When Sam Whitelock faces Namibia in his 14th season as an All Black lock, he’ll equal Richie McCaw’s record of 148 test matches for New Zealand. Hopefully Whitelock’sremarkable achievement won’t be overlooked in the fear and fury around how the All Blacks might finish the World Cup.
The big man’s physical gifts are matched by the deep thinking you might expect from someone who holds, as he does, a Lincoln University science degree. “He’s a great, balanced player,” his Crusaders’ coach, Scott Robertson, noted when he appointed Whitelock the team’s captain in 2017. “He has the physical ability to get through 80 minutes every week, and play a whole season without injury, which just shows how good his conditioning is. Really, he’s the ultimate professional as a rugby player and an athlete.”
At 2.02m and 115kg, Whitelock towers over every referee in the game. As just one measure of his considered approach to rugby, he told me earlier this year how, if he needs as a captain to talk to a referee, he makes sure he’s talking from beside the ref, not face to face, so the official doesn’t feel monstered and bullied.
Whitelock is one of several key All Black forwards whose continued freedom from injury will be vital for Cup success.
Sam Whitelock's All Black career has spanned four World Cups. Photos / Getty
Not so easy to beat
In three weeks in Lyon, Uruguay will be the last team the All Blacks face in pool play.
After watching the grit the men from South America showed in their 27-12 loss to France in Lille, it’d be a good idea for New Zealand to give a run to their shadow team for, hopefully, a quarter-final.
For a few breathtaking minutes it seemed Uruguay might head into halftime just one point behind France, but an unforgiving television match official ruled out a try to midfielder Felipe Etcheverry.
Sadly there will be, as always, a lot of hugely one-sided games in this Cup. The TAB rating Namibia as 81-1 outsiders against the All Blacks is a fair call.
Hopes of a wider spread of competitive teams rest with Pasifika teams, and, to a lesser, but genuine degree, with Uruguay, who have some handy local competition just across the River Plate in Argentina.
Cool running is the way
The scariest story from the World Cup to date for Kiwis was Liam Napier’s detailed analysis of the tactics France, Ireland and South Africa have devised to beat the All Blacks.
It boils down to the need for the All Blacks to believe in their ball-in-hand game plan, which will only work if there’s a deep-rooted belief in every New Zealand player that how they’re playing is the most productive way.
Every time an All Black kick is lobbed downfield into the hands of an unpressured opponent a little piece of Cup winning hope dies.
All they want is a fair shake
The two most fascinating games over the weekend will be when Tonga take on Ireland, and Fiji play Australia.
How great it would be if England’s Wayne Barnes, in the Tonga-Ireland game, and Ireland’s Andrew Brace, provided an antidote to the weirdness that permeated the closing stages of the Fiji-Wales match. In that game there appeared to be two rule books being used by English ref, Matthew Carley.
Five penalties on the Welsh line? Finally just a warning for Wales at the fifth.
A British writer, the Guardian’s Michael Aylwin, summed up what every Colonial observer surely felt. “All the worst suspicions of old-world bias bubbled up next. Having failed to reach in his pocket despite all those penalties, the referee [Carley] showed Fiji yellow at the very next offence.”
Let the children sing, but make it live
The weirdest touch at the ‘23 Cup, having kids’ choirs pre-record anthems, has been scrapped, after almost universally bad reviews. Nothing wrong with kids singing, but let them do it live. Or perhaps just do something that’s worked for decades. Let a professional adult singer do the job.
