inclusive yeah everyone sort of sees it from the outside side and thinks you're competing
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against each other but I don't feel like many people in there um feel it that way
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like so many people can listen to whatever podcast they want and there's so much um time for people to listen to
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whatever so um the more you can sort of help other people grow and um grow the whole podcast Community itself I think
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is beneficial 100% and you've um you've done so well with yours uh I I feel like
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there's probably a lot of people that know you more as um the watered podcaster than they do for your rugby
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career which was also amazing yeah I like when I go somewhere now more get more comments about um love your podcast
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and I would about howy did you used to play rugby or are you the Crusaders coach that's definitely favored to more
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the podcast I think people who tune into podcast they feel like they get that connection with you if they listening to
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it um consistently and um I feel like they have that um I guess chance to come and approach
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you and um share what they they think of your podcast or that they love your work
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and um yeah it seems like that yeah okay so quick quick CV for you so um Jimmy Marshall over 50 Super Rugby games for
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the Hurricanes uh a Super Rugby title with the Hurricanes um an itm cup title as Captain of taneki yeah and um coach
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of the tesman Marco and now assistant coach of the Crusaders yeah pretty good when like
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that yeah so um obviously had a pretty decent footy career in the end like from someone who never thought he would
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really um have a professional rugby career managed to um took a lot more goals off than I ever thought I would
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and um the transition into coaching's been something that um has just happened
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so so quickly Post 40 straight into coaching and wasn't really something I was looking to chase at that time but
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um opportunities have just sort of come to me and just sort of jumped at them and yeah here I am yeah there's there's
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so much to unpack with you um we we'll start with uh why you were here today um
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I'm lucky to have you here because um the Crusaders are playing the ockland blues tonight uh what is it Saturday the
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23rd of March um and I can't imagine how much how much pressure um you and the
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team are under you've had four games so far uh four losses so far I think it's
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the worst start to a crusader season since 1996 yeah my coaching career might be quite
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short it could be the end of it but um now it has been it's been a incredibly
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tough start to the season um in terms of pressure I haven't felt the pressure
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probably as much as external feel like I have um I feel like we're in a pretty
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similar spot this time last year we'd managed to scrape a couple of wins but
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we're also playing pretty clunky and um feel like a couple of games this year
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could have easily gone the other way but um and the beauty of this season is it's
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um the last three games at the end of the competition really it's a top eight
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um I expect us to be in the top eight and then just have to win three games from there and um I know a lot of people
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last year was my first season and I was feeling under pressure then cuz I felt like we weren't playing as the standard
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that we should have been but it's amazing how many people have forgotten how average we were last year
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because we got the result at the end of it so yeah well that's all that matters
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isn't it it's the name that's engraved on the trophy and that's it how you get
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it's whether you win pretty or ugly it doesn't [ __ ] matter yeah and I hopefully this season um when we get to
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the end of it people will be saying the same how do you um I mean this is probably more a question for the new
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coach who was it Rob Penning yeah yeah so yeah Scott Razer Robertson he has he's like been with the Crusaders for
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the last six or so Seasons won all of them and then there's a new coach Rob Penny um how like how do you guys block
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out the noise like when when you four losses down at the beginning of the Season there's a lot of lot of external
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noise yeah there is um I think Rob Pen's done a outstanding job he's um he's
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never SE flustered he's always thinking next job and uh he knows how close we
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are away from some results so I think he's handled it really well and um obviously obiously it was a tough tough
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um role to come into with razor success and um wasn't really a win scenario for
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him so I know you've been trying to get Razer on your podcast for about I've been pting him too much but
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his success was um oh you won't see that from a coach ever I wouldn't imagine
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it's just what they've achieved over that last 7e period's been pretty
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special and it was awesome to sort of witness it last year and see how it all worked so so what does today look like
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for you we're we're recording this at 9:30 on the Saturday morning of game day
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what does game day look like game day is probably the most um chilled out day as
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a coach um post the game you're straight into reviews and previews and um it it
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gets really busy up until about game day and then um the morning of game you're
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basically free hence why could jump on this and then we'll meet up at about 2:00 to go through a little walk through
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and then and um leave the boys to it until we meet for the bus so it's a pretty cruzy day but I'll start looking
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at um the teams next week we've just done a um Scout we call it of the Chiefs
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who we've got next week this morning so I'm start planning ahead for what's to
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come the following week wow yeah so yeah all your all your work's done by game
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day I suppose to say it like complete different to how it was as a player when you're probably like a bundle of nerves
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at this time on game day the last thing you'd be doing on the morning of game
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day player like a 90-minute [ __ ] chat on a podcast that is completely different
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like um definitely the nerve levels I don't get that same nervousness as a coach um playing I was I was used to get
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quite nervous especially um the morning of I was all right once I got to the stadium and sort of got around the boys
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but um the morning of I always found myself overthinking or um playing the game out of my head probably a little
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bit too much so it's quite quite nice having a morning where you can just sort of be a bit
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Freer yeah you look so relaxed um what what's your relationship like with the
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the players cuz you're coming from that that player sort of environment you know
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every single rugby player they talk about the um you know the camaraderie and just hanging out with the boys sort
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of thing do you can you sort of be friends with the players or do you need that sort of Coach player separation
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yeah that's something that I'm still sort of weighing up or trying to work
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out like I still feel like I can have a relationship ship with the players and if um got invited around to a barbecue
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or I'd be more than comfortable going around and just hanging out with some of
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the players as a mate so there's about five of them who are still older than me
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so I feel like I'm um still relatable to a lot of them and in a same situation
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with a lot some of our kids are are good friends so I don't feel the need to
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separate that those relationships but I know a lot of coaches have sort of recommended that to me but I guess I
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work that out if um there is any issues down the road and how's how is your home
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life um you see you're married you got how many kids got three boys at the moment and my wife's pregnant so oh [ __ ]
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we've got another boy on the way you're a how do you fit everything in like your
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your podcast is excellent and um it feels like you've if anything you've
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ramped I remember you and I having a having a chat I think at the beginning of last year or maybe the end of 2022
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just when you got the Crusaders job and you were talking about putting the water
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Leed podcast on ice or doing bi-weekly episodes look at here you got four going be a dad of four one of the biggest
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coaching jobs in the country and you're ramping the podcast up yeah that's
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definitely the thing that um is my biggest struggle at the moment is my time management and being able to juggle
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everything um the family life's busy um the wife still she's pregnant so she
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wants as much help as possible um my coaching is like you say is full on and that's always has to be my priority at
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this this time of the year and um with the podcast I was sort of banked a lot of my episodes before the season started
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so I haven't had to record podcasts throughout the week or do any any real work there just the odd um clip or
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whatever just while I'm sitting at the hotel usually start making some clips or
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a few things like that so um trying to make it as effortless as possible but still being able to produce the content
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from a podcast has being the being the the struggle and um while not sacrificing any of my coaching time cuz
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that has to be the priority especially when you're um 0 and four yeah is it is it good money being a
