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Chapter 1: What is discussed at the start of this section?
Hey guys, welcome to another episode of the Waterland Podcast, presented to you by Betcha, and here's a little sample of what's about to come in this episode.
I was first 15 captain and head boy and stuff, but I was pretty shy. I made probably by 15 or 16, I think I made the county's men's cricket team. Rugby went from the thing I love and played kind of for fun to, oh man, shit, you could... Robbie Deans walks past, Crusaders coach, and how would you like to be a Crusader? And I was just like, well, yeah, that'd be pretty cool.
Richie Rubin and that, you know, these guys that you've seen on TV. Yeah. And suddenly you're kind of sharing a changing room with them. It was scary, man, getting the jersey for the first time and you're kind of staring at it going, you know, how real is this? And coaches saw potential there.
yeah and as a leader in me somewhere which i i didn't really know or feel like i had in me but yeah i think it for any leader it's like don't chase the leader you want to be or you think you should be it's you know be who you are
Well, lad, well, today I'm joined by one of the greatest All Blacks of the professional era. Whether he was dominating the line-out, showing his skill set on the edge, winning collisions or making clutch plays in big moments, this man was the player teammates trusted, coaches relied on and fans admired all over the world.
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Chapter 2: How did Kieran Read's early sports experiences shape his career?
He's a Crusader Centurion, four-time Super Rugby champion. He's played 127 tests for the All Blacks, won two Rugby World Cups, captained his country more than 50 times and became one of the most influential loose forwards to have ever played the game. Off the field, he's an extremely humble human, great family man, and of course, he is a massive lad.
It is the legend himself, the great Kieran Reid. Welcome, mate. Thanks, Jimmy. Nice to be here, mate.
What an intro. It's a hell of an intro. Thank you. It always kind of puts me in my place when I hear that. I kind of try and stay away from those stats sometimes, but no, it is pretty cool to have.
Yeah, you're a very humble man. I mean, I see you around the touch fields and the rugby fields and no one would really know that you've, you know, achieved what you've done. You're very unassuming and I think maybe that's just a Kiwi thing, but it's definitely my way.
It's like, oh, you know, it was a special time, you know, to represent my country and play so many times for the Crusaders. But I guess it's, you know, like for me now, I guess you're just a dad when you turn up to the sports field and you just want to enjoy yourself. And I guess anyone,
who's out there you just want to be that normal Kiwi who turns up and supports their team and I think that's you know it's a pretty good value to have you know within people especially probably when you are in that high stakes high pressure environment you just got to keep your feet on the ground and not get too high and caught up in it I guess
Yeah, I guess your name pops up a lot on the podcast and a lot of memories people have of you is like just you doing this little thing to make them feel welcome. Like I remember Crot saying, he always remembers the first day he came in and you were the first to introduce yourself and make an effort. I remember Ioani talking around your time at the
counties where you went up and you'd obviously done research, but you knew all the players and you went up and shook their hands and said their first name, which is incredible for someone of your stature at the time. So you've always made a conscious effort, was it?
Yeah, I think it was probably naturally that way. But definitely as I grew into a bit of leadership stuff, I made a conscious effort to try and
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Chapter 3: What pivotal moment shifted Kieran's focus from cricket to rugby?
You know, I'd lose weight even though I was probably eating worse than I had done all season. I'd lose weight because I wasn't doing the gym and having all this extra stuff. So I'd always come back to pre-season, a few kgs down, having to put on weight but also do all the running and things like that.
So it was always quite tough to kind of get the body up to weight and most definitely even when I was younger. I came to Canterbury and into the academy down here as a skinny fella and
I got put on a 10 by 10 program you know like it was 10 reps 10 sets yeah oh man it was deadly and I was just smashing protein and just like had you know all that stuff the creatine things and yeah yeah so when I did I put on a bit of weight man I'd certainly uh struggled around the field those initial kind of little bits to kind of figure out what it what it was but
Um, yeah, I think now I'm in a pretty good space. I just think you don't want to go the opposite way when you're finished. So, um, yeah, happy to be in a good place.
Well, most, most people get one comment like, geez, you put on weight or you've lost a lot of weight. Hey, not many people, unless you're really diligent with your training, staying that same way. Exactly. Big commitment. Yeah, I think so. Right. So,
A lot of people have either had to work really hard to keep the weight on or work hard to keep it off. So you kind of drop into that natural thing. But I think if I look around a lot of ex-players now and like yourself, right? Like you're in great nick. It's like you've been trained in that for such a long time. It's become part of who you are, your mindset. And it's like, well-
That's what you do. So, you know, you just keep doing it, don't you? Yeah.
Well, I'm keen to hear a little bit more about the start of your journey and counties. Did you grow up in counties? Yeah, I did. Born in Papakura.
Yeah, that's right. So, yeah. Siblings? Yeah. I'm in the middle of three brothers.
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Chapter 4: How did Kieran Read transition into leadership roles in rugby?
