Rodie Retallack and Sam Whitelock are the most experienced locking Combination in New Zealand history and according to all blacks coach eve Hansen, also the best.
It's often the case that the true value of certain players isn't fully appreciated until they are not there.
That's certainly true of Brodie Retallick and Sam Whitelock. Everyone knew they were great players, but at the end of 2016, when the All Blacks lost to Ireland without them, just how critical they are to New Zealand's test aspirations was hammered home.
The All Blacks, on an 18-test unbeaten run coming into that test in Chicago, were just not the same team without Retallick and Whitelock who were both injured.
They wobbled at the lineout, were loose around kick-offs, lacked grunt in the scrum and without the ball-carrying carnage of Retallick in the middle of the field, they didn't rock Ireland back on defence and generate the momentum from which their attack flows.
Two weeks later in Dublin, with Retallick and Whitelock back in the starting side, the All Blacks won 24-9 – a victory built on their superior physicality.
Maybe it wasn't that simple to say the return of Whitelock and Retallick changed everything, but then again, maybe it was.
The All Blacks have lost four tests since that defeat in Chicago and Retallick missed two of them.
Since Retallick made his debut in 2012, the All Blacks have lost eight tests and he has missed four of them. The All Blacks have a win ratio of 90 per cent since 2012; yet Retallick, who has played 75 of those tests, has a win ratio of 93 per cent.
Whitelock has missed two, which means that five defeats have come when one or both have been unavailable and the statistics are the undeniable proof of what sort of influence these two thunderous locks have within the All Blacks.
They have started a record 50 tests together and lost just three times as a combination and it is no wonder that All Blacks coach Steve Hansen is already prepared to say that Whitelock and Retallick are the greatest locking combination in All Blacks history.
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