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being an assistant coach for like a a successful Super Rugby team it's um it's
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recently good money yeah yeah so um probably getting paid the same as I did as a player um unreal yeah so at the
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Hurricanes yeah yeah so um so so your wife so you've you've since you've been
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together you've moved like house 20 times or something yeah um you've moved
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countries she must really really love you um um I believe um this The Story Goes that you moved to Nelson for the
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coaching job at the um tesman Marco and um and you were like that's it this is
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it yeah um yeah we're we're we're you know putting our Roots down and then you
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get a call from Razer yeah um do you do you say yes to Raza on that phone call or do you say I'll discuss it with my
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wife how does that conversation go yes so I didn't even move to Nelson for the
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coaching job I actually just moved to Nelson because that was home and uh we bought a house in Maro we loved it out
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there and I sort of because we had moved so many times I said to my wife that I wouldn't chase that coaching dream
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because generally the coaching dream is a lot of moving like a player so um got to the point where moo set up in NS and
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got an opportunity to coach with tasmin and I thought thought okay that that' be
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fine still in the same place we won't have to move but yeah 2 years later Razer does call and that was actually a
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lot harder than people probably or people assume it was a harder decision yeah yeah I was
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genuinely um weighing that up whether it was going to be a yes or no and had a good hard conversation with my wife that
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I wasn't going to take that unless she was fully into it cuz I knew how happy
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she was where she where we were in my poor the kids were all settled and I'm
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sort of committed to not chasing the the dream so I I genuinely um felt like that
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and then I guess the more people she talked to um the more pressure came on her because everyone's like you can't
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stop him from doing this or like and then she got to the point where um she was happy enough to make the move and
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the big relocation and yeah we're down there now and we're really enjoying
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[ __ ] that's supportive yeah that is super supportive oh poor thing put the
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onus on her um yeah cuz you for you it must have been like a like a a no-brainer like you you want it so bad
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yeah I knew the opportunity it was like for my coaching experience and the ability to go into the most successful
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Super Rugby franchise in history and Coach with some of the best coaches in the world I knew it was uh an incredible
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opportunity for for me to to do so I had that in my mind as well but I also knew
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that the commitment that I'd made and I know how every year the kids get older
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the moves got harder so um was aware of that as well so it was a real W of job life um career or um family and I
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think career obviously one what if if um if it was a hard no so you had to remain
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in Nelson would um would you been like a little bitter and resentful she always felt like I would
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have been but I don't think I would have been I would have just had to move on
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pretty quickly and um would have yeah not sure I think would have I was thinking of potentially going harder on
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the podcast if that was the route and um seeing if that could be a full-time job
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or doing probably tasmine on the side where I've gone the other way and gone
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the coaching fulltime and podcast on the side I do feel like it's of those things
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that would have been bought up every time there's an argument I could have been the all coach by now um what so
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Scott Razer Robertson what makes him so good so you you managed to have one season like observing the the master
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everyone talks about his relationship with the players and just how he's I don't know just has demeanor like what
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were the big takeaways you got from your year with him yeah it's definitely that
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connection piece around how we can connect a whole group connect with players individually connect um
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not only the playing 23 or um 34 whatever is in the squad it's the board down to the the academy it's the whole
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um the whole room's aligned on on what his goal is and I thought he just did
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that really well and um yeah just balance he knew he knew the most important thing of a coaching role he
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told me that pretty early was the squad that he has so selection of the squad and um recruitment of the squad is
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massive for coach it's um no matter how good you are as a coach if you haven't
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got the caliber of players it's going to be really tough job for you and um also
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the caliber of coaching staff um you get in so um I think he's done it really
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well with the All Blacks he's hired probably five of the best coaches I've
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worked with in my career um so I'm looking forward to seeing how they go and how that group Works yeah's he's a
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fascinating guy there definitely seems to be like a um almost like a personality shift in him
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in the last couple of years as he sort of like groomed his way to be an old black coach he you know he's he he seems
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more serious I guess in some ways um you you would have seen him like with his with his guard down I guess you would
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have seen him at his you know most relaxed um yeah what's it what what's he
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like as a person yeah he is he is a very relaxed guy he's um loves his surfing
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loves loves a good joke and a story so um I think the serious side comes comes when it's the media yeah yeah I suppose
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it's out of necessity I mean there's been some comments online saying like
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because of the breakdown and he's not fit to be no black coach it's just
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absurd yeah no there's there's a lot around that and I even learned that last
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year like doing a um interview early in the season around um the week that was coming up and I they sort of asked me
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like just like you did before like what do your what does your day look like on your flight we're flying to Australia to
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play um the reds or the rebels um and I just mentioned that a lot of that flight
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I'll be looking at the Chiefs because um we'll have our preview um oh so getting
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like one game ahead of yourself and then the article comes out um Crusaders focus
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on Chiefs not not taking the red serious and I was like oh geez Razer pulled me over at the airport and he's like have
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you have you read this I was like no haven't it's like read it I was like
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this isn't a good look and he's like man you just got to be so careful it's not a
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podcast when you're talking to the media you've got to you can't give them
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anything and that was a real lesson for me and I I find it a real shame because I'd love to be able to give more insight
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into the game and um insight into how a Coach Works how the players work how they're feeling the real emotions of
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coaching but you just you just can't because it can just get thrown out of proportion and a big headline can come
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out which puts the team Under Pressure puts the organization under pressure and um yeah I just find that a real shame
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and yeah it's massively it's massively disappointing because everyone talks
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about how how like boring the rugby players are in this country and how they never give anything but I suppose you
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get burnt once and then that's it you're done um and I feel like that's one
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really good thing about your podcast like it's created this um safe space where you're just getting content out of
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these players that that no no no other media arm has been able to do and I I feel like part of that is part of that
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is your communication style of course part of it's probably that you know they
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can relate to you because you know you're a player as well but I yeah one thing I love about like I I don't know
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[ __ ] about rugby but your your um podcast it's very very accessible like a
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very low entry point like it's not even really about rugby to much of a degree
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you know what I mean that was the whole point I wanted to set it up I was quite passionate about it because I was sick
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of seeing the players um the player that they portrayed to the media and then I see
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them in the changing rooms and they're absolute characters or they've got great
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stories and all this stuff I'm like man no one's giving any of their personality
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because of that reason so I sort of got it but sort of wanted to create that middle space where guys could share who
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they really are without knowing that they're not going to be portrayed or if
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they say something they regret I can take it out and like like you say a safe space for them to be themelves share
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their story and um yeah people can actually see what they're really like off the field yeah we'll get into um the
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watered stuff and um more depth in just a second but one more coaching question um what are what are your goals ultimate
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goal to be um head or black coach oh I got asked just the other day I sat down with uh coach coach's coach and sort of
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asked me what my goals were and something that I really struggled with I I haven't really got any goals and I
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know that's probably uh not a very good way of going about it but I just feel
