Brent Pope: "I was told I wouldn’t achieve much"

Growing up in the New Zealand countryside, we spent a lot of time outdoors and I always had a natural love of sport. I was lucky enough to try everything from skiing, surfing, horse-riding – and of course rugby – from an early age.

I was a sickly child. I was born with bronchitis and double pneumonia and the umbilical cord wrapped around my neck. I’d bad asthma until I was six and they thought I had cancer at one stage. But I was a cheeky kid.

I was told I wouldn’t achieve much as I was too easy to distract and too prone to distracting others. I was not studious. I was told what I couldn’t do, not what I could do. That stunted me and I suffered a lot as a result but I know now that my behaviour was simply masking the reality of my low self esteem.