Rugby: Fatigue could be World Cup killer for All Blacks

Sam Whitelock will skip the start of the next Super Rugby season after enduring a heavy workload the past two years. Photo / Photosport

Gregor Paul in Tokyo

Big Sam Whitelock managed 55 minutes in Yokohama before shuffling to the sideline, obviously spent after digging out of himself all he had.

Ideally, he would have gone longer at the coalface, but after playing the amount of football he has last year and this, Whitelock is almost running on empty.

He is the unwitting and reluctant poster boy for those advocating a longer off-season.

He is a powerful reminder that fatigue will strike down even the toughest and best athletes if they are unable to find the rest and rehabilitation periods they need to sustain themselves.

Whitelock had a monster season with the Crusaders and All Blacks in 2017, captaining the former to their eighth title and the latter in their final test of the year in late November.

He had nine weeks between that test in Cardiff and reappearing in his Crusaders jersey in almost every game and has played all but one test. The toll on his body has been enormous, which is why he's looking like a man in dire need of an extended period away from rugby.

He'll get that when he returns to Super Rugby a month after everyone else next year and thankfully he's probably the only All Black who needs to be actively managed between now and the World Cup.

Injuries, while not welcome, have been a saving grace of sorts for the All Blacks, as Joe Moody, Dane Coles, Brodie Retallick, Kieran Read and Sonny Bill Williams have all played so little in 2018 that they haven't run their tanks dry in the same way as Whitelock.

All of them, as well as Nepo Laulala, will probably target being available for the first game of Super Rugby next year without many concerns about their ability to reach the World Cup in top shape.

But if it hadn't been for the injuries that group suffered, the All Blacks would have had a major headache coming into World Cup year about when and how to rest their top players.

They would have faced the real prospect of key players coming to Japan next year without the necessary energy and bounce to really make an impact at the tournament.

It would have been unpopular, but the All Blacks may have needed to insist on some kind of stricter protocol on how much certain players could be involved in Super Rugby.

It's a problem other nations haven't been able to avoid, though, and how well teams can manage their frontline talent in the next 11 months will have a major bearing on who wins the World Cup.

One of the teams suffering the most is England, who have 15 potential test starters injured.

"We have got a lot of respect for England, rest assured," said All Blacks coach Steve Hansen.

"They have got one or two people injured at the moment but so does everybody. That is the nature of the beast at the moment and why I keep harping on about the need for a global season that looks after the welfare of the players.

"One thing I would really want is that everyone gets 16 weeks between their last game of the season and the next one. That's what is missing.

"Currently they don't get enough of a break and you only have to look at Sam Whitelock and you can't just keep going round and round and round without running out of petrol.

"At some point, you're going to need to recharge the tank, and the England boys, I think, have suffered a bit from the Lions tour. It's not only one season it happens, it kicks on.

"It is a worldwide problem and probably the team managing it the best at the moment is Ireland. And they are pretty dictatorial about the way they do it, as they tell players they can't play."