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like I'm I'm happy to just be in the game and just continually learn and grow
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as a coach and I I haven't really put any end points on it um I don't know if
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I want to be a head coach I don't know if I don't even really know what the
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difference in that role is in terms of the big picture stuff like at the moment I'm doing my role and I I'm enjoying
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that um I love having a lot of input on the rugby and I know as you become a head coach you sort of move away from
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that and it's a bit more big picture stuff so um in terms of goals I I haven't really got any I'd love to be um
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in Christ Church and with the Crusaders for as long as I can especially as a kids go through school and um yeah and
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that's sort of as far as I've left it at the moment I suppose it's a hard thing
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to um have goals or plan for because there's a lot of moving Parts isn't
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there yeah you know well coaching you can be gone like you've seen it in the
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international game with um Dave reny Eddie Jones you can you can be doing the best job you you can and then next week
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you're gone so um that's sort of why I'm so Keen to continue my podcast in the
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back ground so if I ever did get sacked if we did go 0 and 12 or whatever and I and I am gone um I've got something to
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fall back on and I'm not having to move the family to Japan or France to continue the coaching career I can um if
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the family is happy and settled in choss ships then I can stay there and potentially go down that that route yeah
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yeah I love that hey so the the game tonight after the game do you um do you mix and mingle with the the blues
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players you all get together and hang out a bit or not really yeah will usually go into their changing rooms and
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just have a quick bear with them and it's usually about 10 15 minutes have a
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quick catch up and then on the bus back to the hotel and um yeah probably have a
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bear in the team room together some guys will go out and some guys will just sit
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there and um have a good yarn oh that's cool maybe you can do me a favor and um
00:21:51
pass us um radex Nutrition Shake A Bottle onto Dalton P look at that um he was um he we were going backwards and
00:21:58
forwards cheers um we were going backwards and forwards actually you can keep that [ __ ] do Kelly do he um he was
00:22:06
supposed to come on the podcast and we were going backwards and forwards and then um on the the day before uh he
00:22:12
pulled out and he goes oh sorry family member in hospital or something and then I saw on Instagram later that day and it
00:22:16
was CR day but do do you get that much with your podcast like yeah I find that's the
00:22:25
hardest thing about it day like like wrangling guests and you know getting someone to commit I haven't been um
00:22:32
stood down for crate day that often but it's a fear if he just said to me mate
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I'm sorry I've got a bit offer I would be good with that yeah but um there has
00:22:42
been the odd time where we've got especially um different time zones and things when I'm online and that stuff
00:22:49
around oh sorry I thought it was yesterday or today and things like that have happened or not pushing record was
00:22:56
quite a common mistake early on and my podcasting career which was something that still gives me anxiety when I can't
00:23:03
see the red light I'm not sure whether I push recording I like want to get up and
00:23:07
check without losing the flow of the combo so there's been a few moments like
00:23:12
that but nothing too major yeah so um why did you start what L you you started when you were still playing or no no so
00:23:19
I just had um correct or hip surgery which I assumed was going to be career ending um and you you were played with
00:23:27
um hip trouble for years eh yeah basically my whole career I was that was probably the thing that I struggled with
00:23:33
the most I had um hip surgery on both of my hips when I was about 24 got me through till I think I retired at 31 and
00:23:43
um yeah that was it was a pretty decent surgery and the surgeon said it was like
00:23:48
the worst I've had seen so I knew I was going to struggle to come back from that
00:23:53
so sort of um kick my butt into gear around what I was going to do Post rugby and throughout my career I always sort
00:24:01
of felt like coaching was going to be it but then I had that discussion around I
00:24:06
didn't want to keep chasing that coaching dream so um what else could I fall on I wanted to start a podcast for
00:24:14
that for the reasons that I spoke about before and um I also thought about like working with younger players Academy so
00:24:23
I got a job at Nelson college coaching the rugby class there for um a couple of years which I really enjoyed as well so
00:24:30
I just sort of tried three different things and um just felt like which one was going to take over and coaching took
00:24:38
over the quickest so that's how it basically ended there yeah but why the why the podcast though why did you um
00:24:44
gravitate towards that like were you were you like um in the Hurricanes environment were you like a like a
00:24:49
jokester or a prankster you did the other guys like tell you you should start a podcast or you'd be good at it
00:24:54
or yeah I did um I used to do the info committee which um it is basically a way to get the young
00:25:02
guys up the front of the bus to embarrass them and make them give information about the city that you're
00:25:08
going to um and for some reason I'd get that every team I went to but I re I
00:25:15
really didn't enjoy it so I thought about how I could sort of turn it around
00:25:20
so I started just U making these little voice packages through Garage Band just push record and record my voice and sort
00:25:29
of um take the piss out of everyone else on the bus so instead of it everyone taking the piss out of me standing at
00:25:35
the front of the bus I turned it around on them took my little audio piece up plugged it in and then rinsed the rest
00:25:42
of the bus and part of things of that was a lot of pranks which I released a few of those through my podcast in the
00:25:50
the early days and um a few moments like that but um a few I was really enjoying
00:25:58
s's podcast at the time I was living in Japan and I was getting real into podcasts um and I was enjoying his one
00:26:05
cuz I was learning stuff about players that I'd played with for a long time that I didn't know and I thought far out
00:26:11
that's that's quite cool getting that Insight from players and and I messaged
00:26:15
him and he thought he I remember him saying like he felt like I should be doing the podcast more than him and I
00:26:23
knew how time constraint how much time constraint he had on his um busy life with the All Blacks and it was going to
00:26:30
be hard for him to continually produce episodes so I thought it was a there's a
00:26:35
bit of a space there for me to jump into and um gave it a crack and had a goal of
00:26:41
sort of doing seven episodes cuz I heard that the average podcast doesn't last
00:26:45
seven episodes yeah it's an actual thing called podcast fatigue yeah like seven
00:26:50
seems so little to have fatigue but um it's a real thing you go through a lot
00:26:55
of them and there's less than seven on them and you're like far out okay get to
00:26:59
seven and see how I'm going and reassess and I was really enjoying it really
00:27:03
enjoying the conversations um getting a lot of good feedback from them which is which helps
00:27:10
um and then yeah just sort of try to stay consistent with it and I think I'm
00:27:16
up to about 240 episodes now and amazing still just loving it yeah no it's it's
00:27:23
incredible what you've done I I suppose the podcast fatigue thing it's because
00:27:26
people start and you know you're putting it's quite a bit of work for a little
00:27:29
reward and you look at the analytics and the 20 people listening whatever I suppose you just think what am I doing
00:27:35
with my time did you did you have quite good numbers early on or was it mainly just your teammates and things I had
00:27:41
nothing to compare it to I think that was sort of the beauty of it like I might have had maybe 200 downloads the
00:27:48
first episode and I I'm like was that good or like this seems pretty good 200
00:27:53
people have listened to a hour chat but then um as you go through it builds pretty quick and I was pretty lucky that
00:28:01
I had access to some high-profile players and um even the the Hurricanes social media page used to share a lot of
00:28:09
my early episodes which gave it a pretty good Kickstart initially and um I felt like the growth of it was just going
00:28:17
really quickly at a early rate and um I remember getting D CO's on quite early
00:28:23
and that was a big one for the podcast we hadn't really spoken on a podcast before or opened up about what he was
00:28:31
really like off the field and people see the grub that he is on the field and the
00:28:35
gu's always fighting and starting niggle but um such a good man off the field and
00:28:40
I felt like I was able to um shine a light on that yeah shine a light on that and he really enjoyed it and um he got
00:28:47
lots of good feedback I got good feedback and the numbers were really good on that one so I felt like that was
00:28:50
a bit of a kickart for me and high-profile black like that um always helps yeah I'm I'm intrigued by Dane KL
00:28:58
so yeah I mean you're a teammate with them you played with them for you many
00:29:01
many seasons of Super Rugby I even had I had been o'keef on the podcast last year
00:29:05
the r um and he loves Coy yeah he's he's a riff is is he a good dude oh he is
00:29:12
he's a champion he's he's one of the best um such a good man off the field
00:29:17
but like last year this was the first time I was on the other side of the fence coaching the Crusaders and man
00:29:25
watching him from the other side I see why guys get so annoyed at him or why they don't like him because you watch
00:29:30
him he's an absolute piss he Fe played of him he he got a lot of our guys rattled that game and they won that game
00:29:37
so I still think there's a little art in there in what he does um a lot of guys
00:29:42
these days are probably too offended because you mates with a lot of the guys and it's a the rugby Community is quite
00:29:47
a small one but um when he's on the field he doesn't care what people think
00:29:52
he's he's just out there to Wi he's such a competitor but and he'll be the first guy to go sh
00:29:58
shake your hand afterwards and um just that was all part of the game but a gamesmanship oh who's that um who's the
00:30:04
Argentinian guy oh Pablo mat so yeah yeah so what's this what's the there's
00:30:09
some story there so he played with the Crusaders for a bit yeah yeah and then so when the All Blacks played
00:30:14
Argentina um yeah what did Coy say to him um yeah he was just really into him I think we' lost they lost the game
00:30:22
earlier and um yeah he wasn't too happy with how that game went and he sort of
00:30:28
had a plan to go out there and get stuck into him and try and get the result which he did and um there after the game
00:30:34
he obviously offended Pablo um probably a little bit too much and he wasn't willing to accept the the apology after
00:30:44
the game so I think he gave him a little push which the vi the cameras um got hold of and got blown out of proportion
00:30:52
a little bit but I managed to talk to Pablo after that and he was all good about it and once I spoke to him so it
00:30:57
was yeah so and then do you hear from Coy after that nah no I didn't um thankfully
00:31:04
I'm not sure how you would have felt about um so what's your preparation
00:31:09
process like I I umum I love your I love your interview style like it just seems
00:31:14
um I don't I don't know like I'm I'm sort of like in a in a like learning
00:31:18
period at the moment where I I can do so much preparation but I feel like I need
00:31:21
to pull back and do if anything a little bit less CU you want to have that sort of organic conversation which I feel
00:31:26
like you've nailed right you're the wizard did it um I was going to ask you
00:31:29
the same thing for me I'm just I like to make a bit of a plan I I'll do a little
00:31:33
bit of research around if there any real key areas that might be of interest or um parts of their career that really
00:31:41
jump out might be a long-term injury or um a real highlight or being dropped or an incident or something that uh might
00:31:49
be a point which they really struggled with or really kickstarted their career but other than that I write down a bit
