August 1, 2024 • 9 mins
Welcome to the Breakfast Bonus Podcast - an exclusive online only chat released each weekday.
All Blacks legend Sam Whitelock has released his book 'View From The Second Row', so we chatted with him about his career highlights and being a fan of Richie McCaw before becoming his captain!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Coast Breakfast Bonus Podcast with Tony Jason, Sam.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Thanks for listening to our Breakfast Bonus podcast. Today we're
talking about the most kept All Black of all time,
not just talking about him, but talking with him, Sam Whitelock.
He's got a new book out called View from the
Second Row, and I'll be honest having a flick through.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
He is not Hellberg.
Speaker 4 (00:16):
No, he's had quite a view that he's contained for
quite some time.
Speaker 5 (00:20):
It was an educational interview as well, because we found
out what scrum toe was.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Yeah, we also found out he used to idolize Richie
McCall before he became his captain.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
He was his captain in the Crusaders. He was the
boss of Richie mccaugh.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
But when you first met Richie McCall, Sam didn't go
so well, did it.
Speaker 6 (00:33):
No, it's one of those ones that no one really
knew this story. And when Dylan was interviewing me, I
was like, I better actually put this in here because
it's one of those ones.
Speaker 7 (00:43):
You know, you meet your heroes all those.
Speaker 6 (00:44):
Things, and I go to catch a water bottle, drop it,
it goes everywhere and you just see him look at
me like.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Because it was his drink bottle. He was leaning you
because you forgot to bring yours.
Speaker 6 (00:57):
Right, Yeah, I've just kind of I was love across
the road from Rugby Park and shaw Maitland myself. We've
just kind of like strolled across as yours every eighteen
nineteen year old kidders and just what are we doing
and then being like, okay, we're to train with these guys.
In the first five minutes, I was like, Okay, this
is going to be pretty hard. And then yeah, he's like,
I do you want to drink? Oh, you'll be good,
(01:17):
And it was like one of those Gumby catchers too,
like the old fingers.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
I don't worry.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Well, don't worry because anyone that has seen your book,
Richard McCaw has a quote on the front cover, so
they made good in the end. Yeah, Sam, I want
to know why you decided to write a book because
it's a big, big deal, right, because you're kind of saying,
I'm going to write a book and I'm going to
tell a little stories that people don't know and potentially
upsets some people. So why did you decide to do this?
Speaker 6 (01:43):
Yeah, hopefully I don't upset anyone. It was pretty meticulous
around going through it and making sure that I wasn't
throwing anyone under the bus or anything like that. But
the real reason was my grandfather was lucky enough to
play for the All Blacks and fifty three fifty four
and all his test jerseys were worn to club training
by my uncles, so everything was kind of used and loved,
(02:08):
and then that was it. We only really had stories,
and those stories kind of came through my uncles and
aunties and my mum and I would have loved to
been able to go back and read a book or
look at more photos than we have and actually experience
what he did, because what they did in fifty three
fifty four was completely different to what we do now.
Speaker 7 (02:28):
So that was kind of one of the major reasons
to put it on.
Speaker 6 (02:32):
Paper and kind of explain the challenges, the upst the downs,
some of the things that are a little bit personal
to myself, but actually tell that story so hopefully I
can inspire some young kids out there. Because I never
thought i'd be an all like, I never thought i'd
play professional rugby, let alone go on and have the
(02:53):
career that I've had. But more importantly, I wanted to
be able to give it back to my friends and family.
So pretty cool a photo coming from Nana. She run
to the shop because we're still in France, having any
chance to give her a copy myself, but she's bought one.
She's twenty pages in. She's reading about it, even though
she knows the story pretty well. So it's pretty humbling
(03:14):
to be able to have that experience but share it
with not only friends and family, but also the general
Rugby population.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
So Rugby, you know, there's a bit of history of
rugby and your family. You grew up in a rural
setting and you have been described as the you know,
a modern day Colin Meats. So with that rural upbringing,
did you ever do the.
Speaker 6 (03:34):
Training on the farm?
Speaker 3 (03:35):
You know what I mean, like carry some sex couple
of sheep?
Speaker 7 (03:38):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Is that the way you trained?
Speaker 6 (03:41):
Yeah, especially when I was younger, So I think that's
kind of where the farming family thing really set us
up to be successful. So one of four boys at
home on the farm, we got into a little bit
of trouble. So Dad soon learned, okay, give these guys
some jobs to do, keep us busy and occupied. And
I remember when little it was like, right, hey, here's
(04:02):
the little acts. Go cut kindling, and we do that
for hours and hours. Luckily we're still got all our
fingers and probably dodgy there a little bit. But what
it actually taught us was around working together, hard work,
and it was something that Dad.
