Rugby: Coventry lavishes praise on Retallick

Brodie Retallick. Photo / Duncan Brown

"All Black Brodie Retallick is not only the best lock in the world, he's the best player."

Those were the words of his Chiefs assistant coach and former Magpies co-coach Tom Coventry yesterday.

"Brodie is so consistent and his pairing with Sam Whitelock is such a great one. Brodie brings that hard edge which everyone likes ... he's pretty exceptional."

Retallick, 23, produced a player-of-the-match performance as the All Blacks demolished the Wallabies 51-20 at Eden Park 10 days ago. In his two Rugby Championship tests to date this season he has carried 15 times, made a clean linebreak, beaten two defenders, offloaded twice, made 22 tackles and won four turnovers.

Equally as impressive is his conduct off the field. The nephew of former All Black prop is no longer the shy, quietly spoken character he was upon his arrival in the Bay from Canterbury in 2010.

Retallick has handled press duties with aplomb during the past two seasons and yesterday's stand-up in Napier as the countdown to Saturday night's test against Argentina at Napier's McLean Park continued was no different.

Retallick, who played 12 games for the Magpies during the 2010 and 2011 seasons, said the clash would be another huge test for the ABs tight five.

When quizzed on how the ABs would cope with the Pumas' much vaunted scrum, Retallick replied: "We've got to keep the pressure on after our little hit and go forward or at best hold it steady.

"It's different to how we would scrum against the Wallabies."

The 2011 New Zealand under-20 world champion is looking forward to marking Pumas lock Tomas Lavanini, who had a short training stint with the Chiefs this year.

"Tomas is definitely physical ... I've seen him knock someone out."