00:31:55
of a plan and then just try and put the notes to the side and just see where it ends up and more often than not it goes
00:32:04
you cover all the things that you wanted to cover anyway and always try and end with some questions which a lot will
00:32:11
come from the Instagram but if there's key points that I've miss that I wanted
00:32:14
to um bring up in the episode I'll make a question up and um try and get that in
00:32:19
there so you're at the time we were recording this your most recent episode's been um will Jordan who's one
00:32:23
of the one of the old black stars one of the I think top Tri Store Tri score at the World Cup last year one of the Best
00:32:29
Wingers in the world um do you when you have like a big star like him on like a a a contracted all black player like is
00:32:36
there red tape to go through like do you need to get clearance from the nzu or um
00:32:40
with him there wasn't um cuz he's not in all black camp at the moment I think
00:32:45
they're um more than happy for me to just have the conversation um when I had
00:32:50
Sam Kane on before going into the Irish series then I did have to send that through to
00:32:57
the all black media manager and she had to listen to it and um take out a few bits which could have um caused a bit of
00:33:06
um unnecessary pressure on the group so um yeah there has been moments getting the big names on that I have to sort of
00:33:15
be a bit more careful with what I'm saying or asking or what they're saying
00:33:18
so the edit button becomes a little bit more crucial but um nine times out of 10
00:33:23
it's it's fine and we just generally Let It Go yeah who what's your have you had
00:33:28
a favorite episode what would your favorite episode be oh I get that question asked a lot it's so hard cuz
00:33:34
everyone's so unique and everyone's got such different different stories I think
00:33:38
a few that were really powerful was um Michael fofa who um I played with at the hurricanes and had um spinal injury
00:33:47
where he was paralyzed um that was one that sort of hit me pretty hard cuz it was a good mate who was such a tough
00:33:55
Warrior who playing game of rugby that we all love is just one moment wasn't
00:34:00
even a freak accident or anything it was just a normal collision and next minute
00:34:06
he can't um can't walk and he's got to go through this whole process of coming
00:34:11
back from that and the struggles that he went through and he's now walking and
00:34:15
doing really well so it was had a bit of a um happy ending towards the end but that was one that sort of hit me that I
00:34:22
always remember like it was awesome to get him on and hear him talk about that yeah you you've um yeah I I get asked
00:34:29
that question as well and I'm I don't know why I even asked you because I'm
00:34:32
[ __ ] at answering I think I have thing called like recency bias so it's like
00:34:38
you done whoever you've done in the past stands out um who who would your dream
00:34:43
guest be oh that's hard too um I don't know really um Richie would you want to do Richie you i' love to get
00:34:53
Richie um he's lives in Christ Church he's he's someone that everyone like man
00:34:58
the whole nation love that guy same with Dan Carter like everyone loves those two
00:35:03
and they see them as the sort of Pinnacle of the game so it' be cool to get both of those on at some point um
00:35:09
don't know if you get much out of Richie though no I'm not too sure all you sort
00:35:14
of put the mic in front of him um yeah I think sometimes it's the guys who aren't
00:35:20
the big names are often the have the most to share most to share like most people know I know those two would
00:35:25
probably get the most downloads but um in terms of the actual story like a lot of people would have seen Dan Carter's
00:35:33
book or read as um I've seen his movie or read his book and um there's a lot of
00:35:40
guys out there who have some incredible stories who never get the opportunity to
00:35:44
share it so I think it's probably more down that route than the other way so um
00:35:50
but I know that people love the big names and the numbers will reflect that yeah yeah it's I find that as well it's
00:35:57
kind of an ey rolling thing because some of the um like hien gems I call it actually the best episodes um but if
00:36:03
it's not a no one name they just don't get the same numbers yeah that reminds
00:36:07
me of an interaction we had so you had um who's the the uh soccer player from
00:36:11
Wellington the football oh poor I thought Paul Eiffel yes you had Paul Eiffel on and he he talked about his
00:36:16
gambling addiction and other other demons and it was uh such a powerful episode and I hadn't listened to the
00:36:22
episode but I was in Wellington at a cafe and I read it in the Dominion Post um so me from my commercial radio
00:36:28
background I was like [ __ ] good on James this is a really good exposure for his
00:36:31
podcast I messed you like bro this is a real Co and you were you were salty about it yeah I was gutted and why I've
00:36:38
always found like as soon as or it was more the way the story was portrayed around um Paul Eiffel um risks his
00:36:47
career for gambling on himself and like I think what Paul did was share his story
00:36:55
he he was really vulnerable around what he'd been through and he was there to
00:37:00
help others around if you're going through a gambling problem ways to sort of get out of it I know it's a really
00:37:06
common problem in in the game at the moment but then the way it was portrayed was all about him and investigation into
00:37:13
him gambling on himself and asking the the a league um CEO whether they were aware of him bitting on himself and it
00:37:22
just went down a the route that I I didn't want to see it go and I know Paul
00:37:27
was wasn't too happy about it and I just feel like every time the media get hold
00:37:31
of Articles it can blow it out um out of context and um I think I said to you at
00:37:37
the time like I'd rather less downloads than um exposure that is going to take
00:37:43
away from guys being themselves I want guys to come on being able to share without feeling like oh if I say this
00:37:52
this is probably going to be a headline tomorrow so there a real Catch 22 around
00:37:56
exposure and um yeah that's great for the podcast episode the numbers were better but
00:38:04
um PE guess who are about to come on are looking at that and thinking okay I'm
00:38:09
definitely not sharing my gambling addictions or might a little yeah which is the last thing I want for the podcast
00:38:16
I'd rather those 20 downloads but being real authentic and open than um a million downloads and everything's just
00:38:23
closed up yeah yeah when you when you when I read your M I was like damn it he's right he's a better person than me
00:38:30
I'm an [ __ ] not it's no wonder there's so much um mistrust and mainstream media these days are like
00:38:37
they're just like they snaky like that they are and you see it in especially in
00:38:41
League I see at the moment like um anything they can to blow out a story um negative more often than not people seem
00:38:50
to click on the negative ones more than the positive ones so um they're just
00:38:54
going to jump on it and I guess people feed that too cuz the the ones clicking on it people love a bit of Goss or a bit
00:39:00
of negative negativity especially on social media so um yeah something to do there yeah and what are your goals for
00:39:07
the future with the podcast yeah it's just to keep trying to chip away at it
00:39:11
in the background while the coaching continues and then like I said if there's
00:39:17
um a point in my coaching where I've got to either choose to move and Coach somewhere else I'd love to just be able
00:39:24
to um have that option to stay put and go fulltime like yourself it's [ __ ] it's a hard grind a
00:39:32
like it's um it's like the iceberg poster you know people don't see the
00:39:35
stuff that's under the water yeah there's a lot but you've um you've built
00:39:38
it up to a phenomenal spot and um I know recently you've been schmoozed by um
00:39:42
media work so they're doing some selling and stuff for you now have you had any
00:39:46
pressure from anyone to change the name no I haven't I've um it's it's been a
00:39:51
question that's coming a few times just from um Instagram but um mainly around
00:39:58
when I get a woman on like do you still call it what a lad or I've had three
00:40:02
female guests um I need to get more but um yeah they've all been happy with it
00:40:08
being lad and it's fine what does lad really mean no one really knows just sort of like a good person um or yeah
00:40:17
absolutely it's the highest compliment and um who who did you little jingle yeah is that you singing though
00:40:24
no it's definitely not me singing I'm a terrible singer um I put it out to my
00:40:29
social media cuz a few people mention that you need a jingle I didn't start with one and thought it could be quite
00:40:35
cool I remember hearing that water Man song and yeah from V yeah salt pepper I think it is and then I went
00:40:45
um I just changed the lyrics started saying it to myself I like oh that could be quite cool and then I just put it on
00:40:50
the um Instagram I tried a couple of guys off Fiverr just to sort of come up with their own one and
00:40:58
oh they were terrible um I didn't didn't give those a go and then checked it on
00:41:03
Instagram and Alex Malcolm who does the legend of Marty Banks page he um reached
00:41:09
out and said that he would do it and Alex hmer I think does the vocals and um yeah it's been a catchy little tune and
00:41:17
um SED well it's pry great um okay let's um focus on your rugby plan career for a
00:41:23
bit so um so you're born in Oakland um you moved to Nelson when you're eight
00:41:27
yeah so you so you consider yourself a nelsonian set of thing yeah pretty much um well I like remember my upbringing in
00:41:36
ockland I was only playing soccer up into ockland so but had a lot of good times living there I was living in mongy
00:41:42
Bridge um down there um spent a lot of time in the backyard with my brother and sometimes my sister and um a lot of
00:41:51
sports and um rugby and racing were big parts of our upbringing and um yeah once
00:41:58
we moved down to Nelson I guess new friend group gave rugby a crack but um I consider Nelson home um well crush it
00:42:07
should be my home now but Nelson will probably always be home for me yeah and who who were your Idols growing up so
00:42:13
you're 35 now yeah 35 so who would it have been like um was it like Cali and T
00:42:18
yeah Christian Ken I had a weird obsession with them like it was probably a little bit overboard I've got um
00:42:24
remember spending my pocket money on his posters and what always watches games and
00:42:30
um yeah I remember all blacks coming to Nelson one time and I've got some quite
00:42:35
almost creepy photos of me just like just different angles of them not me even in it just like going around with
00:42:42
my camera just taking photos of him so um I used to I I used to just love the style that he played he was such a
00:42:50
incredible player to watch and even um there's a horse called Christian Ken as
00:42:55
well which I had a real session with as well he was my favorite horse so remember getting up and watching him um
00:43:02
late at night sometimes to run bigger Aussie races so um yeah I I just love Christian Ken have you have you had him
00:43:09
on your podcast yet no I haven't he's probably a he's probably a dream guest
00:43:12
for me um same here like me and him um have got history like we used to kick around in py quite a bit and spend New
00:43:20
Years together for a few years in a row and I I've asked him to come on several
00:43:24
times and he he keeps saying I don't think I've got anything interesting to
00:43:27
say which is the most cly answer ever right so [ __ ] modest actually Jeff Wilson's another one he he came up to me
00:43:34
and um a lounge at the airport and he just said hey M I just want you to know the um the the podcast you did with my
00:43:39
old coach John Hart It's [ __ ] amazing and I'm like oh thanks Goldie I said do
00:43:43
you want to come on and he's like absolutely not you got these these guys which who
00:43:49
have just got um just this Rich tapestry of her life and so many good Yarns to share and they just don't think they
00:43:55
they don't think they've got anything to say you're good at recruiting though
00:43:58
aren't you like you do not miss an opportunity to offer that don't don't
00:44:04
youle a bit hard like if I was in your shows assistant coach I'd be like going
00:44:08
around the bus like yeah do you need to have some sort of Separation like that like how do you do the guys in the the
00:44:16
team that you work with do they come to you and say oh James I'd love to do the
00:44:19
podcast or uh no they generally if I know they listen to it it's probably a good chance that they'll be Keener to
00:44:25
come on than if they don't yeah um for me it's time like I haven't been I've
00:44:30
only been able to call one episode um this whole season um in season's just too hard to be able to get any episodes
00:44:38
recorded so it's all banked from pre-season and we've got a by week in two weeks where I'll try and get another
00:44:45
four or five in and that will hopefully get me through to the end of Super Rugby
00:44:50
season and then um post Super Rugby season I got a bit more time to get one out a week and um get a few more of the
00:44:57
guys on did did you did you did you ask Razer or would that have been inappropriate um I sort of threw it out