Speaker 7 (04:18):
And definitely did for us.
Speaker 6 (04:19):
They really installed that working together as a team is
a better way to achieve it. I remember picking up
a whole lot of pine cones. We were fundraising for
our rugby team, and Dad and the rugby team coaches
made us give away all these pine cones to the
netball girls because it was actually not about us. It's
actually about us as people, so being better giving something
(04:43):
to a fellow school team so they could go to
the tournament, and it just kind of set us up.
And that are a lot of the things that I
still go back to now.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
I love that I'm going to get my netbook girls
out picking up pine clones after hearing that that's a
cool story.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Yeah, Hey, have you saying any books Sam? We've got
Sam joining us at the moment. The book's called View
from the Second Row, And you say you don't want
upset people writing this book, but only you tell us
a couple of interesting stories about Steve Hanson, which I
don't think many people knew.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Do you reckon you're on this Christmas card list? You okay?
You guys are okay now?
Speaker 7 (05:14):
Yeah, no, no, we're great. We can call on all
those things.
Speaker 6 (05:19):
It's really hard trying to explain it, but kind of
putting into ten seconds worth, Steve was really really hard
on me, but what he was actually trying to do
was make me better and I probably didn't see that,
and I probably with my own stubbornness, kind of listened
but didn't listen. And the cool thing at the end
of it is, you know, he was the head coach
(05:40):
when I played one hundred test matches for the All Blacks. Yeah,
so he helped me in his own way. He thought
this was the best way to do it. That I agree,
probably not at times, but the rewards. You know, I
got to play one hundred test matches at the time,
it was the fastest one to keep there and there's
no idea that without him. So it's one of those things,
(06:02):
you know, like sometimes having those hard conversations. You don't
like it at the time, but it's actually is what
is needed, and that's one of the reasons I was
the the player I was because he was hard on me.
He's probably harder on me than any anyone else.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
And do you know what, I love that you have
shared that story though, because a lot of a lot
of kids these days, and it's a bit of a generalization,
but I think at the slightest sort of hard word
might be really upset and not carry on. And there's
definitely a bit of a vibe of that when you're
coaching in New Zealand to make sort of model what
(06:38):
he called people a little bit. So I like that
you've shared that and you can see how it was
positive for you hugely.
Speaker 6 (06:46):
And I actually had a sit down conversation with them
at one stage at his house. And you know, I
was a young player having to go to the all
black head coach and say, hey, look, you've got to
ease up on me because you're destroying my confidence and
things like that, and to his critics to be okay,
I'll stay away from you, to leave you alone, won't
have a.
Speaker 7 (07:06):
Dig at or anything.
Speaker 6 (07:07):
And to his created listened and it allowed me to
grow again in the sport. And that was one of
the main things with writing a book.
Speaker 7 (07:15):
I didn't want.
Speaker 6 (07:16):
To skip over some of those things, some of those
challenges because those challenges, like you say, people face me
every day, whether it's being sport, at work, at at
a job, it's a real world and it can be
pretty challenging as a rugby play because people watching you,
you might have a form slip and there might be
a few things going on at home that are affecting that.
(07:38):
So we are normal people and it's good to share
those thoughts.
Speaker 5 (07:42):
Or you might be battling scrum toe? What scrum toe?
Speaker 7 (07:46):
Pretty much?
Speaker 6 (07:48):
That sounds really bad, but if you've ever had gout,
it's pretty much the same.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
As that cause by scrubs.
Speaker 7 (07:54):
Just because your toes hyper extending so much.
Speaker 6 (07:57):
You're running around on a hard ground with a big
spread roll on your toe and you're pretty much attend
them and that gets inflamed. That sucks really because you
can't scrum, you can't run too well.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
But so is that what these rugby players having toe injuries?
That's what it is.
Speaker 6 (08:14):
Yeah, So if you experienced players, because they've been more scrums,
your toe will be able to flix more. With some
of the young guys that they don't have the flexibility
in the big toe. So like for me, being an
older player, my toe flexibility should be better than some
of the young guys because they've just been in more
scrums and put more pressure on it.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Jase saying it was just a stub toe.
Speaker 7 (08:38):
I wouldn't.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Why I go Graduz.
Speaker 6 (08:46):
It's funny to say that though, because one of the
worst thing is when someone stands on your toe because
they've never done it on purpose, and then all, well,
don't put your foot there, and you're like, well it
was there before yours.
Speaker 7 (08:59):
To does who.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
It's an educational book, you see. It's called A Few
from the Second Row. Samuel white Lock, congratulations on everything.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Thanks for listening to the Coast Breakfast Bonus podcast.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Get your day started
Speaker 1 (09:12):
With Coasts Feel Good Breakfast, Tony Street, Jays Reeves and
Sam Wallace.
