The men who have spent the majority of Sam Whitelock's historic All Blacks career packing down beside him have praised their evergreen teammate ahead of his record-breaking 149th Test cap.
Brodie Retallick and Scott Barrett — who are the starting lock combo ahead of Whitelock for the All Blacks' do-or-die Rugby World Cup clash against Italy — have joined the chorus of voices singing the praises of the 34-year-old ahead of his likely 149th cap in Lyon tomorrow morning.
Should Whitelock replace one of the pair, he will surpass Richie McCaw to become the most-capped All Black of all time — a feat Barrett said reflected the class of his longtime Crusaders teammate.
"Sam's obviously bringing up a huge milestone and something that has never been done in an All Black jersey and its been a huge honour and privilege to play alongside him in my career," Barrett said.
"I'm sure when he gets out there, he'll do what he does every time he puts on the jersey and that's play tough rugby. He'll be looking forward to that."
The sentiment was echoed by Retallick, who shares the record with Whitelock for most Tests as a locking combination after years of representing New Zealand as the go-to No.4 and No.5 combo.
"It's obviously his 149th game and to do that from a physical and from a mental side, to be able to turn up each week and prepare and train and play the way that he does is a real testament to him," Retallick said.
"No one has done it in the jersey before — he stands alone there."
Retallick added a significant part of Whitelock's legacy to the black jersey came from outside the Test arena.
"I think the biggest impact he has had was, he was the No.1 lock and he was established before I was and it was just a competition to keep getting better and to get to his level.
"He's done that for so which is obviously the massive achievement he's about to get and I think just by doing that and having that competition — even this week even though he's been named on the bench he's been pushing everyone around the field [at training] and tried to outdo everyone.
"Obviously playing in a lot of Test matches with him has been special but the competitiveness he has throughout the training week, week in and week out, has been the biggest benefit."
In a light-hearted moment to finish this morning's press conference, Retallick was also asked what had happened to his moustache after the well-regarded feature had seemingly gone missing this week.
The Chiefs star joked it was a matter of trust — or lack thereof.
"I actually shaved it off last week when we didn't have a game," he said.
"The only reason was I didn't have any clippers to trim it and I didn't trust anyone else's so I just shaved it off."
The All Blacks will hope tomorrow isn't as close a shave against Italy when their match kicks off at 8am.
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