November 25, 2024 • 22 mins
In the latest episode join ACC Head G Lane as he sits down with Sam Whitelock aka Captain Caveman as they discuss retirement as an All Black after watching Sam Cane's farewell (0:00), how unlucky he is in credit card roulette (10:00) before finally G Lane runs Whitelock through 22 in 2 asking all the hard questions (18:00).
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Agenda Podcast, the home of Sporting Nonsense and clap Trap,
brought to you my next more to culture.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Right, it's our great pleasure to welcome into the Agenda
a podcast, Sam Whitelock, Captain Caveman, how are you good?
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Good?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Not so, Captain gave Man anymore. I'm not little bit
disappointed you've come and you're clean shaven. You know you're retired.
You've lost the look.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
I'm trying. I'm trying to hide it. See, I'd love
to say that that's what I was just trying to do.
I'm probably just trying to get rid of the grays.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
It just started from a little bit of my beer
and it's just kind of making its way down, so.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Down the chest and down into the Yeah, okay, I'll just.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Get rid of them and pretend that I'm younger than thirty.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
We must be pretty hard for you to hide, because
you're you're a big man. But you have released a
book View from the Second.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Row, not this one.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
No, that's the a sec book. You can peruce through that.
I said you before. It's more picture book that one
than a proper book. But before we get into it, now,
did you watch the game yesterday, the Italy game, Sam
Kine obviously playing his last game for the All Blacks. Well,
what would have been going through I mean you obviously
experienced that recently. What would have been going through Sam's
(01:12):
head as he walked off and in there.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
I know for myself and Sam would be feeling exactly
the same as when he came off.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
That was it.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
It was done, There's no more All Black stuff, And
if anything, it's a weird feeling. And I know for me,
like I finished at a World Cup, so there was
a whole lot of different emotion. But the last time
sitting in the change room, the last time captain's run
the whole week, it kind of builds up on you.
And you know, Sam's been a professional for a long time,
(01:46):
so he would have his own processes in place to
do everything to nail his performance on the game, which
I thought he actually played pretty well. So when it
happens and you go it's done, that's when it actually
hits you. And it'll take him a way while to
get used to the idea. And it's the same for myself.
I'm still getting used to calling myself a retired rugby player.
(02:08):
Now A few people are trying to pull me back in.
I've had a couple offers of playing down south on
the West Coast, I had a couple of charity games.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
How could you resist that? How could you resist going
to the coast?
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Yeah, it is actually quite challenging saying no to a
few people and a few things. But we wanted to
finish playing really good rugby. I didn't want to be
the guy that was hanging on. I didn't want someone
to say, you know, to their son and the crowd
or their daughter and say, hey, that guy out there,
he used to be a good player. He's just clicking
the ticket now. And so that's probably one of the
(02:42):
reasons that pulled up and finished when I.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Did so last night. We watched the game yesterday morning.
Actually were commentating myself, James and mcconey and I and
we're big Chiefs fans, big Chiefs Mona fans. So you
know there was a lump in James mcconey's throat when
Sam Kane was coming off. But I need to ask
you a question. When you get issued your kit, your
all Blacks kit, do you ever get given gloves like
warm winter gloves?
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Yes, Sevu Reese, I saw it straight away.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
What is going on here? He's got to play. He
almost ruined the moment for Sam Kane that's ever going
to be known as Sevu Reese with playing socks on
his hands.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
The best thing is he's probably taking them off his
feet and he could be saying, oh, my hands are cold,
but he would have taken them off his feet and
then gone, ah, my feet are cold now. So Sevu
would have been doing it for Ai. To keeper's hands
will obviously Fiji in heritage, but might not be the
sharpest too when it comes to keeping warm and the cold.
He's just not used to it.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
We had to stop and rewind it and watch it again.
It was one of the one of the great moments
going back to retirement. How are you? What are you
up to now? What are you doing stuff? Because you've
been a professional athlete for as far as I can
remember watching rugby just about Sam Whitelock's always been there.
What do you obviously you switch off? What do you do?
What are you doing with your Yeah?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
So played my first game of touch rugby when I
was about three three and a half four and thirty
six now, so I finished my last game for the barbars.
We played against Fiji and Twickenham end of May and
since then we've actually been able to do some amazing
things as a family. So we traveled the UK Europe
(04:22):
for ten weeks and it was awesome. It was everything
that we wanted and needed as a family. But since
been back in New Zealand, we've moved to the Hawk's
Bay and now we're farming. So my hands are a
lot harder than they used to be throwing around a
rugby ball and enjoying the challenges that come with moving
to a new place, doing something completely different, even though
(04:43):
I got some family history and grew up on a farm,
so yeah, doing something completely different but enjoying it so.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Far nice and was that always the goal going back
into farming yep at the end, So playing career.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
All my uncles and aunties are on the land or
have been on the land at some stage farming. Got
a number of cousins doing the same thing. My brother
older brothers on the family farm as well, so there's
quite a bit of farming chat that's thrown in between
the footy and the kids. And yeah, it's been cool.
