CHRIS HEWETT
THINKING ALLOWED

We'll know soon enough if Sam Whitelock is finally past it. The venerable All Black lock from Palmerston North, home to the New Zealand Rugby Museum, has been playing the house down for so long, he runs a serious risk of being kidnapped by the curator, lowered by crane into a glass case and ordered not to move a muscle during opening hours.
He won his first world title in the home tournament of 2011, starting all but one of the games and participating off the bench in the other, before doubling down in England four years later when, with Brodie Retallick alon...