00:45:04
there couple times but I knew that he wasn't too Keen I knew his rule of only
00:45:09
doing one a year and um I knew how much um grief you were giving him to get on and I saw his sort of reaction so I knew
00:45:16
that I didn't want to take him down down there so I sort of I've just sort of
00:45:20
left I don't really want people on who don't aren't Keen to come on you know
00:45:25
like it's I'd rather someone who's Keen to share and or got a story to tell and
00:45:30
um an opportunity for someone to to be themselves where and once you once you're forcing someone on they're like
00:45:37
oh how long's this going to be it's just sort of kills the whole basle of it the
00:45:40
whole flow of it yeah yeah I agree um oh God yeah you're you're such a better
00:45:46
person than me I need to I'm a [ __ ] Badger David David ner on the podcast last week and I went back through our
00:45:54
DMS and it was like I I I I wore the down the nicest guy in New Zealand Sport and I beat him um okay so uh with your
00:46:03
rugby how much of it was um hard work versus natural Talent like you you only played the first 15 in your last couple
00:46:09
of years of school a yeah so you weren't like a naturally gifted player no I
00:46:13
wasn't like I wasn't making the rck teams I um was always really small skinny um
00:46:22
week um so I I knew I was pretty unlikely to to have a professional rugby career even though I really wanted it
00:46:31
and I would even tell people I remember telling my teacher that I was going to be a professional rugby player and um
00:46:37
it's quite a hard one to sort of back up when you're not making the school rep
00:46:41
team or anything like she sort of rolls their eyes at you and you're like oh
00:46:44
it's probably feir you know like um but I sort of set a goal with in my I had
00:46:50
two years left of school it was that offseason I set a goal that I was going to give it a really good crack like um
00:46:57
give it everything I could to try and make the first 15 and so how old are you like 15 16 yeah I must have been yeah 15
00:47:04
16 and um got a gym membership for ask my parents if they could instead of a Christmas present and birthday present
00:47:11
my birthdays in December to get me a gym membership um they did that um and just
00:47:17
cuz I knew the reason I wasn't getting picked a lot of the time was cuz I wasn't big enough or strong enough so I
00:47:22
knew I had to try and get bigger and stronger and um I did that I went really hard at the gym by myself and put a lot
00:47:30
of hours in I was always Naturally Fit um I was always a good runner but the um gym sers the things was something that I
00:47:38
really had to work on to you know put on enough muscle to be able to uh take the
00:47:44
collisions and make the tackles or try to make the tackles so um yeah and I realiz that the more I was putting in
00:47:52
the quicker things started happening I made the first 15 a year earlier than I was expecting to and the following year
00:47:59
I was Captain and it was just like I could really feel that all the work that I was putting in was getting really I
00:48:06
was getting rewarded really quickly so sort of caught the bug I guess and fish a cycle of started to put in more and
00:48:14
more work and things started to happen quicker and quicker yeah you get that momentum I
00:48:20
suppose you get a taste of it and that's quite intoxicating but then you you um
00:48:24
like you didn't make the um under 17 team the under 19 team the under 20 team
00:48:29
like why why did you keep going yeah well like at the time missing out on that might seem like um a bit of a
00:48:37
setback but for me I was I was so stoked to be even trialing for it like I was two years early I was so far off I
00:48:45
couldn't even make the Nelson rep team now I'm in the frame for one of the best
00:48:49
in the country so um I know I didn't make the team but that was like a massive step up for me and I didn't even
00:48:56
I really feel like I was good enough um at that stage I remember going to the trials and you've got Israel dag who was
00:49:04
already playing NPC and there's me who likes battling away um just coming out of Nelson
00:49:11
college which wasn't a massive rugby school at the time so I definitely felt
00:49:15
like I was a little bit out of place and didn't really feel ready to be um in
00:49:22
that side so I think that definitely cost me in the end or held me back but um the confidence that I got from being
00:49:27
around those players and knowing that I wasn't too far off some of the best players in the country gave me the
00:49:33
confidence that and I could um give this a serious crack and that's probably
00:49:37
where I realized that um rugby was going to be able to be a profession whether that was having to travel the world and
00:49:44
play smaller clubs but um got on to Tasman had just formed sort of two years earlier and gave a pathway for local
00:49:53
kids to be able to progress through and that's the wor I took did you have a
00:49:58
plan b or no um I was I was studying at the time it was sort of exercise sport or Sport Science and um I I just knew I
00:50:06
wanted to be involved in rugby um or in sport and whether that was a trainer a nutritionist or like manager or I just
00:50:15
always wanted to be involved in the game I I just loved it so much and um so I was sort of doing that on the side just
00:50:23
in case the rugby didn't go well that I could maybe try and get my foot on the
00:50:27
door that way but thankfully it did all work out and were you um yeah it seems like you
00:50:34
put a lot of hard work and so there's obviously like a little bit of talent but it's mainly hard work um how how
00:50:40
hard did you work compared to like others like you had you know I've been on a bit of a a deep dive the last few
00:50:47
months with um this guy Tim Grover who's um wrote a book called Relentless and
00:50:50
he's like the the personal trainer of like Kobe MJ Dwayne Wade you know all the best and it seems like um all those
00:50:57
guys are just super hardworking like Kobe Bry will do three workouts a day instead of two sort of thing were you
00:51:03
the hardest working guy I find that like such a hard one to know because I don't
00:51:08
really know what other people are doing but um I definitely felt like um when I'd go to camps or um whenever we had to
00:51:17
do Fitness testing or strength testing that um you could tell how hard I work because of the the rapid growth I was
00:51:25
getting compared to some of the others so um when I missed out on the New Zealand 19s because my speed time wasn't
00:51:34
quite strong enough wasn't quite um oh my speed time wasn't fast enough um so
00:51:40
then that whole sort of year I made sure that next time I got there that my speed
00:51:45
time was quick enough and then um my fitness was fine my strength was fine my speed time was fine in that 20s year and
00:51:52
then it was just down to I remember Dave reny saying mate you've done everything
00:51:56
you can to make this team you're just you're just not good enough and that was
00:51:59
like that was what team was that was that h no that was um New Zealand under 20 so the following year like I'd done
00:52:05
everything I I felt like I could to be selected um but then I think it just came down to me my mental stay around
00:52:13
not feeling like I was um I deserved to be there and I didn't have a great trial
00:52:18
and and it was refreshing from Dave renie to tell me that cuz I felt it as well and um yeah but I I I loved how he
00:52:26
said that um I'd done everything and he he really wanted to pick me for that
00:52:30
team just cuz he'd seen the work that I'd put in but um yeah as a rugby player
00:52:36
I guess that's the most important thing to know what what do you think that was
00:52:39
in hindsight was that um like a imposter syndrome or is it a like lack of confidence or self-belief what is it I
00:52:45
think it was a little bit of an imposter syndrome around how have I gone from not
00:52:50
being able to make the Nelson rep teams to now being in the conversation with guys playing NPC I I definitely felt
00:52:58
that I didn't feel like I understood the game as a first five um confidently enough to be able to
00:53:08
demand these guys on the calls and things like that so I definitely felt a little bit out of place and it was
00:53:13
something I struggled with early in my career but um I think all young teens go through it like it's a big job to be
00:53:20
able to tell an all black or someone what you think is the right call and um your decision making in that space so
00:53:29
you see it a lot with the young guys coming through around how hard that can be and um can affect your game and you
00:53:35
debled with sevens for a bit he you in the sevens frame with um Gordon titens as coach yes I missed out on a Super
00:53:42
Rugby side so did a sevens Tournament down in Queenstown back in the Glory Days with um tasmin we went all right
00:53:50
and titch picked me to go to a New Zealand Camp which was um yeah an exciting opportunity I'd heard a lot
00:53:57
about Sir Gordon titens around some of his trainings and how hard they were and there's definitely no GPS um
00:54:06
restrictions back there like there are these days it was it was run until you collapse basically it was what's what's
00:54:13
a GPS restriction oh like um nowadays everyone's got a GPS in their in their
00:54:18
shirt so if they get over a certain amount of kilometers they become a injury risk and they're taking out of
00:54:24
training and um right yeah you've got to manage the loads pretty pretty significantly but um he another
00:54:33
conversation he didn't he love making people vomit yeah I would imagine so and
00:54:38
pass out and like some of the testing was was brutal you'd often do a beat test straight into a phosphate test and
00:54:45
then endless games of sevens with 80 60 40s which is run to the 80 back to 60 40
00:54:52
m and um yeah you just run and run and run thank I was naturally quite aerobically fit so I didn't
00:55:01
struggle too much with that side of things so I probably found it not as hard as a lot of guys going in there
00:55:07
especially um some of the island guys who I know have been there before and just wanted to walk away first test and
00:55:15
um the thing with I've always struggled with the contact Fitness so like having
00:55:18
to tackle and do repeated tackles or wrestle and that sort of thing so the running side of things wasn't too bad
00:55:25
for me who who who was in that um seven Squad with you like any any names you can drop oh it was like DJ Forbes era
00:55:32
tomasi tharma young Charles peer tow was um someone young Joe Weber Tim Mickelson
00:55:38
Toby Arnold a few guys who are still floating around so um it was an awesome group and um a really good culture I
00:55:47
only did two tournaments with them um and then I took an opportunity up with the Hurricanes wider Squad so decided to
00:55:55
go down there path yeah do you remember your first Super Rugby game um coincidentally from
00:56:01
where you are now as um assistant coach of the Crusaders it was a Crusaders game
00:56:05
right it was and apparently it was on TV the other night a lot of guys said that
00:56:08
they they saw it it was a throwback and I was on the bench I didn't really remember this one as my debut to be
00:56:15
honest so what year was this um this would have been 14 10 years ago yeah or 13 maybe yeah I
00:56:23
think it was one of those years oh no it must 13 um come off the bench U so who who so
00:56:31
was bod playing B was playing okay so he came off and you came on uh he wouldn't
00:56:37
have come off he never came off so I was on the bench but I generally come on as
00:56:41
fullback so once um once bod once I realized that bod was um my competition for 10 and the guy never really got
00:56:49
injured I sort of had to find another pathway into the team and for me that was through fullback and trying to have
00:56:57
a dual playmaker role and um yeah so unless we were up by Plenty or down by plenty I was never getting on for B so
00:57:08
there's a lot of games especially early in my career where I I wouldn't get off
00:57:11
the bench which is always a one of those feelings where you're like GED but if
00:57:17
the team's had a good win you're happy for the team but it would have been nice
00:57:20
to get on and you know sort of Play Your Part in the win as well sometimes you can be bit awkward sitting The Sheds
00:57:27
after you've just you've prepared all week for this moment and then you don't
00:57:32
actually get to play it out so yeah there was um a hell of a game though way do you do you remember much about it um
00:57:38
not so much but someone reminded me after watching the um flashback and I think it was Alti leoa
00:57:46
intercept with a few minutes to go to seal the game for the Hurricanes am I right yeah 2928 to the Hurricanes
00:57:53
Crusade is up by 5 with 7 minutes to go um yeah incredible yeah just a remarkable game yeah and like there's so
00:58:02
many games that stand out um throughout my career which like look back on a man that was they were special moments and I
00:58:10
think that's the beauty of the game it's so unpredictable and um no matter like
00:58:15
we would have been underdogs that day like um I know how fight up the Hurricanes used to get to play against
00:58:22
the Crusaders and it's interesting now being on the other side of the fence I
00:58:25
felt it last week I saw the p and the Hurricane's had um playing us down there
00:58:30
so yeah it's interesting yeah everyone despises the Crusaders and wants to beat
00:58:35
