Who would you rather have in your team

Ok, two of the youngest and most talented locks around. Sam Whitelock and Courtney Lawes.
Sam Whitelock
6ft 7
22 years old
17st 5lb
international caps 13

Courtney Lawes
6ft 7
22 years old
18st
international caps 8

If you had to choose one for your team, who would you rather have? Who do you think has the potential to be a world class lock?

Yikes that's a tough one.

I think I'd go Whitelock, his ball skills are better IMO and you have to be pretty damn good to get 13 caps for the blacks

Do you think Whitelock will be mainly a bench option for the world cup? What other locks are in the squad?
Of the two, I'd go Courtney by the way. But I am a Northampton fan.

Whitelock will be a starter for sure. I'd rather have him personally.

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:Yikes that's a tough one.

I think I'd go Whitelock, his ball skills are better IMO and you have to be pretty damn good to get 13 caps for the blacks

Which blacks?

TheGreyGhost wrote:

Which blacks?

Canada ?

Good ol gg. Always manages to extract the guts of the issue.
Odd post but for the abs sam certainly is one for the future. One of 5 brothers playing.
Will need to unseat ali as thorne will be the primary lock for this. Wcup.
Lawes is a good player and will be key to england this year.more so than whitelock for us. Big shoes to fill for both so good luck to both.

I'm going for Sam Whitelock, when I seen him earlier this year for NZ I thought he was brilliant, excellent all round athleticism and balance for a second row, and what stood out for me was his passing, for a second row its exceptional. Also great in the lineout. I have a little sum on him to score the first try tommorow at 33-1.

Lawes is also a fantastic player however.

What I find interesting given the similarity of their physical stats is that Lawes is seen by many as a 4. An enforcer lock in the Brad Thorn, Bakkies Botha mould, whereas Whitelock appears to be looked upon as a 5.

They are unquestionably very different players. Lawes is all about big hits and a fantastic defensive workrate, whereas Whitelock is better when he has the ball and is a terrific athlete.

Can I have them both as my second row please?

They would be an incredibly combo thinking about it! Rugby worlds 2015 world best team I reckon!
Whitelock's passing is indeed very good, he's also scored three trys for the allblacks already Dodger so thats a smart bet!
Thats very true Pete, quite odd given their stats!

It was actually 2010 I was thinking about just watched some clip of the All Blacks on youtube.

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:Yikes that's a tough one.

I think I'd go Whitelock, his ball skills are better IMO and you have to be pretty damn good to get 13 caps for the blacks

not a fair comparison as Courtney Lawes has no chance of getting 13 caps for the all-blacks.









See what I did there?

I would have to go for Lawes. He seems to do more around the pitch - most of which involve inflicting pain on the opposition's ball carrier. I woud have to say, though, that I would take Richie Gray ahead of them both although I am really looking forward to a Gray/Lawes middle row for the Lions.

LCDpete - agree with your enforcer type description of Lawes. I would see him as a Brad Thorn type of player, who I rate as a player the AB's cannot do without.

Who would I have? Hmmm...tough one. One one hand you have a player who has the potential to do extremely great things in a black jumper on the other you have a player who could go on and do extremely good things in....errr....a black jumper.....or white depending on what the RFU bigwigs decide (joking of course). Seriously though I see Whitelock as a player who could put all of our last 20=30 yrs worth of locks in the shade, I think at some point his name could be whispered alongside that of Pinetree.

I like Lawes though. He doesn't give a damn what any one thinks and he just goes out there determined to give his all and punish. Has been shown up by some of the more agressive forward packs in world rugby but will only help him in the long run.

Tough choice, the best solution I can come up with is that a Whitelock/Lawes combo in 3-4 yrs would absolutely be the best in World Rugby, never going to happen though unless one goes to the other's club/province

Well i havent really seen much of Whiltelock...so it wouldnt be a fair call...but im a big fan of Lawes anyway, so he's my pick.

Big athletic physical player...

If he continues his development imagine what he could be like when he's mid 20's....and has a few extra pounds on him.

Agree with Geordie Falcon, haven't seen much of Whitelock but I'm a big fan of Lawes. I think Lawes and Attwood should be England's second row partnership in the not-too-distant future. Both are aggressive, abrasive locks and with back rows like Croft and Wood I don't think we'll need a line-out specialist.