Whitelock making the big moments count while he still can 

DIFFERING EMOTIONS: Jonathan Sexton of Ireland reacts at the end of the 2023 Rugby World Cup quarter-final match between Ireland and New Zealand. Pic: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

Jordie Barrett’s try-saving tackle on Rónan Kelleher after 71 minutes might have been the key moment in a game littered with potential candidates but it didn’t make the highlight reel on the All Blacks own official YouTube channel.

These things are never not imperfect. How do you squeeze an epic like Saturday in Saint-Denis into a byte-sized package that touches all sides of such a sprawling encounter? You can’t, but the three-and-a-half minutes of clips did capture the dramatic end game.

There Kelleher was again, carrying Ireland into the New Zealand 22 after 37 phases of all-or-nothing attack when Sam Whitelock engages at the ruck, wraps his mitts around the ball and wins the decisive penalty with the clock through the 80.

Cue uproar.

Johnny Sexton was less than the length of a shadow away. The Ireland captain stood there after the act with hands on hips as the enormity of the moment swept through him. Neither man would have framed it this way but this was a case of him or me.

Whitelock is one among a chunk of Kiwis due to cut ties with the Silver Fern when this World Cup is done. They will be the latest to take a well-worn path to more lavish climes in Japan and Europe in the wake of the global tournament and who can blame them?

The list of those poised to move on is staggering.

Beauden Barrett, Aaron Smith, Ardie Savea, Brodie Retallick, Richie Mo’unga and Shannon Frizzell are all off to Japan after this. Some of them will migrate home after a brief but profitable stint in the Far East, but others might not.

Life moves on and rugby with it.

Whitelock has agreed terms with Pau, Leicester Fainga’anuku is due to pitch up with Leicester Tigers on an 18-month arrangement and Dane Coles is retiring but Whitelock won’t, can’t, bring himself to ponder all this just yet.

“The reality is that no matter what game or what Test match you play, we are all only one injury away from not playing again, or not being selected. So you just have to go out there and play like it is your first one and enjoy the moment as much as you can.

“It doesn’t matter who you are playing for because we are always looking ahead to the next game and sometimes it is nice to just enjoy the moment and then reset for the next week,” said the 35-year old who is on course to be the first man to win three World Cups.

More change is guaranteed in the coaching box post-France with Scott Robertson and his backroom staff replacing Ian Foster & Co. but for those players due to move on to pastures new there will be a natural desire to leave the black jersey in a better place.

That equates to nothing less than a fourth title.

Aaron Smith admitted as much last Tuesday when he raised the spectre of their semi-final defeat to England four years ago. Specific mention was made about how they failed to reset to zero after a win against Ireland and how “brutal” a lesson it was to learn.

Wales now don’t look anything like the team that England were then but this next step was always going to have the look of banana skin about regardless of whether it was New Zealand or Ireland who came through on Saturday night.

“It will be mentioned heaps,” said Whitelock of 2019. “You guys will no doubt bring it up at a few media conferences but I have been asked about that for the last four years and the reality is that this team is different now.”