Whitelock, Retallick locking force to be reckoned with; by Wynne Gray NZ Herald

Locks like loose-forwards perform best as a combination. It's hard to think the All Blacks' most capped lock Ian Jones would have been as productive alongside someone like Ali Williams.

They were too much alike, great lineout leapers with strong athletic ability around the field but might have lacked a bit of combined sting for the scrums, rucks and mauls.

Similarly Brad Thorn and Robin Brooke would have delivered a powerful engine but restricted the lineout options if they were paired.

After the All Blacks' triumph at the 2011 World Cup Thorn, Williams and Anthony Boric dealt with injury or wandered into the sunset leaving Whitelock as the team's premier lock.

He started all but the opening game against Tonga and by the end of the tournament had gathered 25 test caps after a debut the year before.

Whitelock is only 25 but has now played 53 tests and shown a range of athletic abilities outside his hard-core duties which make him an invaluable tight forward.

Alongside him in the test series with England has been Brodie Retallick, who at 23 is also showing a remarkable range of skill and endurance for such a new test lock.

He graduated to the All Black ranks in 2012 after a compelling debut season with the Chiefs. He made his debut alongside Whitelock and they have started 15 tests together.

For a while, Luke Romano and Retallick alternated as partners for Whitelock but when injury affected Romano, Retallick picked up the selection fortune. The scrum has not been affected while the pair's ability to range wide on attack or defence and their workrate at rucks and mauls has been superb.

Retallick tends to line up at the front of the lineout where his 2.04m, 117kg frame and timing ensures he is a very reliable source of possession.

Whitelock moves between the middle and tail of the lineout where he is adept at spotting mis-matches on throws or can disrupt the opposition with his timing and anticipation. Like his colleague he has a huge motor within his 2.02m, 116kg physique.

They have been in tandem for 11 of the All Blacks' present run of 16 successive victories honing skills in areas such as kickoff receptions and attacking the All Black restarts.

Whitelock and Retallick have not shut the door on rivals in the All Black squad. They will assist in the development of Patrick Tuipulotu, Dominic Bird and Luke Romano when he returns but right now they are engraving their names deep in the selectors' notebooks.

very interesting article, JW, as it was other one you posted this same week about the tight five.

AB props, hooker and locks are playing like loose forwards around the field lifting the total game to another level. It's really worth to watch. They all had a great game against England last weekend and outplayed the english tight five for most of the match. Whitelock and Retallick had a lot to do in this. They are by far the most inform test lock pair atm.

And Whitelock is IMO the best lock in the world. He has no rival in the lineouts, his work rate is second to none (the only one near him is probably Retallick), all the matches he plays he spend the 80 min running everywhere, he's always the one who goes to get the ball after a penalti or another call is made, etc.

But he's also one of the bests (if not the best) lock at breakdowns, he's good at scrums, and carries th ball strongly. He's probably the most complete lock I've seen playing.

And Etzebeth is a great lock, good at lineouts, probably the strongest ball carrier but has a lot to work if he wants to reach Whitelock's level

 thanks Mike, I tried during this weekend to enter this site but I couldn't.

We'll speak in a couple of months about how weak the AB tight five are after they run over the springbok's one. The old and slow boks tight five won't even know where their AB counterparts are.

And the loose trio Kaino-McCaw-Read is simply the best in the world. Kaino was the best loose forward and best player of 2011, and he's reaching his best form. McCaw is the best ever openside flanker. And Read is the best 8 of the world and the few times he played this season he showed his class, probably he didn't reach his top form but this doesn't mean that he was a shadow of his past performances. They'll no doubt show bok loose trio deficiencies, mainly their slowness and lack of involving at breakdowns

thanks JW,

as you said they fail to see basic facts. They think they have the best forward pack just because they beat a no-national team and a weakened Wales (3 rd last 6 nations) and they cannot recognized how the AB pack demolished the english pack, with the AB' and the springboks' the bests in the world.

@beeno,

don't you still know that not only the size matters?

Beeno: are your top locks playing for the Boks right now? The answer is no, they are injured. Is weeee Matfield playing? What about Bakies? Yes they are playing. Tragic but true.

Poor player management & too much emphasis on the killer hit, in the end it wears down your best players & you have to oil the wheel chairs & push poor ol' matfield & bakies out onto the field. Ah the waste... we would rather play your best team but what can we do... at least we can try and enlighten you as the reasons but are you listening? We await an informed response