Whitelock ready to get down to business
SAM WHITELOCK, New Zealand’s standin captain, says that he and his team-mates have enjoyed slipping into tourist mode in Edinburgh this week, which he believes has been the ideal way to prepare for this afternoon’s clash against Scotland at Murrayfield – when the All Blacks will be looking to extend their unbeaten record in this fixture to 32 games.
The second-row explained that after last weekend’s emphatic 55-23 victory over Wales in Cardiff, a conscious decision was made by the All Blacks to take off their foot off the gas a bit, because previous experience has taught the squad that all work and no play is not the way to engineer peak performance when it really matters.
“What we’ve done this week is look at going right back to zero then building it up from there, as opposed to trying to keep at that level the whole week,” said the 32-year-old, who is deputising as captain this week for the injured Sam Cane. “In the past, we have tried to stay at that level and come unstuck because it is too hard to stay 100 per cent focused the whole time.
“So, we’ve enjoyed getting round the city, having a look at the castle and learning some of the history. A few of the boys got a scare doing the ghost tour! We’ve had an awesome time, but we know that everything will be judged on that 80-minute performance against Scotland, and we are now looking forward to getting back in game mode.”
Whitelock is one of five members of the All Blacks’ squad for today’s match who were involved the last time the team played at Murrayfield. On that occasion, back in November 2017, Scotland had the tourists on the ropes during the final five minutes but couldn’t quite deliver the knock-out blow.
He has vivid memories of the atmosphere at Murrayfield that night and believes it was helpful for the squad to visit the stadium yesterday afternoon for their traditional eve of match captain’s run.
“It has been a great week and we haven’t been here for a couple of years so that’s why we’re here at the ground now, doing some skills, having a good look round the stadium and in the changing rooms, trying to get an understanding of what playing here means,” he said.
“We know it is going to be sold out. It will be an awesome occasion. There is nothing like playing Scotland at home.
“They are going to give everything, like they always do. They definitely have that ability to push us in many ways. It doesn’t matter what’s happened before, they are always present when we play them.”
Whitelock also revealed that he played alongside Finn Russell back in 2014, when the Scottish stand-off spent time at the Canterbury Rugby International HighPerformance Unit, whilst on a placement organised through Scottish Rugby Macphail Scholarship programme.
The pair lined-up together only once in a club match for Lincoln University as Whitelock – who was already an established All Black by that point – got some gametime at under his belt following an injury.
“He can pull anything out of the bag,” recalled the New Zealander. “I was lucky enough to play with him when he was in New Zealand a few years ago now, and he was exactly the same player then as he is now, and that’s something this Scottish side will feed on.
“He can do something that is not expected and it comes off for him because og how skilful a player he is, so we have to be ready for anything because he does know how to break a game open.
“For us, it is about making sure we don’t give him time and space because that’s when he is at his best at coming up with whatever he is going to do.”
It will be an awesome occasion. There is nothing like playing Scotland at home