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Why All Black Sam Whitelock chose to play in France after the World Cup
By AAP
Veteran All Blacks lock Sam Whitelock will quit rugby in New Zealand to join the French Top 14 club Pau after this year's World Cup.
The 34-year-old Whitelock is the most-capped All Blacks lock of all-time, having played 143 matches since his debut in 2010. He also has played 176 Super Rugby matches for the Christchurch-based Crusaders.
Whitelock said he chose Pau because he could play alongside his brother Luke, the former All Blacks backrower who joined the French club in 2019.
"Hannah, the kids and myself are going to head to France to play with my little brother Luke," Whitelock said.
"I've had the privilege of playing with family for Canterbury, the Crusaders and the All Blacks at different stages and this opportunity was too good to pass up."
“I want to say thank you to everyone for their support through the years, it’s been absolutely immense.
“You’ve helped me grow, you’ve helped me develop as a player, but most importantly as a person."
Whitelock is the latest of a number of high-profile All Blacks who have announced they will play overseas after the World Cup.
Fly-halves Richie Mo'unga and Beauden Barrett both are heading to Japan later this year.
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Skelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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