(05:15):
So just looking forward to what the next challenge is
at the moment. It's kind of I tried to explain
it to someone, It's like I'm playing club rugby, but
I'm trying to do it at an international level. So
I'm pretty green around a few things on the farm
and I have two stuff members. Sometimes they're looking at me,
going what are we doing now, and I'm like, I
don't know. We're just kind of feeling our way through it.
(05:37):
But I've got some good people there supporting, and that's
been awesome, awesome.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
It's great because I have talked to a few recently
retired cricketers and one particular cricketer who you know, he'd
been in the setup since he was eighteen nineteen years old,
and when he finished playing, he said he didn't really
know what to do because no one slipped a piece
of paper under his door to tell him where he
should be, what he should be wearing, and where they're going.
(06:01):
And he was like, I didn't know what he said.
He was lost for a walks. He's like, I know,
of telling me what to do, that is that the
same in the all black setup?
Speaker 3 (06:07):
No, it's exactly right. So I've been told we're to
be what to wear, what to do, what training we're doing,
and all of a sudden for us being on the farm,
Like I'm like, do I start work at six? Do
I start at seven or start at ten? Yeah, And
it's really nice having that flexibility and just kind of
working through when I want to get out the door.
(06:28):
Do I do a couple of hours first and come
back and see the kids before they go to school,
or do I work a little bit later. And it's
just working for Hannah and myself out what is the
best bang for our buck and where do I fit
into it because I used to be away all the time,
where now she's kind of like, are you going away soon?
I'm kind of getting sick of you a little bit here.
(06:49):
So yeah, it's been cool and hopefully they're not too
sick of me just yet.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
So is that you you're not going to kind of
in terms of rugby, You're not look looking at any
kind of coaching roles or admin administration roles or anything
like that. You're on the farm and that's it.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
No. I'm doing a little bit of coaching in Japan
at the moment, so I've got a couple of trips
up there every season for the next couple of years.
I'm helping out Panasonic, where Robbie Deans is been coaching
for the last ten twelve years, as a team I
played for. So it's been really nice stepping back into
them and just kind of, you know, I don't really
(07:23):
have a pacific role or an area I'm looking at.
I'm just kind of finding my own feed in that
coaching space.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
A vibe guy going along as yeah a little bit.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
I do have my mouthguard and my toilet bag as
I travel. But Robbie keeps saying, look, don't bring that,
don't wear rugby boots because you'll get tempted to show
someone something and you'll tweak a hammy or a calf
or do your backs.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Or the red mist of the scene when some puts
a shot on you.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
And yeah, yeah, it's trying to get the body to
do what it's meant to do. I'm still in pretty
good shape, hopefully, but just getting that balance riders the
key thing. And Robbie is a mentor, is an awesome person.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
To Japan's a great place as well, a great place
to spend a few months. You mentioned before your brother
is also your older brothers on the family farm you
grew up with three brothers. I only grew up with
one brother and that was enough for me in terms
of you must have played some mean games of running
straight in the backyard.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Yeah, we still have our teams now. So it was
always George the oldest, Luke the youngest. So there's only
five years between all four of us. So as soon
as we went, George and Luke fist Adam and I
being the middle, it actually evened out pretty pretty quick.
So like if Adam and I gaged up on, George
would probably have the upper hand and then Luke was
thrown in the mix. So then yeah, it kind of
just escalated from there. And so many times it was
(08:44):
I'd get bored annoy Luke, Luke would get up to set,
Adam would jump in and to defend Luke, George would
jump and Dad would come home and sort us all out.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
So that sounds so hectic for your parents. You got five,
You've got four boys under five, so in that space
of holy Man, that must have been one hell of
a household.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Yeah, it was cool. Yeah, I explained about it in
the book a little bit around. I think the wording
I use is we were a bit rough around the edges,
but we used to lock babysitters out of the house
and we just will take that little bit of leeway.
She'd be like, go put a jusey on, So we'll
go put ten jusies on, and then she'd like, go
take it off, and go take all of them off,
and we we probably just were needed a bit of
(09:25):
smoothing off.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah right, yeah, yeah, but all be pretty successful footy
players in their own right as well, so that must
have been part of it in terms of, you know,
you would have been so physical from such an early
age that you would have come across on the rugby
field and they were like, who these lunatic white locks
who have already looked like they've probably got broken noses
and coulie flowered ears and they haven't even hit intermediate school.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Yeah, we're all like, like, you call me keep and
came in can be quite period times. So I think
my older brothers were shaving quite earlier at school. And
I remember I was just learning to shave and might
have been about fourteen fifteen, and I just tried to
have a shave, got to school and one of the
teachers like, you need to go have a shave, and
I was like I just had one today, But I'm
(10:08):
sure there's a bit of gs to involved there, but
that's kind of what what we were, you know, growing up,
and enjoyed our time at school because we're all at
high school together as well, so it was all in
one and all in and we had some amazing fun
and even running into people now that haven't seen for
a while at school. A couple of those stories come up,
(10:29):
and it's quite nice some of them didn't make it
to the book.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
There's one particular thing in the book that I enjoyed,
and that's your you've got it. You're incredibly unlucky when
it comes to credit card roulette? Is that that sounds
like a horrible run of credit card reallytt And I
mean most boys trips or whatever do this, And I'm
glad that it's actually played in the All Black camp
(10:54):
as well.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Yeah, even now I'm starting to sweat because I'm sure
you're going to go right, get your credit card out,
we're going to play. So I think I lost it
was seven in a row. A white crocket actually put
it in his book and he threw me under the
bus because I'd kind of kept most of it away
from hand and my wife, but he put it all
the details in his book and he absolutely got me
in some massive trouble. But when it got really bad,
(11:18):
as I actually lost the credit card roulette, which was
my seventh time on the top of the Eiffel Tower. Oh,
and you know, I was still pretty young at that stage,
and I'm like, okay, my card's going to bounce. Lucky
Rido is there and he chucked down some cash their
head in his pocket and that managed to scrape me
through with my overdraft limit and whatever it else.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
That's potentially the most expensive restaurant in Paris. Oh.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
The worst thing was Luke Romano was in track pants
and jendles dressed up because that's just what he was wearing.
