Colin Meads and Brodie Retallick named greatest All Blacks locks
Sir Colin Meads and Brodie Retallick have been named as the greatest All Blacks locks of all-time by a panel of rugby experts and the Kiwi public.
As part of Sky Sport’s quest to find New Zealand’s Greatest XV, a panel of leading journalists and broadcasters – Grant Nisbett, Ken Laban, Rikki Swannell and Phil Gifford – were last week asked by The Breakdown who they thought were the country’s best-ever locks.
The panel were unanimous in their verdict that Retallick, an 84-test veteran who is part of the current All Blacks squad, and Meads, the late great who played 55 tests for the All Blacks between 1957 and 1971, were New Zealand’s greatest locks.
Their verdict was supported by the Kiwi public, who voted Retallick (60 percent of the public vote) and Meads (57 percent) as the best-ever All Blacks second rowers on social media.
Former All Blacks coach John Hart told Sky Sport that Meads, named New Zealand’s Player of the 20th Century, “transcends” rugby due to his “ability, longevity, pain barrier”, and, “controversy”.
“He had this aura about him that was intimidating,” Sir Bryan Williams added. “He was an enforcer in every sense of the word. He was strong, he was powerful, he had that thorough brow, and if he told you not to touch him again, he actually meant it.
“He was an awesome presence, ball in hand, running with one hand down the field. Just intimidating.”
Former All Blacks player and coach Laurie Mains described Meads as “the best lock world rugby as seen”.
“I was lucky to have a few games with Colin towards the end of his career,” Mains told Sky Sport.
“He simply is the best lock that, I think, world rugby has seen. He was driven by incredible determination to dominate his opposition, and driven to be the fittest he could possibly be.”\
Former All Blacks captain Richie McCaw, meanwhile, said he “loved playing alongside” Retallick during their time in the New Zealand national side together between 2012 and 2015.
“I loved playing alongside Brodie,” McCaw told Sky Sport. “He intimidated opposition because he was a brute of a man to try and tackle and stop, but his skill level, for a big man, was phenomenal.”
“Playing against Brodie is not fun at all. He’s a constant pest. He’s just competitive and he’s so smart and so long and big and strong and so good at rugby,” Retallick’s All Blacks teammate Aaron Smith added.
“One of the most talented guys I’ve ever played with by far, and how young he was when we both started our career in the All Blacks together, and he shot up to superstardom very quickly.
“From his days at the Chiefs, straight into the All Blacks, fitted in like a glove, and then winning World Player of the Year, that just shows the class of the guy, and I think his All Black test record speaks for itself, too.
“The games that he’s been apart of we usually won, and a lot of the games where he was either injured, and losses I’ve been apart of, he wasn’t playing.
“I’ve been in teams with great All Blacks, but you felt confident when Brodie Retallick was running around that you’d go close to winning that day.
“He just has that winning mentality and whatever is needed he’d do, whether it was a charge down, a big hit, a turnover, a great lineout steal. His ability to impact the game was phenomenal, and from lock, I think he’s changed the game.”
All Blacks Greatest XV
1. Tony Woodcock (118 tests from 2002-2015)
2. Sean Fitzpatrick (92 tests from 1986-1997)
3. Ken Gray (24 tests from 1963-1969)
4. Colin Meads (55 tests from 1957-1971)
5. Brodie Retallick (84 tests from 2012-present)
6. N/A
7. N/A
8. N/A
9. N/A
10. N/A
11. N/A
12. N/A
13. N/A
14. N/A
15. N/A
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments