Damian Hughes

You know, when you're with Harriet or like your parents, do you talk about it as fear or do you use a different way of framing it?

Yeah, definitely.

And well, why don't we listen to another guest that sort of captures how they dealt with pressure?

Because I think Dan Carter picked up on this as well.

You know, Dan had that great line, didn't he?

That New Zealand rugby were the world's best rugby team when it didn't count.

When they came under acute pressure, they become somewhat less than the sum of its parts.

And

It was only the 2007 World Cup when they got beat to the France team that they'd demolished just a couple of weeks earlier in the knockout stage.

Did they start addressing how to cope with pressure more seriously?

Let's have a listen to Dan explain what went on behind the dressing room doors of the New Zealand rugby team.

Well, yeah, because it goes back to what you said.

It doesn't matter where you are in your career.

The more successful you become, the fears just get bigger because the platform gets wider and your brain will naturally, in those pressure moments, it goes to, it looks at three questions, which is what is expected of me?

Dan Carter's got this track record of being nigh on the best number 10 in the sports history.

So expectations are high.

Do I have the ability to cope with those expectations?

And then what are the consequences of failure?

Now, when you're playing in a World Cup knockout tournament, the consequences of failure, going back to New Zealand, having been knocked out in the quarterfinals and the stigma and the anger of the fans is all quite significant.

So the fear just grows bigger.