them right yeah such a massive Target so so that game um your first one Dan and Richie playing that would have been Dan
00:58:43
and Richie right 2013 2014 yeah it would have been I think Dan was playing can't
00:58:47
remember Richie um but potentially I remember playing against him a few times and um yeah it's always you know seeing
00:58:55
some guys that you idolized growing up across the other side of the field even for me like um in my team like having
00:59:03
Conrad Smith M on all these guys who like I was a massive hurricanes fan growing up because of Christian Cullen
00:59:09
and I used to idolize these guys and then you know few years later you're in
00:59:15
the same team with them it's a pretty surreal moment that is cool eh that's so cool
00:59:21
did you have I I heard a story about um you and you and Richie I don't know when
00:59:26
this was um but did you do some like trainings with the Crusaders there was something where you you were running
00:59:32
laps and someone said to you you're not allowed to pass Richie yeah yeah that's
00:59:35
right what's the what's the background there yeah so I remember I don't know
00:59:40
how old I must have been young but I was in the tasmin academy um and was sent down for a week
00:59:47
experience with a few of the tasmin academy guys to train with the Crusaders were essentially just holding pads but
00:59:54
jump in the conditioning sessions and the swimming sessions there was at the time so I remember one of the ones was
01:00:00
just running around the laps and remember K fot sort of saying oh no one overtakes Richie in this drill and I was
01:00:07
in this run I was like okay so I sort of just running and like I was a naturally
01:00:12
pretty good runner and I always would back myself in those sort of um conditioning drills or um runs and I
01:00:21
sort of felt like I I had plenty more energy to give and I was just sort of sitting behind rich a little bit scared
01:00:26
to overtake yeah just in case what he was going to do like whether he' hunt me
01:00:31
down or um yeah and I just got to the point I had one let to go and I think KH was he saw that I was I was sort of
01:00:39
cruising and he said just overtake him and I was like okay I will and I just sort of put the foot down and just ran
01:00:46
fast and but to be fair I was like 70 kgs and Richie mcco would have been like a good hundred and something so um yeah
01:00:55
that was that I was a moment that I always remember like just how weird it is that I was intimidated to over
01:01:01
overtake someone in a running did did he say anything about it I I made a way bigger deal out of it in my head then he
01:01:09
probably didn't give a stu oh no I'm sure I had to appreciate it like he he
01:01:12
he'd want to be pushed right yeah so if someone so probably not by a little skull K way the point to Pro 60 kg yeah
01:01:22
um yeah so um oh when you signed for the hurricane there like massive sort of backlash like online and
01:01:29
stuff I read about this somewhere like on social media like oh who's this guy
01:01:35
oh potentially when I came back um not so much when I got there I hope because I was just in the wider Squad no one
01:01:42
really knew who was on the Wiest Squad um and then I had a pretty good NPC and then sort of felt like I sort of
01:01:49
deserved my chance when I initially got named but I did go over to London Irish and then came back true Japan and bod
01:01:57
had just signed with the blues um and I signed back with the hurricanes and there was definitely a
01:02:02
bit of a backlash there oh cuz you cu the fans maybe thought you weren't good
01:02:07
enough to be bod's replac yeah well like um Bo who's going to replace bod I guess
01:02:11
what's the big question and then when when I'm signed it's like oh GED like
01:02:17
that's not he's no B and Barrett so there's a lot of um comments back on
01:02:22
that so I do remember that and as sort of the first insight for me around the social media side of things and how it
01:02:29
can affect you and um because I was pretty lucky throughout my career that I was never really a big name I sort of
01:02:36
always went under cover a little bit I sort of um the guy who wouldn't get much praise so then no
01:02:44
one's going to try and knock me down either cuz you know you're not put on a
01:02:49
pedestal like some players are who are the ones who generally cop it a lot more so I was um pretty lucky throughout my
01:02:56
career around the comments and stuff that i' I'd receive but that was the
01:03:00
first time I was like oh jeez okay I'm really coing here no one's really happy
01:03:05
that I'm back and um yeah not a great start when you're stoked to come back to
01:03:10
the team that you you love playing for and you wanted to try and help but um everyone's not feeling the same how do
01:03:17
you how do you how do you cope with that like you are you good at um just like switching the phone off and not reading
01:03:22
these comments it's it's hard a people say don't read the comments but it's
01:03:25
[ __ ] difficult I it's almost impossible because you get you get tagged in them you get um you know like
01:03:31
it's you have to consciously either get off social media or if you see an article or a post stay away from have a
01:03:41
rule around staying away from the comments cuz that's where it generally is it's not so much well the media might
01:03:46
have a a piece to say but it's generally the ones that are in the comments which
01:03:51
get really abusive towards players and as a coach I can I'm sort of flick through them now and just read a few and
01:03:59
I think gez that's like so uncalled for or like out of line he actually was the
01:04:05
team might have voted him as man of the match how's he coping it like with such
01:04:09
abuse so um yeah it's a fascinating part of the game these days is around how
01:04:15
players balance that social media and how they can um CU there's obviously a
01:04:20
lot of good in it but um a lot of negativity comes from it as well yeah and and and that's the um thing is that
01:04:26
cuz if you take the good if you read if you get high on your own Supply you got to you got to take the negative as well
01:04:32
yeah someone once said that to me around if you're if you're willing to read the
01:04:36
good stuff you're going to have to be willing to read the bad stuff and I I think it's that's so true um if you if
01:04:42
you can't handle the bad stuff stay away from the good stuff as well cuz you're
01:04:47
you're going to go on an emotional roller coaster and feel like um one moment you're you're the best in the
01:04:52
world next minute yeah you're not worthy of the Jersey so yeah um yeah try and
01:04:58
stay level and stay stay at a nice nice mow level um to to stay in that right sweet spot yeah so you ended up we
01:05:08
addressed this at the beginning you ended up with a couple of itm cup um for taneki which you were kept on in the
01:05:12
Super Rugby title um the Super Rugby title with the hurricanes in 2016 then then you went overseas why did you go
01:05:19
overseas so you made the finals in 2015 you won in 2016 it was like you know the
01:05:24
Hurricanes were almost the C cust of becoming a dynasty yeah why did you leave um to be honest it was cuz I
01:05:32
didn't feel like I was going to keep my spot I felt like I was um I'd maximized my potential a
01:05:42
little bit um whether that was um really good self-awareness or because I didn't back myself enough
01:05:50
I'm I'm not sure I guess people would have different opinions on that but um
01:05:55
um 2015 there was I think there was an injury which gave me an opportunity to play and made the most of that I felt
01:06:06
like had a really good year that year um managed to keep all blacks off out of the starting lineup like our back three
01:06:13
was Julian savier Corey Jane nahi Milner Scutter um Jason Woodward England player
01:06:20
and then myself and somehow I was managing to start out of that group and I didn't feel like that was going to
01:06:28
happen for much longer so at the start of 2016 um our coach Clark lador was heading over to who's coaching the
01:06:37
Hurricanes now actually was heading over to London Irish and I mentioned that um
01:06:42
would be quite keen and he sort of teed that up and we got that deal signed pretty early in that season um and then
01:06:49
got through the year had a played most most of the games started in the big ones and um felt like I was a really big
01:06:56
part of that year and that success and got to the point where um London Irish got
01:07:04
relegated so I was going over to the Championship Rugby now and hurricanes had won the comp I was starting in the
01:07:13
final um so I tried to get out of my contract um I wanted to stay um the hurricane said that they
01:07:21
would match my offer over at London Irish because that obviously I I guess they didn't really expect me
01:07:28
to have the year or influence that I had on the group um and I didn't expect London
01:07:34
Irish to go down so I tried ringing the London Irish CEO and telling him that I'm not going to come which was a
01:07:43
conversation which I've never been so nervous for like really I was sweating I
01:07:48
wasn't sure how he was going to take it um yeah I tried to go down the the family um I just had a young son he was
01:07:57
sort of 3 months old and just thought it might have been too much to move to the
01:08:01
other side of the world even though that wasn't a huge part that was sort of
01:08:06
the the way that I thought might be my best chance to get out of jail get out of jail um but he basically said mate
01:08:14
you're no chance I'll see you on Monday and I like okay okay I'll see you Monday
01:08:19
and never spoke about the conversation just left that it's at and headed over
01:08:24
there and I love my time over there like um London's such a cool part of the
01:08:30
world and so busy and got to travel the world and plan a different competition meet so many new people and um yeah I've
01:08:38
got no regrets at the end is it good money with those International contracts when you play overseas for yeah it is um
01:08:44
in pounds was was on 250,000 F like half a million New Zealand yeah but once you get texted
01:08:53
it's um like your tax rate's about 50% as well so you get hit pretty hard which
01:08:59
is something I didn't really realize at the time when you like it sounds good
01:09:03
and I suppose you got to pay agents and yeah you got all your fees and or the agent fee is paid by the club but right
01:09:11
um accommodation in London is unbelievable yeah just the the cost of living over there I mean you can go to a
01:09:18
white cross or whatever and groceries can be quite cheap um but getting a coffee or breakfast or just going out
01:09:23
and doing things that cost so much money up yeah um but have you been quite smart
01:09:27
with your money over the years like did you finish as a player with um like a you know a good sort of [ __ ] yeah I think
01:09:32
that was something like I don't know how or why but I was really conscious with
01:09:38
my money like um bought my first property from a wider Squad contract so a wider Squad contract was about 25,000
01:09:48
a year so I lived at home for a long time saved a lot of lot of my income I wasn't a big spender um um hated wasting
01:09:57
money on the purse which a lot of guys especially young will go and buy rounds and rounds I guess um copped a bit of
01:10:05
flack for that about you know B tight G pockets and all those names but in the long run I've I've got no regrets about
01:10:12
how much money I um save from not buying those $200 rounds every time you you're
01:10:19
going out more in multiple times so um yeah I I finished my Rugby mortgage free um so um three investment properties um
01:10:32
so I feel like I'm in a pretty good space to um continue on but um yeah I was I was really anxious about coming to
01:10:41
the end of my Rugby career because I wasn't sure what I was going to do and I
01:10:45
almost had that rugby time frame as that's the end of my career I want to be
01:10:50
in a situation where um I can not retire but I didn't want real Financial pressure coming to
01:10:59
the end of my my Rugby cuz I knew how hard that transition was or is for a lot of guys and as soon as Financial
01:11:06
pressure comes into that as well it's just um a disaster hear how many guys um
01:11:13
relationships end um depression all those all those things come in with that transition and I think that financial
01:11:22
piece is such a big one cuz you're coming you finish your career at probably
01:11:26
the high of your financial high of your um Peak financially and then all of a sudden you're starting from square one
01:11:33
and if you've blown all that cash and you've got nothing to fall back on um I
01:11:38
can see how people stress out cuz it's it's living's expensive especially with
01:11:43
kids and um a family to provide for so um yeah I'm pretty lucky with um how I
01:11:49
how I did it yeah and so that's inspirational by the way and thanks for being so open about about about that
01:11:55
like I I think that's really cool like to to end pretty much on your own terms
01:12:00
with um you know like a [ __ ] and stuff that's that's really awesome um yeah how
01:12:04
was your mental health after you finished cuz I suppose you're sort of almost defined by being a player in a
01:12:08
way aren't you it's a big part of your identity yeah it is and I I've been
01:12:12
super lucky with um or yeah lucky might be the right word or might not be but how my transition worked I I like look
01:12:22
back at it I'm so grateful with how it went I couldn't have planned it any
01:12:26
better really like you've got so much anxiety leading up to it like what am I
