Leave your brother alone - Mama Savea laid down the law before All Blacks-Barbarians

Julian Savea has revealed he received a text message from his mum telling him not to hurt brother Ardie when the Barbarians faced the All Blacks at Twickenham on Saturday.

Wing Julian, overlooked by the All Blacks for the November internationals, instead lined up for the invitational Baabaas against his world champion compatriots, who came from behind to win 31-22 in London.

And flanker Ardie, who did play for the Rugby Championship winners, was afforded special treatment thanks to the only authority greater than All Blacks head coach Steve Hansen.

"I got a text from mum today saying 'leave your brother alone'," Julian told Sky Sports.

"I'm pretty sure he (Ardie) got the same text.

"Emotionally it's definitely tough. We grew up together and it's the first time we've played against each other. But it was also special for us."

Asked if he was able to put in any big hits on his older brother, Ardie replied: "We didn't actually cross paths at all."

"Yeah, lucky for him," Julian jokingly interjected.

"I don't want to be on his highlight reel," Ardie added.

New Zealand were down 17-10 at half-time and Hansen was pleased to see an inexperienced team respond emphatically ahead of Tests against France, Scotland and Wales.

"It was a great game for us," he told Sky Sports.

"The Barbarians took it to us, we made some mistakes early and gave them points. Both sides I thought played some attractive rugby. Our young fellas will have come away proud of themselves. Our second-half performance was pretty good, I thought.

"You fall into the trap sometimes, everyone on the pitch was in festival mode, including [referee] Nigel [Owens] at times, and it's difficult not to, because it's a Barbarians game, which comes with a lot of tradition and you want to give the crowd what they want.

"In the end, we slightly adjusted things, started getting our game going and scored some nice tries."