Fifteen months into his French rugby career, former All Black Conrad Smith has opened up about his time playing rugby in New Zealand and France.
Arriving in the south of France at the end of the 2015 Rugby World Cup to play for Top 14 side Pau, Smith has endured a tough start to 2017, sitting out the last three months due to an ankle injury.
He told French paper L'Equipe that his body doesn't recover like it used it.
"At 35, you know your body, you know what you can and can't do," he said.
"When I was young, I played on weekends and on Monday I could play again. Today, after a game I die for three days! And after a hard game, the 'recuperation' can continue until Wednesday, or even Thursday. But I know that so I sleep as much as I can, I do whatever it takes to recover."
Only scoring three tries in 24 appearances since arriving at Pau, it hasn't been the easiest move into French rugby for the 94-Test All Black.
But after revealing that he'd signed a one-year contract extension to remain at Pau until the end of the 2017/18 season, Smith said he loved the balance between life and rugby in France.
"The simple fact is that I still enjoy playing rugby, and that with Lee, my wife, we feel really good at Pau.
"Originally, when I signed here, I thought the 2016/17 season would be my last. But since last summer, my body feels good, on the field, in my daily life at the club, and in my home life. So we wanted to stay longer."
Smith, who plays with former All Blacks Colin Slade and Tom Taylor at Pau, said that after the pressure cooker environment in New Zealand, coming to play in France was a breath of fresh air.
"[France is] somewhere I have less pressure. Even the pressure to perform in each match [is less].
"For me, rugby here is different with the time I spend at home which is more important. And it changes when you have two small children. Luca, my son, is two-and-a-half years old, and my daughter, Amelie is two months.
"From this point of view, I appreciate the life of a rugby player in Pau more than in New Zealand, where there were many periods of absence and many long trips."
While injuries mean that Old Father Time could indeed be catching up with Smith, he said he still had a genuine love for the game, something which couldn't be stifled easily.
Showing an aptitude for the more technical nuances of the game during his career, Smith has spent a lot of his injury-enforced time off at Pau in more of an advisory/assistant coach role.
But being a family man, he stopped short of suggesting a long-term coaching career lay ahead.
"I don't know. I enjoyed this period of injury where I was able to collaborate with the coaches, to 'help' them. I love the role of strategy in the game.
"But today a part of me enormously appreciates the importance of family over rugby, because rugby has already been a big part of my life, with lots of absences."
Newshub.