01:12:31
going to do next you can't really start something else until you're until you
01:12:36
have finished um and for me it was one minute a player next minute I'm having surgery Co hits Carlos Spencer
01:12:47
leaves the Hurricanes Jason Holland asked me if I can fill in for Carlos Spencer for the rest of the season so
01:12:54
this sort of 6 weeks left to go on the season I've gone from player to a coach
01:13:01
essentially overnight um tried to start my podcast I've tried to create all these
01:13:07
identities to I guess sort of fill that Gap um so I'm no longer the player but I'm
01:13:14
now either the coach or the podcaster or um whatever whatever that is whether that's a big thing and I was never
01:13:22
really seen as a like I wouldn't go down the stre and every was oh there's James
01:13:26
Marshall the rugby player no one really knew who I was it was so it was never a massive part of it for me the identity
01:13:32
but I guess talking to other people around it it's what you call yourself I guess like I'm I am a rugby player it's
01:13:41
what I do but now what am I I'm I'm a coach I'm a dad I'm a I'm all these
01:13:46
things so um it's an interesting piece and something that I know a lot of guys
01:13:51
struggle with I think the biggest struggle for me was probably the exercise piece like with the
01:13:56
hip um how to fit an exercise cuz when you're a player you it's in your schedule you have to exercise it's part
01:14:05
of your routine and when you're trying to find a career or you're trying to
01:14:11
build something like you know the building a podcast was timec consuming coaching was timec
01:14:17
consuming family was timec consuming exercise for me went straight to the bottom and that was something and
01:14:24
something that I'm still working at the moment how can I fit that piece in for
01:14:28
myself and make sure that I'm still um looking after my own body and um myself
01:14:34
in that same mental space how how is your body now it's getting better and better with my hip uh I guess the first
01:14:41
two years um struggled to run struggled to walk without a limp I'm I can sort of
01:14:48
run around now with the kids which is which is nice I could go for a run if I had to um I can jump into training and
01:14:55
um do a few few bits there um but it's not ideal I'm always going to struggle
01:15:02
with my hip I'm going to need a hit replacement at some point it's just a
01:15:06
matter of when and trying to trying to hold off for that as long as possible they tell you you're too young right you
01:15:12
have to wait till what you're 50 they just sit as long as possible let us know
01:15:17
and when it's um fully stuffed again and we'll get a new one but um yeah
01:15:23
hopefully in 10 years some pretty good technology I might have some sort of robot H that
01:15:31
can um what sort of impact did did that have on your mental health cuz it's uh
01:15:36
you know if physically if you're not fit it's hard to be mentally fit he like it
01:15:40
gets you down yeah and I guess that was the piece for me like I realized that um
01:15:46
that had my physical health was definitely put to the to the back and like I used to always love running um
01:15:55
couldn't run for sort of two years I started getting off the gym um later in my career just you know sort of
01:16:05
found it quite tedious or hard work to get myself up for gym sessions like I used to when I was younger um and that
01:16:11
was really the only thing I could do so I sort of just sort of parked it and wasn't doing anything then you know find
01:16:17
yourself getting real sloppy around the G and um yeah it's um something I've tried to plan in this
01:16:26
year like early mornings I'll try and get up and go to the gym whether that's
01:16:31
a um little bit of a strength hurt um bike or run or something I'm trying to
01:16:36
do something three times a week in the morning and I've learned this from met
01:16:41
Todd but once you've once you write it down and what you're going to do the
01:16:45
next morning you do it if you don't you're more inclined to not do it so um
01:16:51
I definitely feel that like if I've written something down I'll I'll get up
01:16:54
and do it that satisfaction of Crossing it off the list or ticking it is is worth it well
01:16:59
if you don't write it down I'll find myself just jumping straight on the
01:17:03
computer and getting into some clips and um watching watching training or doing a
01:17:09
little bit more that's a good that's a good tip isn't it that's a good Pro tip
01:17:13
so you write like a to-do list at night time yeah do you any any other journaling or anything like that are you
01:17:19
you PR gratitude or I've gone through stages where I've got right into that um
01:17:24
I really found that in Co the co break that got on a lot of those U mental health sort of podcasts and some of
01:17:32
those the ice spaths the journaling the Gratitude all that sort of stuff I feel like naturally I've always been really
01:17:40
grateful um I'm not sure how or why but um didn't have a huge amount growing up
01:17:46
so everything that I get I'm always super grateful for and I know it's so
01:17:51
easy to take the things that you have um and you use every day like your fingers your being able to breathe your
01:17:59
all these things so easy to take for granted CU um you don't think about them
01:18:03
until they're until they're gone but I think it's a great thing to practice um
01:18:09
writing down as many I used to do it um I should still do it but I don't um 10
01:18:15
things every morning that I'm grateful for and that can be anything like grateful to be able to listen or um
01:18:21
grateful to be able to breathe um grateful for being able to have fresh water all these little things that you
01:18:27
don't often think about um unless you consciously make an effort to think about because you know you notice it
01:18:34
when you've got a sore throat and how hard it is to swallow or when your nose
01:18:37
is bed and you just want to breathe you notice you notice then how important it is but until you until it's taken away
01:18:44
you don't really know yeah when when when you're unwell you only have one
01:18:48
word sh that's that's be well again that's really good I I sort of do that
01:18:52
as well I don't write it down but I lie and beard in the morning that's the
01:18:55
first thing I do like I I just lie there and count my blessings and it's like you
01:18:58
can set the Gratitude bar really low like having having a warm duvet on top of you having a roof over your head yeah
01:19:04
the water like you said drinking water out of the T yeah it's um it's a bloody
01:19:08
great way to be I feel like the Gratitude just the word with its sort of woo woo connotations gets a bad rep but
01:19:14
it's bloody good yeah it's powerful and um I think people always see it as um
01:19:20
big picture stuff grateful for my big car or whatever it is but it's it's as
01:19:25
simple as um the things that keep you alive or the health often was always a big one of myself and my family like
01:19:32
yeah you don't realize until you hear stories of other people's kids getting
01:19:38
sick and just you know sort of hits you how grateful I am that my kids are all healthy and well and um something that
01:19:46
you canot take for granted cuz there's no Rhyme or Reason Why kids get sick or
01:19:53
um get these illnesses that are so heartbreaking but um something to always be grateful for yeah absolutely um oh
01:20:01
one thing I forgot to mentioned so the um the itm Cup Final so uh taneki you you were the captain you won that game
01:20:09
your brother Tom was on the other team yeah um how was that that was intense like that's probably the most intense
01:20:17
game I think I ever played was that one in terms of um the atmosphere of the but also the
01:20:26
banter and um I guess probably abuse from the opposition cuz I played with a lot of
01:20:34
the those guys it wasn't just my brother I was a proud Tes Marco man came through
01:20:38
the region that's so awkward um now a few years later captaining tanaki and we're going at it in the final so it was
01:20:48
one of those ones where um the intensity of the game just sort of got me in in the red and a lot of the guys were
01:20:57
calling me a traitor the um hammerhead fans were all abusing me in the crowd do do you do you does that get to
01:21:05
you or do you thrive in that um it's kind of banter in a away isn't it or it
01:21:10
is it is and it was um I didn't I wouldn't say I thrived in it I felt like
01:21:16
like they talk about staying in the like the top of the curve I'd definitely gone
01:21:20
past it like um over arousal like I thought made I looked at that game some really poor decisions but like the
01:21:28
physicality like I was really up for it in terms of the collisions cuz I was just so angry and um fired up for the
01:21:36
game like um yeah there's some harsh words said and my brother didn't speak
01:21:42
to me for a we while after that one but really like what's what's a we while I
01:21:47
reckon it would have been a couple of weeks oh my God what about said did your parents go to the game yeah they were
01:21:53
all there who do they support one each me usually no no they were pretty neutral actually I remember that
01:22:00
one cuz my dad had a bet on both of us to win like taranaki were paying $30 to win the comp at the start of the year
01:22:08
which is well that wow rank Outsiders no one gave us a chance and my dad quite liked those odds and put a little bit of
01:22:16
money on them and then Tasman I think had a slow start and managed to get a decent return on them as well so he was
01:22:23
in a wi-1 situation but he was going to win more if taranaki won so I think he was financially cheering for me so what
01:22:32
did he have on the game so 100 bucks he would would have got 3,000 back yeah I can't remember the exact figures but it
01:22:38
would have been something around that yeah unreal yeah he was stoked that's awesome so um so you you and your
01:22:44
brother don't talk for a couple of weeks then how do you break the ice after that
01:22:47
I honestly can't remember I think such a great often times you're um especially when you're in different
01:22:55
teams you don't actually you're not speaking every day sometimes it is a
01:22:59
couple of weeks before you speak so um yeah I I don't actually know it was probably just a normal next time we were
01:23:08
together we were we're good as gold but definitely felt a little bit of awkward
01:23:11
tension for a while yeah and and when you reflect on your career now because I suppose every um every young New
01:23:17
Zealander growing up it's the the yeah your goal to make the All Blacks yeah um
01:23:21
do do you feel like you got everything you could out of your career or do you like there was unfinished business yeah
01:23:26
and I think that's a little bit around that piece I said before around I felt
01:23:30
like I got the most out of my career hence why I left um I look back on that and challenge that sometimes around
01:23:38
whether that was a fair assessment um whether I could have been an all black I felt like I potentially could have been
01:23:47
a one to five game all black might have maybe got a cap if IID continued on that
01:23:54
that pathway but I never felt like I was going to be a um all black legend or a long-term all black so I always felt
01:24:01
like um I was pretty limited um and I was achieving probably as high as I thought I would so um thought it was
01:24:09
best for me to sort of cash in while I while I could um rugby career you never know when it's
01:24:17
going to end and um yeah once I'd had my family and wanted to sort of set set
01:24:23
ourselves up for life after and moving overseas at the time was definitely the right thing for
01:24:29
me yeah oh who knows maybe you'll get that cap in the future as a coach who knows um all right we'll go to
01:24:37
some um okay audience uh audience questions um yeah I put on Instagram that you're coming in first one was um
01:24:45
question for Jimmy too long to put in the Box haha ask him if he remembers how he got home from Crowded House Bar in
01:24:50
New Plymouth after the 2014 itm Cup Final against tasma I honestly cannot remember that but I I
01:24:59
remember there being a house party um it was a massive night um but does he does he have any
01:25:08
yeah he says the answer is me I was sober driver for my mates and stumbled across him and Jamie broader stumbling
01:25:14
along Devon Street PE he owes me macers cuz he ate my nuggets remember that at all I don't
01:25:21
remember that but very grateful for that ride um and sorry about the Nuggets I will repay you for those nuggets but man
01:25:30
that was that was a good night um yeah I guess that that was big part of it like
01:25:34
the emotions of that whole week and that game was just so much to be able to celebrate after that one was pretty
01:25:42
special and wasn't just that night it was a a few days after it was um really
01:25:48
good memories with that crew oh how good um Miller Stewart says ask him about the
01:25:54
slap horse yarn one of the best from Jimmy slap horse doesn't ring any bells I'm
01:26:01
guessing that maybe there's some things here that have come up on your your podcast that you just don't you have you
01:26:06
got a [ __ ] memory it's like me I concussions um slap horse yarn doesn't
01:26:13
ring any bells no it doesn't but I'd love I'd love to be able to share it if
01:26:16
I knew it okay um biggest barrier the Crusaders face with a new coach SL missing senior
01:26:22
members yeah that's probably a good one around um I'm not so sure if it's the
