From the All Blacks to the farm: Sam Whitelock is moving to Rissington in Hawke's Bay with his family to work the land he owns. Photo / Photosport
From the All Blacks to the farm: Sam Whitelock is moving to Rissington in Hawke's Bay with his family to work the land he owns. Photo / Photosport
All Blacks locking legend Sam Whitelock and his wife Hannah have decided to set up a new life in a remote and cyclone-hit part of Hawke’s Bay.
This weekend, the Whitelocks, with their three young children Fred, Iris, and Penelope, will move from the South Island to their 830ha sheepand beef farm in Rissington.
“We’ve had the land for about six years now,” Whitelock said, noting it had been hit by some damage during last year’s cyclone.
“We’re looking forward to experiencing farming and the challenges that come with it.
“Obviously, the cyclone put pressures on a lot of people. We’re looking forward to getting to know the community and the area. We’ve had some awesome people that have helped us so far.
“I spent a lot of time up there when I was younger, on an uncle’s farm and that’s one of the main reasons we wanted to go up there.
“There’s a heap of work so I’m sure I’m not going to get bored in the next 20 to 30-odd years.”
Whitelock grew up on a dairy farm at Linton on the Manawatū Plains before heading south to forge a successful rugby career for the Crusaders in Christchurch and for his country.
It’s been a busy year in all sorts of ways for the 35-year-old, who finished his 153-cap All Blacks career in the Rugby World Cup final in Paris last October, before playing a season for French club side Pau.
Sam Whitelock says he's retired from rugby, but still wants to be involved in some form. Photo / Photosport
He’s also released his autobiography, View From The Second Row, just in time for Father’s Day, although writing a book wasn’t something he was initially sold on.
“It wasn’t until I talked to [coach] Wayne Smith and he said, ‘look, this is the easiest way to pass on your career to not only people and friends you care about, but your kids and grandkids’, and that was probably the defining moment.
“I went from not wanting a bar of it to okay, actually, let’s have a look at what it involves.
“The most challenging bit of writing the book was probably the same as my playing career; the last couple of years with the All Blacks and the talk around coaches and performances that hadn’t gone the way we wanted and expected.
“I really enjoyed some of the family stuff and some of the stories that I had forgotten about that my brothers started to reminisce about, and it was nice to put some of those moments in the book.”
Whitelock is coy when asked if former Crusaders coach Scott Robertson picked up the phone to him when the All Blacks’ locking stocks dwindled.
“When you’ve played for your country you’re always going to want to play another one and it doesn’t matter how many you’ve played, there’s always going to be that desire to do that.
“But I’ve definitely retired now, and I haven’t done a lot of training lately, so I’m probably a little bit unfit.
“It’s a hard one as a player. You can hang on too long and your playing form can drop away, but I definitely didn’t want to go down that road, so I thought it would be nice to finish one or two seasons early rather than hang on.”
Whitelock is keen to remain in the game in some capacity, although he has not completely decided on what that looks like.
“We just want to get the kids settled first and go from there.”
A car in the mud at Rissington after Cyclone Gabrielle. The community was badly hit by flooding in 2023. Photo / Mike Scott
Whitelock now joins his long-term All Blacks locking partner Brodie Retallick as a Hawke’s Bay resident and he’s looking forward to catching up and seeing Retallick’s car collection.
“Brodie loves his coffee, I’m still drinking tea. I don’t drink coffee just yet, but we’ll have some fun.
“I’ll go round and have a look at them [the cars] at some stage and he’ll probably want to come up to the farm and get a little bit of steak and some nice lamb chops off me.”