Actually, it took me until we played first 15 together. When I was fifth for year 11, he was seventh form. He was captain of the team, and I think it was about then when I was playing in his team, and I was pretty good. I was probably, even then, one of the maybe better players. Oh, yeah. And he realized I was useful, so... We became mates. He needed you.
Yeah, yeah. We probably stopped winding him up as much. Yeah, probably.
I was like, oh, he's a skipper. I better look after him. But nah, he was driving me into school too at that stage probably as well. So it'd be nice to him. So I wouldn't have to catch the bus. I could get a ride.
Yeah, so it was a good time. Good memories. And was it always rugby and cricket for you? Was that the sort of balance? Yeah, basically.
Rugby, cricket, and athletics, actually, up to probably in the intermediate. What was your event in athletics? Oh, I was just probably sprinting, and then I was pretty good in throwing events, like shot put and discus. I held the Papakura record under 10s or something like that in discus and long jump for over 20 years. Oh, wow.
I got an email from some old person, maybe only a few years ago, saying your discus record was finally broken. So, yeah, I was handy. But we had a cool group of... At our club, that would do like the Wednesdays or whatever. I want to say Ovaa. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Good mates of him. Me and him would compete and then there's two other guys who were pretty, yeah, pretty good.
We were all pretty fast. We all could kind of do things. So when we went up and did like the Auckland competitions on the weekends, yeah, We competed all right, eh? So that was fun, but it got to the point, yeah, it must have been about 12, 13 or so, and Dad said, oh, you can either get a new cricket bat or spikes. Oh, yeah, yeah. And so I chose the cricket bat. Yeah.
And so that kind of put into my athletics because we were just bare feet. yeah you know we were the pub guys we were coming in to you know these Auckland comps we're in bare feet on the track and everyone else was in spikes we're in bare feet yeah so I never had spikes so yeah so I chose the cricket bat and Cricket was a big part of our life, I think. It was just an awesome game.
We played at Karaka Cricket Club. Played there since I was little. And then when I was 12, 13, we moved out that way as well onto a little bit of land. So, yeah, put the three boys on 10 acres. So it was quite nice to have a bit of space. Dad put us in goalposts, but that didn't work.
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Chapter 5: What lessons did Kieran Read learn from his early career setbacks?
Make sure I learn from it and then I can utilize that in the future.
Yeah. And you obviously learned and grow to become an All Black. And you mentioned earlier around you kind of know and then you know, but was that the same with the All Blacks? Did you have a feeling you were going to be named? Yeah.
Yeah, 2008. So Crusaders won the title. I had a pretty good year at Crusaders, but I was young. I looked back now and I wasn't... Um, I was still pretty little, um, good tackler and, but not really a ball player or anything. Yeah. Um. How old were you? 2008.
Chapter 6: How did Kieran Read feel about being named to the All Blacks?
Yeah. 22. Oh, 22. Oh, 22. All black. All right. I wasn't, but I wasn't, so I was talked about as being an all black.
Oh yeah.
But I, um. after the super rugby season um i didn't get named oh yeah um it was actually quite so everyone was saying you're going to be all the media everyone um saying you're going to be named my parents were down because we just played the final the night before um dad and so i was just at home um after you know being out all night yeah um And my parents had bought a bottle of champagne.
I was like, man, you can't be doing that. Because they must have bought into the hype. And I was like, I don't even know if I was up. I must have got up.
Chapter 7: What challenges did Kieran Read face as All Blacks captain?
I'm pretty sure I got up whenever the announcement was. Yeah. And they just did the old, and I didn't get announced. I slowly dropped the old champagne on the couch. So I didn't get named.
Yeah.
And I was like, wow, I was a bit pissed off. I was actually quite pissed off. But then, you know, in some ways I look back, it's probably one of the better things that happened to me. I did go on and kept in Canterbury that year, which I wouldn't have got the opportunity to do if I was in the All Blacks. So I was pissed off. I went up to my parents and we had a few days up there the next week.
And then Steve Hansen rang me. Oh, did he? Yeah, the first time I'd ever... heard from him, spoken to him, and he's like, son, we just want to give you more time. Yeah. And he said to me on that conversation, we'll pick you for the India tour. Oh, yeah. But I said, okay, whatever.
Chapter 8: How does Kieran Read define success and leadership?
Get the champagne back out there.
I was like, well, I didn't know about the champagne.
So I didn't know. So I didn't know.
I thought you saw it on there.
No, I didn't see it.
No, no, I didn't see it. They hid it. They hid it. So I never saw it. So good on them for not showing me. So I never know this until later. Until my dad told me, like, after I made the oblique. So yeah, so Steve had that conversation with me. I kind of kept that conversation to myself. I didn't tell anyone else. But he also said, oh, look, we want you to,
We don't want to overload you with game time. It's kind of the other thing. And I was like, you know, I went back to Canterbury, played 80 minutes of the game. I was like, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be playing 80 minutes. I'd be a squad member. But yeah, as I said, pretty timing wise, it was probably perfect. And Steve's always got that down pat. Yeah.
Just the intuitive nature of knowing, you know, what's best for certain athletes.
Yeah.
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