01:26:30
the new coach feel like Rob Penny's coming and really seamlessly sort of taking over that role of what Razer did
01:26:39
it people would look from the outside and probably suggest otherwise and they cop a lot of he's cooping a lot of
01:26:45
pressure at the moment for for the record but I think he's doing a really good
01:26:50
job other pieces around the the players who have gone that's it's always going
01:26:55
to be um a big gap to fill um Richie manga Sam white loock couple of the most influential Super Rugby players ever
01:27:05
probably um not easy to to fill that Gap um not just in terms of what they do on
01:27:11
the field but off it and the way they drove standards and um adapted game plans on the field you C you you can't
01:27:21
really coach that you can um do your best to sort of educate some of the young tens and game drivers around these
01:27:29
pictures that they're seeing but sometimes it's just getting the Reps and
01:27:32
um I think that's probably been the biggest challenge we've we've found so
01:27:36
far this season but um every game's a learning piece for these guys so hopefully by the time this is released
01:27:43
um we've got a very good win to lost rof and people can um yeah I guess agree
01:27:49
with it yeah um I feel like this is a statement more of a question um how fat is that wallet boy sash Jimmy
01:27:57
chew is his name what's that about how fat is the wallet that's probably back to my um oh
01:28:03
being a tight ass tight potentially and yeah um I think but by the way I think being a tight US is an admirable thing
01:28:10
like um the morning after buying a round of fireballs or Jager Bombs no one remembers instant regret you check their
01:28:17
account um did Elliot Dixon score that try now that is a common question what TR is this what this was to win the
01:28:24
Super Rugby 2015 um Elliott Dixon scored a very controversial try um which essentially
01:28:33
won them the game I don't like to watch that one back cuz I missed one of those
01:28:37
tackles on him um so that one still sort of haunts me a little bit but I I believe he dropped it I've spoken to him
01:28:46
he's convinced he scored it but I Reon he's just just loves that yarn but so
01:28:51
who did ellot he was playing for the Highlanders when they won the 2015 Super huran yeah so he scored a pretty
01:28:59
good try and beat me in one of those tackles um how something like that how long do you beat yourself up for how
01:29:06
long does it take to get over that um oh I wouldn't say it's like an everyday
01:29:10
thing but when I see it it's just more of a like oh damn it that was that was
01:29:15
my moment you know but um I I can't say I think about it too much more than that
01:29:21
I think you you've just got a really good sort of um attitude to things eh like I'm thinking other people have had
01:29:27
on the podcast like Shane Cameron he said it was like seven years before um he went a whole day without thinking
01:29:32
about the tour fight um Jimmy nisham um one of the World Cup games that they lost in a super over or whatever he said
01:29:39
he he thought about that daily for you know years and still thinks about it um John T good from shead I recorded a
01:29:45
podcast with him and um he made a joke on stage that potentially cost them like a couple of million dollars with a
01:29:51
contract and he said he said he every every night for seven months had had wake up at least once in the night and
01:29:57
sort of turn over it um I think the for me it's around um the at the end of the day it is a
01:30:06
game it's a game that's there to entertain um people love watching it people um enjoy it but it's it's a it's
01:30:16
really it like there's so many more bigger issues in the world that um people can be stressed out about than
01:30:23
the fact that I missed a tackle that potentially cost us the game I like you can beat yourself up about it
01:30:31
as much as you want like every time I went out on the field or as a coach now do everything I can to do my best or get
01:30:39
the result for my team but sometimes that's not going to be good enough and um I will make mistakes and it's
01:30:46
around um that's okay as long as you learn from them and try not to let them
01:30:52
happen again um um that's the reality of it and then if you're really overthinking it just pull back and
01:30:59
realize how small you are in this big world um and that the fact that 10 years ago I missed a tackle nobody really
01:31:08
cares when you're looking at the whole picture of the thing so um that's such a
01:31:13
good perspective yeah I think sometimes pulling back can um give you perspective
01:31:18
and how small you are in this world like often we think that we're probably more
01:31:22
important than we are and um it can give you a bit of a reality check yeah um apart from rugby what is his favorite
01:31:30
thing to do in Christ chur um well with the three kids soon to be four very playground heavy the
01:31:39
Margaret May Margaret m park is is a good one um but there's lots of good playgrounds around um often on a day off
01:31:47
I like to go out to um Tom beg's Farm who's a horse trainer I'll go sitting
01:31:52
behind a couple of horses it was a passion of mine growing up and um something I've always sort of loved to
01:32:00
loved to do at some point potentially get behind one and drive in a in a race but um yeah's a few few things that keep
01:32:08
me busy but the time so I'm limited at the moment um a lot of guys play golf
01:32:14
and I've just got into this might be a bit weird but a bit of frisbee golf um
01:32:18
there's a little Frisbee Golf Course around by my house and really enjoying just going out and with the kids my
01:32:25
8-year-old's quite good as well so go out and have a round of frisbee golf to
01:32:30
about 20 minutes to do the course and bit more time consuming less time consuming than a real game of golf I'm
01:32:37
chasing balls around left right and Center so yeah if you've got three kids in a fourth on the way like even nine
01:32:43
holes of actual golf is going to be a big ass um what are Jimmy's thoughts on
01:32:48
flotation as a part of recovery relaxation yeah I'm big big fan of that so Tim bitman at o Studio that's
01:32:55
actually another uh one of my go-tos in Christ Church on a day off I'll try and
01:33:00
get into there um have a float or a sauna or ice bath or a yoga session or something like that um I really enjoy it
01:33:09
especially when I'm when I'm feeling worn down or um you know like feeling
01:33:15
like I'm starting to get quite stressed about things I'll just go and have a 45
01:33:19
minute float where I can just let the Mind try and go and let it go wherever it wants to and just come out of there
01:33:27
feeling really refreshed often I fall asleep especially at the moment with how busy I am and how fatigued I am um but I
01:33:35
I really enjoy it and I found some huge benefits from it yeah brilliant uh favorite player you've coached and why
01:33:43
oh geez that's tough they like kids you can't have a favorite I think um Ethan
01:33:49
blackhead is someone who is just the ultimate man to coach I think a lot of players will say the same thing he's
01:33:56
just such a champion guy he's he just craves learning he does everything he can to get better I'm so gutted for him
01:34:05
around his injuries at the moment but hopefully we'll see him back out on the
01:34:10
field shortly and um yeah he's he's such a good player and like if you could say
01:34:15
who's the perfect guy to coach or who's your perfect player that you could model
01:34:20
Academy [ __ ] off it's it's probably Ethan blackett yeah High praise um do you like
01:34:26
punting on the horses I used to like um growing up it was a big part of my upbringing really like spent a lot of
01:34:32
time at tabs my dad was a big pter a lot of our holidays were at the different race meetings so um you a lot of the
01:34:44
race meetings a lot of Friday nights would be down at Alexandre park or with my grandma and my dad and all those sort
01:34:51
of memories um as a kid and then as I grew up I still sort of loved the game and I I I still enjoy it but I I haven't
01:34:59
bet for sort of the last five years um CU I was thinking it would go against a few um gor Pockets yeah it would sort of
01:35:08
go against you'd probably hate losing money I did hate losing money I guess the thing for me I was I was actually I
01:35:14
know a lot of people say this but I was actually quite good at it um I know a lot of punters believe they are but um I
01:35:23
would get accounts shut down um so bet 365 a lot of people who bet would probably know that um betting
01:35:32
ageny soon as you start winning they'll restrict your account so you can't bet
01:35:36
um as soon as you're losing they'll give you um fre free credits to sort of
01:35:41
promote your gambling so my um account got restricted pretty quickly and then I started buying guys
01:35:49
accounts off them and start started building syndicates and built a pretty significant Syndicate at
01:35:56
the Hurricanes which had eight people and so that was eight different accounts for me to sort of get shut down before
01:36:03
we so we could build this Kitty and build enough in the kitty that we bought a horse um which has gone through
01:36:11
different horses and we've still got a horse together now that that Syndicate
01:36:14
but um yeah had a lot of I guess the thing for me around gambling the addiction piece for me was the time
01:36:23
spent on it like it was never a money and like because of my GS Pockets I would never have allowed it to get them
01:36:30
the loss of money but it was so much time spent on it and like researching researching watching um
01:36:38
everything like just it's endless you can get up in the morning you can watch
01:36:42
races all the way to toight and I found myself doing that quite regularly especially on days off pre kids and then
01:36:50
I guess once kids came into the equation that was the moment where I realized that hang
01:36:55
on um I can't keep sneaking off to the toilet to watch to watch race after race
01:37:01
after race you doing that well I I didn't want to be watching them in front of the kids and my wife was never a big
01:37:06
fan of it so um I knew that um that was the point where I was like oh I've got
01:37:12
to I've got to give this up like um it's just not worth it and I I loved the I
01:37:19
Lov the gambling side of I Lov the mates part like especially being in a syndicate the group of it like going to
01:37:25
a pub and having a b with five mates and just riding home winners was something I
01:37:30
really enjoyed but once I realized that [ __ ] it's taking away time from my kids
01:37:34
and my family and um I didn't want that to happen I knew I had to um pull the
01:37:39
pen you seem to have quite good self-discipline like and quite a good self- awareness so if you're aware that
01:37:44
something's not working for you um you seem to be quite good at knocking it on
01:37:47
the head yeah I guess means you don't have the the addictive gene potentially
01:37:52
yeah or I I was probably addicted to it for a while but I think that I'm not
01:37:56
sure how you get self-awareness but I think it's such a underrated skill to be
01:38:01
able to have to be able to be aware of what you're doing and what harm it's
01:38:04
doing or in rugby like what are your strengths what are your weaknesses or in life what are your strengths what are
01:38:09
your weaknesses and once you know that you can work on your weaknesses or play to your strengths but that
01:38:15
self-awareness piece is such a important part I think yeah yeah and you um are you proud of yourself you you you know
01:38:22
you like who who you see in the mirror yeah I think so um that's probably quite
01:38:28
an awkward thing to say like it is it is but it's well I look back at what I've
01:38:34
achieved and man I I think I've overachieved massively and um I hear people talk about me or the perception
01:38:43
that um I guess on the podcast or what I've built is that I'm a a good lad or a
01:38:50
good person and I'm really proud of of that side of me like um I won the team Man of the Year a lot at
01:38:58
the Hurricanes because I felt like people really appreciated the team man that I was I put the team first I
01:39:04
wasn't ego driven or um myself driven so um I'm really proud of those achievements probably more so than what
01:39:13
I achieved on the field I think that person that you are is so important that's the one that people remember and
01:39:18
I feel like because of that I've created mates and really good relationships with
01:39:23
so many people um throughout the world that now with my podcast I try and get them on and um share their stories as
01:39:31
well I think that's a good place to end it James Marshall absolute lad mate you're a lad appreciate it oh mate I
01:39:38
appreciate you being so generous with your time um thanks for being engaged for like an hour 42 I'm was your mind
01:39:44
wandering are you thinking about tonight's game or no no I haven't mate like I I love that side of podcast like
01:39:50
once you're in it you're in the conversation there's no distractions
01:39:53
there's no phones you're not um you're not doing anything El you're in your
01:39:57
conversation and once you finished you're like well hour 40 That's I didn't
01:40:01
feel like I was talking for that long so um I really enjoyed it I appreciate the
01:40:05
insights mate and um yeah best of luck for the rest of the Crusader season by the time uh this podcast goes out we'll
01:40:11
be deep into it um yeah hopefully you turn things around appreciate it mate thank you
01:40:23
oh