It was one of those things of shall we try
to get in here? And the guy down the bottom goes, hey, look,
this is really expensive. There's probably not going to be
a spot for you, and you're not dressed, and I
think he saw Rido or whoever it was, and his oh, yeah,
you guys come up. And Luke and I were starving
(12:04):
afterwards because we just ate a little bit of bread
there and the meal came out and it was tiny,
and yeah, definitely hurt the pride more than anything.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
So do you so, I mean, I'm sure you played
credit card really the same with everyone else. Do you
just put it into a small bowl and you get
the weight to just put your hand in, And I mean,
is your credit card bigger than everyone else's? Is it
a different weight?
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Now? That was the worst thing. That was exactly the
same as a couple of other guys. So they draw
it out, So two ways of playing it, the first
one out or the last one. The last one obviously.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Builds the tea dispense and the tension.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
And I think Krocky just grabbed everyone's cards and with
his tear well broken fingers. Sorry, Crocky's not here to
defend himself. He's kind of like shuffled them, looked at
them half not looked with him, and he's just held
up all four of them to the weight staff. And
I'm pretty sure he might have set me up for it.
So I think that's why he enjoys telling that story
(13:00):
so much. But he lost the next time, which was
so good. So yeah, I really enjoyed putting a little
short one into his ribs and enjoying that meal.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Do you miss that camaraderie, because I mean that must
be a big part of being a part of any
team really, but even the all blacks set up, do
you miss You're any going to miss that?
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Yeah? Yeah, I think that's only normal and natural. It's
kind of like being on school camp. But you're in
school camp for one hundred and fifty days of the
year and some of your best mates of the air
and you grow up together. So the guys that I
started with, you know, the are the ones that you're
probably closest with because you go through all those ups
and downs, the highs, the lows, and not only yourself
(13:44):
but also your family's grow up together, so your wives,
your kids. So pretty cool to see my kids all,
especially my son and Fred playing for the Mighty Pups.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
There was I think about a thousand first games on
the sideline and about five hundred test matches when you
had Ruben Reed, Kieran's son, frankis boy, he met Todd's boy,
Cody Taylor's as he DAGs.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
The hell of a sideline. It was.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
It was amazing. It's actually quite embarrassing. We rock up
to under six rapp a touch and the appearents wanted
photos with us on the sideline, but we're trying to
hood up on yeah, sunglasses, trying to hide. But it's
cool to see all our wives take the lead and
a lot of that and just nail what they needed
to and allow us to be like everyone else appearents
(14:35):
on the sideline and support not only your kids but
the opposition as well.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Yeah, awesome. I was going to mention something else. There
was a bit of if you've managed to go through
your career pretty controversy free, I mean, you like mainly
a little bit, but there was one particular time where
we were in was in South Africa, were you Yeah,
And it's one of those casic ones because trust me,
this has happened to us on numerous occasions when something's
(14:59):
taken the wrong way on social media and it goes
to the wrong people when all of a sudden, Yeah
you know that, I'm talking about the hunting the hunter, Yeah,
how is that? How was that in terms of learning
a lesson pretty quickly around social media? I think that
was kind of because you're a hunter anyway. Yeah, yeah, so.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
I know where our food comes from. I grew up
on a farm, so we understood if you wanted to
egg to go to the Chokowski the eggs if you're
having steak, you know, you understand that the stairs grown
and it ends up in the freezer, et cetera. So
I thought you're going to ask you about my pig
Mary there for a second. Yeah, we won't go there.
It's a little bit, a little.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Bit okay, right, it's a bit emotional.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
But with the hunting stuff, the frustrating thing about it
is we were over there with the crusaders and they
had taken some photos who the professional hunting guys that
were worth and they had sent it to some mates
and a lady sat on it until the All Blacks
team was named, which was probably three or four months later.
And so in her defense, she timed it pretty well.
(16:04):
She tried to have a maximum impact and she did that.
Things were said that we didn't actually do. They said
that we just shot everything and left all the meat
and stuff was donated back to local village, so nothing
was wasted, and things like that. So a little bit
of the i'll have a comment here, or take it
(16:24):
the wrong way and can be blind up in.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
The change the way that you behaved after that, or
you did everything.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
No, not really, Like I knew that we hadn't done
anything wrong. You know, everyone's allowed their opinion of whether
they want to be vegetarian or not, what they eat
and where they where it's produced and things like that.
