Perfect Pairing

Brodie Retallick and Sam Whitelock are the most experienced locking combination in New Zealand history and, according to All Blacks coach Steve Hansen, also the best

- Gregor Paul

THE TRUE value of certain players often isn’t fully appreciated until they’re 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 match in Chicago, were just not the same team without the injured Retallick and Whitelock.

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 21-9 – a victory built on their physicality. Maybe it wasn’t simply the return of Whitelock and Retallick that changed everything. Then again, maybe it was.

The All Blacks lost five Tests between that defeat in Chicago and the start of RWC 2019. Retallick missed three of them. From Retallick’s debut in 2012 to this World Cup, the All Blacks lost nine Tests and he missed five of them. The All Blacks’ win rate in that period was 87%; yet Retallick, who played 77 of those 101 Tests, has a win rate of 90%.

Whitelock missed two, which means six defeats came when one or both of them were unavailable. The statistics are the undeniable proof of what sort of influence these two locks have within the All Blacks. They have started a record 51 Tests together and lost just three times as a combination. No wonder All Blacks coach Steve Hansen is full of praise.