The Coast Breakfast Bonus Podcast with Tony Jason, Sam.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Thanks for listening to our Breakfast Bonus podcast. Today we're
talking about the most kept All Black of all time,
not just talking about him, but talking with him, Sam Whitelock.
He's got a new book out called View from the
Second Row, and I'll be honest having a flick through.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
He is not Hellberg.
Speaker 4 (00:16):
No, he's had quite a view that he's contained for
quite some time.
Speaker 5 (00:20):
It was an educational interview as well, because we found
out what scrum toe was.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Yeah, we also found out he used to idolize Richie
McCall before he became his captain.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
He was his captain in the Crusaders. He was the
boss of Richie mccaugh.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
But when you first met Richie McCall, Sam didn't go
so well, did it.
Speaker 6 (00:33):
No, it's one of those ones that no one really
knew this story. And when Dylan was interviewing me, I
was like, I better actually put this in here because
it's one of those ones.
Speaker 7 (00:43):
You know, you meet your heroes all those.
Speaker 6 (00:44):
Things, and I go to catch a water bottle, drop it,
it goes everywhere and you just see him look at
me like.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Because it was his drink bottle. He was leaning you
because you forgot to bring yours.
Speaker 6 (00:57):
Right, Yeah, I've just kind of I was love across
the road from Rugby Park and shaw Maitland myself. We've
just kind of like strolled across as yours every eighteen
nineteen year old kidders and just what are we doing
and then being like, okay, we're to train with these guys.
In the first five minutes, I was like, Okay, this
is going to be pretty hard. And then yeah, he's like,
I do you want to drink? Oh, you'll be good,
(01:17):
And it was like one of those Gumby catchers too,
like the old fingers.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
I don't worry.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Well, don't worry because anyone that has seen your book,
Richard McCaw has a quote on the front cover, so
they made good in the end. Yeah, Sam, I want
to know why you decided to write a book because
it's a big, big deal, right, because you're kind of saying,
I'm going to write a book and I'm going to
tell a little stories that people don't know and potentially
upsets some people. So why did you decide to do this?
Speaker 6 (01:43):
Yeah, hopefully I don't upset anyone. It was pretty meticulous
around going through it and making sure that I wasn't
throwing anyone under the bus or anything like that. But
the real reason was my grandfather was lucky enough to
play for the All Blacks and fifty three fifty four
and all his test jerseys were worn to club training
by my uncles, so everything was kind of used and loved,
(02:08):
and then that was it. We only really had stories,
and those stories kind of came through my uncles and
aunties and my mum and I would have loved to
been able to go back and read a book or
look at more photos than we have and actually experience
what he did, because what they did in fifty three
fifty four was completely different to what we do now.
Speaker 7 (02:28):
So that was kind of one of the major reasons
to put it on.
Speaker 6 (02:32):
Paper and kind of explain the challenges, the upst the downs,
some of the things that are a little bit personal
to myself, but actually tell that story so hopefully I
can inspire some young kids out there. Because I never
thought i'd be an all like, I never thought i'd
play professional rugby, let alone go on and have the
(02:53):
career that I've had. But more importantly, I wanted to
be able to give it back to my friends and family.
So pretty cool a photo coming from Nana. She run
to the shop because we're still in France, having any
chance to give her a copy myself, but she's bought one.
She's twenty pages in. She's reading about it, even though
she knows the story pretty well. So it's pretty humbling
(03:14):
to be able to have that experience but share it
with not only friends and family, but also the general
Rugby population.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
So Rugby, you know, there's a bit of history of
rugby and your family. You grew up in a rural
setting and you have been described as the you know,
a modern day Colin Meats. So with that rural upbringing,
did you ever do the.
Speaker 6 (03:34):
Training on the farm?
Speaker 3 (03:35):
You know what I mean, like carry some sex couple
of sheep?
Speaker 7 (03:38):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Is that the way you trained?
Speaker 6 (03:41):
Yeah, especially when I was younger, So I think that's
kind of where the farming family thing really set us
up to be successful. So one of four boys at
home on the farm, we got into a little bit
of trouble. So Dad soon learned, okay, give these guys
some jobs to do, keep us busy and occupied. And
I remember when little it was like, right, hey, here's
(04:02):
the little acts. Go cut kindling, and we do that
for hours and hours. Luckily we're still got all our
fingers and probably dodgy there a little bit. But what
it actually taught us was around working together, hard work,
and it was something that Dad.
Speaker 7 (04:18):
And definitely did for us.
