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Sir Steve Hansen: Sam Whitelock's legacy passes into rugby 'folklore'
By Ned Lester
Former All Blacks coach Sir Steve Hansen has heaped praise on retiring All Blacks legend Sam Whitelock, making a point of putting the lock's name next to the giants of the game.
Whitelock's accolades span decades and read as a who's who of rugby's greatest accomplishments; World Cups, Rugby Championships, age grade championships, Super Rugby titles, Bledisloe Cups and much, much more.
The 35-year-old has his share of personal records to his name as well, becoming the all-time most capped All Black with the most game wins in Rugby World Cup history including a stretch of 18 games where he went undefeated at the tournament.
Many of those records and trophies came under the tutelage of Hansen in a historic era of dominance by the All Blacks. Perhaps no one is in a better position than the coach to speak to the quality of player that Whitelock has been and the legacy he leaves behind.
Speaking to 1News following the news of Whitelock's retirement this week, Hansen said Whitelock was a "bit of an overthinker because he really cared."
"Most overthinkers really want to be successful, and right from day one he really wanted to be a great All Black, not just an All Black, not just there making up the numbers. They’re the athletes you want because you can do something with them, because they want to do something themselves. He just got better and better.
“I think he’s a modern-day Colin Meads. He will be in folklore.
“I certainly put him in the same category as [Richie] McCaw, [Kieran] Read, [Dan] Carter... all those legends that we’ve had. He came very close to being the first All Black to lift the [World Cup] trophy three times.
“He’s the full package. He’s not somebody that went out and played rugby and cared about himself. He cared about everybody. You couldn’t ask for anything more.”
Another coach who was a big part of Whitelock's journey is new All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson, who was involved in all seven of Whitelock's Super Rugby titles. He added: "Sam is an immortal of our incredible game.
“First and foremost, he is a quality person. A great husband and father who has a special ability to build deep connections with people from all walks of life.
“In terms of his rugby, Sam’s impact has been immense both mentally and physically over four World Cup cycles. He is a winner who rose to any occasion as his competitive spirit drove him to the highest level of performance.
“Sam will stand with the greats of our game.”
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Mallia deserves 8 at least. Brains and skills for the comeback. Him, Garcia and Albornoz the core of The Pumas attack. Hope to see them in the 15s against France
Go to commentsYeah nar I pretty much agree with that sentiment, wasn't just about the lineout though.
Yeah, I think it's the future of SR, even TRC. Graham above just now posting about how good a night it was with a dbl header of ENGvSA and NZvFrance, and now I don't want to kick SA or Argentina out of TRC but it would be great if in this next of the woods 2 more top teams could come in to create more of these sort of nights (for rugby's appeal). Often Arg and SA and both travel here and you get those games but more often doesn't work out right.
Obviously a long way off but USA and Japan are the obvious two. First thing we need to do is get Eddie Jones kicked out of Japan so they can start improving again and then get a couple of US teams in SRP (even if one its just a US based and augmented Jaguares).
It will start off the whole conferences are crap debate again (which I will continue to argue vehemently against), but imagine a 6 team Pacific conference, Tokyo Sunwolves (drafted from Tokyo JRLO teams), Tokyo All Stars (made up of best remaining foreign players and overseas drafts), ALL Nihon (best of local non Tokyo based talent, inc China/Korea etc, with mainland Japan), a could of West Coast american franchises and perhaps a second self PI driven Hawai'i based team, or Jagaures. So I see a short NFL like 3 or 4 month comp as fitting best, maybe not even a full round, NZvAUSvPAC, all games taking place within a 6hr window. Model for NZ will definitely still require a competitive and funded NPC!
On the Crusaders, I liked last years ending with Grace on the bench (ovbiously form dependent but thats how it ended) and Lio-Willie at 8. I could have Blackadder trying to be a 7 but think balance will be used with him at 6 and Kellow as 7. Scott Barrett is an international 6 sized player. It is just NZ style/model that pushes him into the tight, I reckon he'd be a great loose player, and saders have Strange and Cahill as bigger players (plus that change could draw someone like Darry back). Same with Haig now, hes not grown yet but Barrett hight and been playing 6, now that the Highlanders have only chosen two locks he'll be playing lock, and that is going to change his growth trajectory massively, rather than seeing him grow like an International 6.
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