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A 'gumpy' Sam Whitelock got Most Improved Player four years running before settling on rugby

The loss to Ireland represented Sam Whitelock's first as captain. (Photo By David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Sam Whitelock may have racked up 143 tests and won two Rugby World Cups for the All Blacks, but rugby wasn’t always the sport he loved.

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Whitelock’s grandfather and great-uncle both played for the All Blacks, making the family a proud rugby-minded group which manifested throughout the Whitelock generations – each of Sam’s three brothers has donned a New Zealand rugby jersey, whether it be the All Blacks or All Black sevens.

And so despite rugby seemingly being in the Whitelock genes, Sam revealed on The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast that his first love involved a round ball instead of the oval one that fans know him for.

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“I gave cricket a go for a couple of years,” Whitelock recalled. “Aaron Smith and I went to the same high school so (we’ve) known each other since (we were) 13, and Aaron is a very good cricketer, he said ‘hey come play cricket’. I couldn’t bat, I couldn’t bowl but he loved me standing at point just (with my) big mits trying to catch everything.

“So I kind of gave that a go for a year but I really fell in love with basketball. This kind of sums up how terrible I was at the start: the first layup I ever tried to do, I bounced the ball, pretty much hit my feet or whatever, and I (tried to) roll the ball off the backboard but instead of it going into the hoop, it bounced off the backboard and pretty much loaded on halfway.

“So the coordination wasn’t the best thing and then to rub salt into the wound, for the next four years I got the Most Improved Player, so I must have been terrible at the start and the only reason that I didn’t get it in my fifth year is because my little brother started playing and he was a little bit like me, a bit gumpy, a bit uncoordinated, and he took that mantle.”

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Standing over two meters tall and weighing in at 117 kg, Whitelock’s frame is not dissimilar in size to NBA star LeBron James. The nickname of Whitelock’s favourite NBA player seems to fit the bill perfectly considering the skillset the lock offers in rugby; Tim Duncan AKA “The big fundamental” who was known for being as fundamentally sound of a basketball player as there ever was.

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“That was definitely the game that wasn’t the family game, but it was the game that Luke and I fell in love with and obviously with a bit of height, it definitely helps. But it’s what our mates were doing and that was the thing that kind of stopped me from getting in trouble at school because I was probably a little bit naughty in third or fourth form and it just allowed me to express myself and burn a bit of energy off.”

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J
JW 1 hour ago
Where is the new breed of All Black 10?

Players like Prendergast and Finn Smith already have a few seasons at top club level under their belt and are now test players, at an age when NZ players make their debuts in SR.

That’s just a difference in standards. You’re confusing SR for being their local domestic comps, where it’s more accurately comparable to Champions Cup, apart from that teams are happy to throw games as it’s in a bit of a limbo in terms of importance atm.


All these kids have been playing for a comparable NPC team for years now. Sam is no where near ready for tests but he has a great temperament, much like Sextons, that makes it a good choice to speed up his development. He wasn’t even a comparable Super Rugby starter before playing for Ireland, so not a great comparison.


Fin would be much better example, but then England don’t have 3 world class Test tens in front of him (not that I’d put Beauden their but obviously in terms of young NZ players chances, he is). Would he otherwise have debuted at the same age as Fergus Burke (injury and leaving withstanding), around 24, a couple of years later? England also aren’t as pedantic to who they give jerseys to, in NZ a test jersey is very hard earned for the most part.


In general I think the effects are as you say, but the only difference is the money involved, as you yourself said, their paths are just as all over the show being loaned out playing for clubs etc. My solution to that, and what you perceive as the problem, would be to introduce university football that utilitizes the large investment they have into high performance sport.

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J
Jennifer Ross 4 hours ago
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