Speaker 6 (04:19):
They really installed that working together as a team is
a better way to achieve it. I remember picking up
a whole lot of pine cones. We were fundraising for
our rugby team, and Dad and the rugby team coaches
made us give away all these pine cones to the
netball girls because it was actually not about us. It's
actually about us as people, so being better giving something
(04:43):
to a fellow school team so they could go to
the tournament, and it just kind of set us up.
And that are a lot of the things that I
still go back to now.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
I love that I'm going to get my netbook girls
out picking up pine clones after hearing that that's a
cool story.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Yeah, Hey, have you saying any books Sam? We've got
Sam joining us at the moment. The book's called View
from the Second Row, And you say you don't want
upset people writing this book, but only you tell us
a couple of interesting stories about Steve Hanson, which I
don't think many people knew.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Do you reckon you're on this Christmas card list? You okay?
You guys are okay now?
Speaker 7 (05:14):
Yeah, no, no, we're great. We can call on all
those things.
Speaker 6 (05:19):
It's really hard trying to explain it, but kind of
putting into ten seconds worth, Steve was really really hard
on me, but what he was actually trying to do
was make me better and I probably didn't see that,
and I probably with my own stubbornness, kind of listened
but didn't listen. And the cool thing at the end
of it is, you know, he was the head coach
(05:40):
when I played one hundred test matches for the All Blacks. Yeah,
so he helped me in his own way. He thought
this was the best way to do it. That I agree,
probably not at times, but the rewards. You know, I
got to play one hundred test matches at the time,
it was the fastest one to keep there and there's
no idea that without him. So it's one of those things,
(06:02):
you know, like sometimes having those hard conversations. You don't
like it at the time, but it's actually is what
is needed, and that's one of the reasons I was
the the player I was because he was hard on me.
He's probably harder on me than any anyone else.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
And do you know what, I love that you have
shared that story though, because a lot of a lot
of kids these days, and it's a bit of a generalization,
but I think at the slightest sort of hard word
might be really upset and not carry on. And there's
definitely a bit of a vibe of that when you're
coaching in New Zealand to make sort of model what
(06:38):
he called people a little bit. So I like that
you've shared that and you can see how it was
positive for you hugely.
Speaker 6 (06:46):
And I actually had a sit down conversation with them
at one stage at his house. And you know, I
was a young player having to go to the all
black head coach and say, hey, look, you've got to
ease up on me because you're destroying my confidence and
things like that, and to his critics to be okay,
I'll stay away from you, to leave you alone, won't
have a.
Speaker 7 (07:06):
Dig at or anything.
Speaker 6 (07:07):
And to his created listened and it allowed me to
grow again in the sport. And that was one of
the main things with writing a book.
Speaker 7 (07:15):
I didn't want.
Speaker 6 (07:16):
To skip over some of those things, some of those
challenges because those challenges, like you say, people face me
every day, whether it's being sport, at work, at at
a job, it's a real world and it can be
pretty challenging as a rugby play because people watching you,
you might have a form slip and there might be
a few things going on at home that are affecting that.
(07:38):
So we are normal people and it's good to share
those thoughts.
Speaker 5 (07:42):
Or you might be battling scrum toe? What scrum toe?
Speaker 7 (07:46):
Pretty much?
Speaker 6 (07:48):
That sounds really bad, but if you've ever had gout,
it's pretty much the same.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
As that cause by scrubs.
Speaker 7 (07:54):
Just because your toes hyper extending so much.
Speaker 6 (07:57):
You're running around on a hard ground with a big
spread roll on your toe and you're pretty much attend
them and that gets inflamed. That sucks really because you
can't scrum, you can't run too well.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
But so is that what these rugby players having toe injuries?
That's what it is.
Speaker 6 (08:14):
Yeah, So if you experienced players, because they've been more scrums,
your toe will be able to flix more. With some
of the young guys that they don't have the flexibility
in the big toe. So like for me, being an
older player, my toe flexibility should be better than some
of the young guys because they've just been in more
scrums and put more pressure on it.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Jase saying it was just a stub toe.
Speaker 7 (08:38):
I wouldn't.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Why I go Graduz.
Speaker 6 (08:46):
It's funny to say that though, because one of the
worst thing is when someone stands on your toe because
they've never done it on purpose, and then all, well,
don't put your foot there, and you're like, well it
was there before yours.
Speaker 7 (08:59):
To does who.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
It's an educational book, you see. It's called A Few
from the Second Row. Samuel white Lock, congratulations on everything.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Thanks for listening to the Coast Breakfast Bonus podcast.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Get your day started
Speaker 1 (09:12):
With Coasts Feel Good Breakfast, Tony Street, Jays Reeves and
Sam Wallace.
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