So like I studied a lot of conservation and college
at university, and it's some one thing a lot of
(16:54):
people don't know about me. And it's one way the
local communities they are actually themselves out of potential poverty
is through hunting and targeting the right species. Because the
South African government actually comes in and culls a whole
lot of things. So yeah, there's all those things in
behind me. It's hard to explain to someone on social
(17:15):
media without you know, getting boring and drinks out. So
like I said, I wasn't too worried because I knew
we hadn't done anything wrong.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Yeah, fair enough, Okay, before we before we go, I
do this with all our guests. It's called twenty two
and two, So it's twenty two rapid fire questions in
two minutes. It's just yes or no. It's a quick
answer you can you can move on and pass. I
think the last person we did this was with it
Liam Lawson. Yeah, he was a couple of questions in here.
(17:45):
He tripped off on so it's nice and quick.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
I hope there's no mess or spelling bee content, No, no.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Sam white Lock. This is your twenty two and two.
Coffee or tea? Sea sex or drugs? Sex or fast fast?
Would you rather wake up ned next to Dan Carter
or Richie mccaugh neither tire, Indian uh eat out or dinonnond,
(18:14):
Freddy Mercury or Elton John Oh, Freddy wet or dry?
We cats or dogs? Dogs, Trevis kelsor Taylor Swift.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
I've actually got my Taylor. We went to Wembley. My
daughters love it, so I'm wearing them. I can't wait
for them to break off so I don't have to
with them.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
You're the dead of the year. Did you take your
daughters to to No?
Speaker 3 (18:36):
I didn't. I took two good mates and my wife.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
So oh okay? Almost Andrew Hoare, Anton Oliver and Scott Barrett.
Who's the player you'd least like to shower next.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
To all of them? Probably?
Speaker 2 (18:50):
What rugby? What rugby legend? If you could? Would you
bring back from the dead Jonah? Absolutely? If if the
ceremony though to bring back Jonah is altered and you
talking like Stephen mckiva for the rest of your life,
which you still do it? Good man, This is easy one.
If you ever fired a gun, never killed anything bigger
than an insect. Yes, who's the most famous person you've met?
Speaker 3 (19:13):
Oh? Probably one of the royals or one of the
basketball guys.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Did you go to a basketball game?
Speaker 3 (19:21):
A couple of basketball games. That was pretty cool. As
you met the food fighters that was awesome. Girl, Redo
and I were there. We were pretty much fan fan
boys and we're running late. I had traffic grad to
run about ten k's after training, got blisters and shoes
I wasn't used to running in, but it was well
worth it. Got there dripping with sweat, so I met
(19:43):
the food fighters stinking sweetie and blisters everywhere.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
It's funny when you because I met carry o'keef old
scale the commentator, and I all of a sudden found
myself totally fanboying out. I didn't know what to say
and I was like yeah, I was like, hey, Like
I just totally bottled it. He must have thought I
was a compla freak. Anyway, if you had a reoccurring
dream that a snowman killed himself with a hair dry
Would you be concerned?
Speaker 3 (20:08):
I think I would be.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
If you were offered a knighthood, would you accept it?
Speaker 3 (20:13):
I don't even know what that probably is?
Speaker 2 (20:15):
A knighthood, Sir, Sir Sam Whitelock.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
I wouldn't make anyone call me that.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
But yeah, what age do people say they've had a
fall instead of falling over? What's the tipping point there?
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Eighty two?
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Have you ever screamed? Google me, motherfucker.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
I haven't a lady that has said that before, so
I have said it to her a bit of ingest.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Yes, okay, here's one for you. Move to think about it,
and could be on the farm if you were going
to get a statue made of yourself, So you can
think about this. What pose would it be? And where
would you put the statue? I'll give you. I'll give
you an example why you think about it. Tim Soudy
said that he would put he would be nude on
a stallion that was rare up and he had put
it on the front lawn of Daniel Vitorre's house. That's
(21:02):
the kind of it. It's a lot about Tim Southy.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Yeah, No, I probably never would have a set you made.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Of me your credit card on White Crocketts.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
Now you should have seen me that question earlier.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
You maybe you like holding his credit card on his
front lawn.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Maybe at the dining room table. So every time he
takes any mouthful, he knows who paid for that meal.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
So it's you. That's quite that's quite. Innove a statue
that's inside on the dining room table.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Just almost like the centerpiece, you know, so like every
time he eats, no matter what meal, is just always
looking at him, and they just want to have that
look of a thousand foot steer, you know, like just
slip through his soul.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
No, I say the book is out now. View from
the second row. Sam Whitelock, absolute pleasure to have you,
have you in here in the studio today. I know
you've got the media car wash you've been doing for
a couple of days. I know you're probably gagging back
to get on the farm and Hawk's Bay. But thank
you very much for your time and best of luck
with the book. I'm sure it's going to go well.
Good stocking stuffer for any rugby fans out there, But
(22:08):
good luck with your retirement. Good luck on the farm
and hopefully we'll see you around.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Thank you thanks for having me in. I've always wanted
to come in, but nice to finally get here just
as I've finished my playing career.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Perfect perfect timing.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
You've been listening to The ACC's a gender podcast brought
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The Agenda Podcast, the home of Sporting Nonsense and clap Trap,
brought to you my next more to culture.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Right, it's our great pleasure to welcome into the Agenda
a podcast, Sam Whitelock, Captain Caveman, how are you good?
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Good?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Not so, Captain gave Man anymore. I'm not little bit
disappointed you've come and you're clean shaven. You know you're retired.
You've lost the look.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
I'm trying. I'm trying to hide it. See, I'd love
to say that that's what I was just trying to do.
I'm probably just trying to get rid of the grays.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
It just started from a little bit of my beer
and it's just kind of making its way down, so.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Down the chest and down into the Yeah, okay, I'll just.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Get rid of them and pretend that I'm younger than thirty.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
We must be pretty hard for you to hide, because
you're you're a big man. But you have released a
book View from the Second.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Row, not this one.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
No, that's the a sec book. You can peruce through that.
I said you before. It's more picture book that one
than a proper book. But before we get into it, now,
did you watch the game yesterday, the Italy game, Sam
Kine obviously playing his last game for the All Blacks. Well,
what would have been going through I mean you obviously
experienced that recently. What would have been going through Sam's
(01:12):
head as he walked off and in there.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
I know for myself and Sam would be feeling exactly
the same as when he came off.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
That was it.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
It was done, There's no more All Black stuff, And
if anything, it's a weird feeling. And I know for me,
like I finished at a World Cup, so there was
a whole lot of different emotion. But the last time
sitting in the change room, the last time captain's run
the whole week, it kind of builds up on you.
And you know, Sam's been a professional for a long time,
(01:46):
so he would have his own processes in place to
do everything to nail his performance on the game, which
I thought he actually played pretty well. So when it
happens and you go it's done, that's when it actually
hits you. And it'll take him a way while to
get used to the idea. And it's the same for myself.
I'm still getting used to calling myself a retired rugby player.
(02:08):
Now A few people are trying to pull me back in.
I've had a couple offers of playing down south on
the West Coast, I had a couple of charity games.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
How could you resist that? How could you resist going
to the coast?
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Yeah, it is actually quite challenging saying no to a
few people and a few things. But we wanted to
finish playing really good rugby. I didn't want to be
the guy that was hanging on. I didn't want someone
to say, you know, to their son and the crowd
or their daughter and say, hey, that guy out there,
he used to be a good player. He's just clicking
the ticket now. And so that's probably one of the
(02:42):
reasons that pulled up and finished when I.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Did so last night. We watched the game yesterday morning.
Actually were commentating myself, James and mcconey and I and
we're big Chiefs fans, big Chiefs Mona fans. So you
know there was a lump in James mcconey's throat when
Sam Kane was coming off. But I need to ask
you a question. When you get issued your kit, your
all Blacks kit, do you ever get given gloves like
warm winter gloves?
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Yes, Sevu Reese, I saw it straight away.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
What is going on here? He's got to play. He
almost ruined the moment for Sam Kane that's ever going
to be known as Sevu Reese with playing socks on
his hands.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
The best thing is he's probably taking them off his
feet and he could be saying, oh, my hands are cold,
but he would have taken them off his feet and
then gone, ah, my feet are cold now. So Sevu
would have been doing it for Ai. To keeper's hands
will obviously Fiji in heritage, but might not be the
sharpest too when it comes to keeping warm and the cold.
He's just not used to it.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
We had to stop and rewind it and watch it again.
It was one of the one of the great moments
going back to retirement. How are you? What are you
up to now? What are you doing stuff? Because you've
been a professional athlete for as far as I can
remember watching rugby just about Sam Whitelock's always been there.
What do you obviously you switch off? What do you do?
What are you doing with your Yeah?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
So played my first game of touch rugby when I
was about three three and a half four and thirty
six now, so I finished my last game for the barbars.
We played against Fiji and Twickenham end of May and
since then we've actually been able to do some amazing
things as a family. So we traveled the UK Europe
(04:22):
for ten weeks and it was awesome. It was everything
that we wanted and needed as a family. But since
been back in New Zealand, we've moved to the Hawk's
Bay and now we're farming. So my hands are a
lot harder than they used to be throwing around a
rugby ball and enjoying the challenges that come with moving
to a new place, doing something completely different, even though
(04:43):
I got some family history and grew up on a farm,
so yeah, doing something completely different but enjoying it so.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Far nice and was that always the goal going back
into farming yep at the end, So playing career.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
All my uncles and aunties are on the land or
have been on the land at some stage farming. Got
a number of cousins doing the same thing. My brother
older brothers on the family farm as well, so there's
quite a bit of farming chat that's thrown in between
the footy and the kids. And yeah, it's been cool.
(05:15):
So just looking forward to what the next challenge is
at the moment. It's kind of I tried to explain
it to someone, It's like I'm playing club rugby, but
I'm trying to do it at an international level. So
I'm pretty green around a few things on the farm
and I have two stuff members. Sometimes they're looking at me,
going what are we doing now, and I'm like, I
don't know. We're just kind of feeling our way through it.
(05:37):
But I've got some good people there supporting, and that's
been awesome, awesome.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
It's great because I have talked to a few recently
retired cricketers and one particular cricketer who you know, he'd
been in the setup since he was eighteen nineteen years old,
and when he finished playing, he said he didn't really
know what to do because no one slipped a piece
of paper under his door to tell him where he
should be, what he should be wearing, and where they're going.
(06:01):
And he was like, I didn't know what he said.
He was lost for a walks. He's like, I know,
of telling me what to do, that is that the
same in the all black setup?
Speaker 3 (06:07):
No, it's exactly right. So I've been told we're to
be what to wear, what to do, what training we're doing,
and all of a sudden for us being on the farm,
Like I'm like, do I start work at six? Do
I start at seven or start at ten? Yeah, And
it's really nice having that flexibility and just kind of
working through when I want to get out the door.
(06:28):
Do I do a couple of hours first and come
back and see the kids before they go to school,
or do I work a little bit later. And it's
just working for Hannah and myself out what is the
best bang for our buck and where do I fit
into it because I used to be away all the time,
where now she's kind of like, are you going away soon?
I'm kind of getting sick of you a little bit here.
(06:49):
So yeah, it's been cool and hopefully they're not too
sick of me just yet.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
So is that you you're not going to kind of
in terms of rugby, You're not look looking at any
kind of coaching roles or admin administration roles or anything
like that. You're on the farm and that's it.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
No. I'm doing a little bit of coaching in Japan
at the moment, so I've got a couple of trips
up there every season for the next couple of years.
I'm helping out Panasonic, where Robbie Deans is been coaching
for the last ten twelve years, as a team I
played for. So it's been really nice stepping back into
them and just kind of, you know, I don't really
(07:23):
have a pacific role or an area I'm looking at.
I'm just kind of finding my own feed in that
coaching space.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
A vibe guy going along as yeah a little bit.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
I do have my mouthguard and my toilet bag as
I travel. But Robbie keeps saying, look, don't bring that,
don't wear rugby boots because you'll get tempted to show
someone something and you'll tweak a hammy or a calf
or do your backs.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Or the red mist of the scene when some puts
a shot on you.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
And yeah, yeah, it's trying to get the body to
do what it's meant to do. I'm still in pretty
good shape, hopefully, but just getting that balance riders the
key thing. And Robbie is a mentor, is an awesome person.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
To Japan's a great place as well, a great place
to spend a few months. You mentioned before your brother
is also your older brothers on the family farm you
grew up with three brothers. I only grew up with
one brother and that was enough for me in terms
of you must have played some mean games of running
straight in the backyard.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Yeah, we still have our teams now. So it was
always George the oldest, Luke the youngest. So there's only
five years between all four of us. So as soon
as we went, George and Luke fist Adam and I
being the middle, it actually evened out pretty pretty quick.
So like if Adam and I gaged up on, George
would probably have the upper hand and then Luke was
thrown in the mix. So then yeah, it kind of
just escalated from there. And so many times it was
(08:44):
I'd get bored annoy Luke, Luke would get up to set,
Adam would jump in and to defend Luke, George would
jump and Dad would come home and sort us all out.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
So that sounds so hectic for your parents. You got five,
You've got four boys under five, so in that space
of holy Man, that must have been one hell of
a household.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Yeah, it was cool. Yeah, I explained about it in
the book a little bit around. I think the wording
I use is we were a bit rough around the edges,
but we used to lock babysitters out of the house
and we just will take that little bit of leeway.
She'd be like, go put a jusey on, So we'll
go put ten jusies on, and then she'd like, go
take it off, and go take all of them off,
and we we probably just were needed a bit of
(09:25):
smoothing off.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah right, yeah, yeah, but all be pretty successful footy
players in their own right as well, so that must
have been part of it in terms of, you know,
you would have been so physical from such an early
age that you would have come across on the rugby
field and they were like, who these lunatic white locks
who have already looked like they've probably got broken noses
and coulie flowered ears and they haven't even hit intermediate school.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Yeah, we're all like, like, you call me keep and
came in can be quite period times. So I think
my older brothers were shaving quite earlier at school. And
I remember I was just learning to shave and might
have been about fourteen fifteen, and I just tried to
have a shave, got to school and one of the
teachers like, you need to go have a shave, and
I was like I just had one today, But I'm
(10:08):
sure there's a bit of gs to involved there, but
that's kind of what what we were, you know, growing up,
and enjoyed our time at school because we're all at
high school together as well, so it was all in
one and all in and we had some amazing fun
and even running into people now that haven't seen for
a while at school. A couple of those stories come up,
(10:29):
and it's quite nice some of them didn't make it
to the book.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
There's one particular thing in the book that I enjoyed,
and that's your you've got it. You're incredibly unlucky when
it comes to credit card roulette? Is that that sounds
like a horrible run of credit card reallytt And I
mean most boys trips or whatever do this, And I'm
glad that it's actually played in the All Black camp
(10:54):
as well.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Yeah, even now I'm starting to sweat because I'm sure
you're going to go right, get your credit card out,
we're going to play. So I think I lost it
was seven in a row. A white crocket actually put
it in his book and he threw me under the
bus because I'd kind of kept most of it away
from hand and my wife, but he put it all
the details in his book and he absolutely got me
in some massive trouble. But when it got really bad,
(11:18):
as I actually lost the credit card roulette, which was
my seventh time on the top of the Eiffel Tower. Oh,
and you know, I was still pretty young at that stage,
and I'm like, okay, my card's going to bounce. Lucky
Rido is there and he chucked down some cash their
head in his pocket and that managed to scrape me
through with my overdraft limit and whatever it else.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
That's potentially the most expensive restaurant in Paris. Oh.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
The worst thing was Luke Romano was in track pants
and jendles dressed up because that's just what he was wearing.
It was one of those things of shall we try
to get in here? And the guy down the bottom goes, hey, look,
this is really expensive. There's probably not going to be
a spot for you, and you're not dressed, and I
think he saw Rido or whoever it was, and his oh, yeah,
you guys come up. And Luke and I were starving
(12:04):
afterwards because we just ate a little bit of bread
there and the meal came out and it was tiny,
and yeah, definitely hurt the pride more than anything.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
So do you so, I mean, I'm sure you played
credit card really the same with everyone else. Do you
just put it into a small bowl and you get
the weight to just put your hand in, And I mean,
is your credit card bigger than everyone else's? Is it
a different weight?
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Now? That was the worst thing. That was exactly the
same as a couple of other guys. So they draw
it out, So two ways of playing it, the first
one out or the last one. The last one obviously.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Builds the tea dispense and the tension.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
And I think Krocky just grabbed everyone's cards and with
his tear well broken fingers. Sorry, Crocky's not here to
defend himself. He's kind of like shuffled them, looked at
them half not looked with him, and he's just held
up all four of them to the weight staff. And
I'm pretty sure he might have set me up for it.
So I think that's why he enjoys telling that story
(13:00):
so much. But he lost the next time, which was
so good. So yeah, I really enjoyed putting a little
short one into his ribs and enjoying that meal.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Do you miss that camaraderie, because I mean that must
be a big part of being a part of any
team really, but even the all blacks set up, do
you miss You're any going to miss that?
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Yeah? Yeah, I think that's only normal and natural. It's
kind of like being on school camp. But you're in
school camp for one hundred and fifty days of the
year and some of your best mates of the air
and you grow up together. So the guys that I
started with, you know, the are the ones that you're
probably closest with because you go through all those ups
and downs, the highs, the lows, and not only yourself
(13:44):
but also your family's grow up together, so your wives,
your kids. So pretty cool to see my kids all,
especially my son and Fred playing for the Mighty Pups.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
There was I think about a thousand first games on
the sideline and about five hundred test matches when you
had Ruben Reed, Kieran's son, frankis boy, he met Todd's boy,
Cody Taylor's as he DAGs.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
The hell of a sideline. It was.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
It was amazing. It's actually quite embarrassing. We rock up
to under six rapp a touch and the appearents wanted
photos with us on the sideline, but we're trying to
hood up on yeah, sunglasses, trying to hide. But it's
cool to see all our wives take the lead and
a lot of that and just nail what they needed
to and allow us to be like everyone else appearents
(14:35):
on the sideline and support not only your kids but
the opposition as well.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Yeah, awesome. I was going to mention something else. There
was a bit of if you've managed to go through
your career pretty controversy free, I mean, you like mainly
a little bit, but there was one particular time where
we were in was in South Africa, were you Yeah,
And it's one of those casic ones because trust me,
this has happened to us on numerous occasions when something's
(14:59):
taken the wrong way on social media and it goes
to the wrong people when all of a sudden, Yeah
you know that, I'm talking about the hunting the hunter, Yeah,
how is that? How was that in terms of learning
a lesson pretty quickly around social media? I think that
was kind of because you're a hunter anyway. Yeah, yeah, so.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
I know where our food comes from. I grew up
on a farm, so we understood if you wanted to
egg to go to the Chokowski the eggs if you're
having steak, you know, you understand that the stairs grown
and it ends up in the freezer, et cetera. So
I thought you're going to ask you about my pig
Mary there for a second. Yeah, we won't go there.
It's a little bit, a little.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Bit okay, right, it's a bit emotional.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
But with the hunting stuff, the frustrating thing about it
is we were over there with the crusaders and they
had taken some photos who the professional hunting guys that
were worth and they had sent it to some mates
and a lady sat on it until the All Blacks
team was named, which was probably three or four months later.
And so in her defense, she timed it pretty well.
(16:04):
She tried to have a maximum impact and she did that.
Things were said that we didn't actually do. They said
that we just shot everything and left all the meat
and stuff was donated back to local village, so nothing
was wasted, and things like that. So a little bit
of the i'll have a comment here, or take it
(16:24):
the wrong way and can be blind up in.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
The change the way that you behaved after that, or
you did everything.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
No, not really, Like I knew that we hadn't done
anything wrong. You know, everyone's allowed their opinion of whether
they want to be vegetarian or not, what they eat
and where they where it's produced and things like that.
So like I studied a lot of conservation and college
at university, and it's some one thing a lot of
(16:54):
people don't know about me. And it's one way the
local communities they are actually themselves out of potential poverty
is through hunting and targeting the right species. Because the
South African government actually comes in and culls a whole
lot of things. So yeah, there's all those things in
behind me. It's hard to explain to someone on social
(17:15):
media without you know, getting boring and drinks out. So
like I said, I wasn't too worried because I knew
we hadn't done anything wrong.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Yeah, fair enough, Okay, before we before we go, I
do this with all our guests. It's called twenty two
and two, So it's twenty two rapid fire questions in
two minutes. It's just yes or no. It's a quick
answer you can you can move on and pass. I
think the last person we did this was with it
Liam Lawson. Yeah, he was a couple of questions in here.
(17:45):
He tripped off on so it's nice and quick.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
I hope there's no mess or spelling bee content, No, no.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Sam white Lock. This is your twenty two and two.
Coffee or tea? Sea sex or drugs? Sex or fast fast?
Would you rather wake up ned next to Dan Carter
or Richie mccaugh neither tire, Indian uh eat out or dinonnond,
(18:14):
Freddy Mercury or Elton John Oh, Freddy wet or dry?
We cats or dogs? Dogs, Trevis kelsor Taylor Swift.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
I've actually got my Taylor. We went to Wembley. My
daughters love it, so I'm wearing them. I can't wait
for them to break off so I don't have to
with them.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
You're the dead of the year. Did you take your
daughters to to No?
Speaker 3 (18:36):
I didn't. I took two good mates and my wife.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
So oh okay? Almost Andrew Hoare, Anton Oliver and Scott Barrett.
Who's the player you'd least like to shower next.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
To all of them? Probably?
Speaker 2 (18:50):
What rugby? What rugby legend? If you could? Would you
bring back from the dead Jonah? Absolutely? If if the
ceremony though to bring back Jonah is altered and you
talking like Stephen mckiva for the rest of your life,
which you still do it? Good man, This is easy one.
If you ever fired a gun, never killed anything bigger
than an insect. Yes, who's the most famous person you've met?
Speaker 3 (19:13):
Oh? Probably one of the royals or one of the
basketball guys.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Did you go to a basketball game?
Speaker 3 (19:21):
A couple of basketball games. That was pretty cool. As
you met the food fighters that was awesome. Girl, Redo
and I were there. We were pretty much fan fan
boys and we're running late. I had traffic grad to
run about ten k's after training, got blisters and shoes
I wasn't used to running in, but it was well
worth it. Got there dripping with sweat, so I met
(19:43):
the food fighters stinking sweetie and blisters everywhere.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
It's funny when you because I met carry o'keef old
scale the commentator, and I all of a sudden found
myself totally fanboying out. I didn't know what to say
and I was like yeah, I was like, hey, Like
I just totally bottled it. He must have thought I
was a compla freak. Anyway, if you had a reoccurring
dream that a snowman killed himself with a hair dry
Would you be concerned?
Speaker 3 (20:08):
I think I would be.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
If you were offered a knighthood, would you accept it?
Speaker 3 (20:13):
I don't even know what that probably is?
Speaker 2 (20:15):
A knighthood, Sir, Sir Sam Whitelock.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
I wouldn't make anyone call me that.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
But yeah, what age do people say they've had a
fall instead of falling over? What's the tipping point there?
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Eighty two?
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Have you ever screamed? Google me, motherfucker.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
I haven't a lady that has said that before, so
I have said it to her a bit of ingest.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Yes, okay, here's one for you. Move to think about it,
and could be on the farm if you were going
to get a statue made of yourself, So you can
think about this. What pose would it be? And where
would you put the statue? I'll give you. I'll give
you an example why you think about it. Tim Soudy
said that he would put he would be nude on
a stallion that was rare up and he had put
it on the front lawn of Daniel Vitorre's house. That's
(21:02):
the kind of it. It's a lot about Tim Southy.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Yeah, No, I probably never would have a set you made.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Of me your credit card on White Crocketts.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
Now you should have seen me that question earlier.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
You maybe you like holding his credit card on his
front lawn.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Maybe at the dining room table. So every time he
takes any mouthful, he knows who paid for that meal.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
So it's you. That's quite that's quite. Innove a statue
that's inside on the dining room table.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Just almost like the centerpiece, you know, so like every
time he eats, no matter what meal, is just always
looking at him, and they just want to have that
look of a thousand foot steer, you know, like just
slip through his soul.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
No, I say the book is out now. View from
the second row. Sam Whitelock, absolute pleasure to have you,
have you in here in the studio today. I know
you've got the media car wash you've been doing for
a couple of days. I know you're probably gagging back
to get on the farm and Hawk's Bay. But thank
you very much for your time and best of luck
with the book. I'm sure it's going to go well.
Good stocking stuffer for any rugby fans out there, But
(22:08):
good luck with your retirement. Good luck on the farm
and hopefully we'll see you around.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Thank you thanks for having me in. I've always wanted
to come in, but nice to finally get here just
as I've finished my playing career.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Perfect perfect timing.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
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