New All Blacks assistant coach Neil Barnes says he’s both humbled and driven by the challenge ahead after joining Dave Rennie’s coaching group.
“It’s a huge honour to be involved at something at this level, I’m pretty humbled by the whole thing,” Barnes told Sport Nation’s Millsy & Guy.
“But mate, I’m not devoid of understanding the level of pressure that’s going to come on in this and the amount of responsibility involved, but that also excites me to be at my best.”
Barnes, who links up with Jason Ryan, Tana Umaga, Mike Blair and Phil Healey, admits the role wasn’t something he always chased.
“This might be an interesting answer for you, but I’m actually a farmer and I love farming. I actually just did rugby as recreation, I got a buzz out of helping teams achieve and especially the individuals inside it, watching them get better and shift to another level, that’s what drives me.
“The fact that people ask you to come and do these jobs in other teams is just like bit of a win. But yeah, mate, I’m not gonna ever deny like being able to get into an all black team. it’s something that sits pretty highly with me but it’s not something I ran around aspiring to do the whole time. I just try and do my best to help people out.”
That farming background, he says, underpins how he coaches.
“It’s my comfortable place (the farm). You deliver results by the work you put into it in farming and you soon work out that there’s not much of a crop to harvest if you don’t sow the seeds and then nurture it all the way through and that applies from the rugby as well.
“I don’t have to be on the farm. I choose to be every morning at half past six to go over and help and clean up. But then I head into town to do rugby to try and help out with coach development and player development at grassroots level. And I honestly believe that’s given me a great base to move to this level, to be honest.”
Tony Johnson on new All Black assistant Neil Barnes | Sport Nation Mornings
Barnes says improvement across the board is the focus for the All Blacks.
“Right across the board. We’ll put a lot of work into the skill increment of the team to grow the players, and if you grow the individual player, you’ll actually grow a team.
“And I think the whole team has to be aligned about how you’re playing and understand the reason why. You get all that right and give them some buy-in to what it should look like, they’ll go to war for you.”
Barnes also revealed he initially encouraged Rennie to apply for the top job – and having worked with him before, Barnes believes the All Blacks head coach will bring a refreshing edge.
“He is unbelievably honest, caring and driven. All of those qualities when you put them together, he’ll get the best out of people.
“I think it’ll be refreshing for this country at the end of the day… he can also be pretty brutal when he needs to when it comes to the honesty side of things within the team. A deep person that cares.”
Listen to the full interview: