All Black Samuel Whitelock wants his book View from the Second Row to kickstart conversations about whanau and farming rather than his success on the footy field.
The lock will get up close and personal with his fans next week when he arrives in Invercargill for his book signing.
"I definitely didn’t want it to be a rugby book of stats.
"I didn’t want it to be this game I played this many minutes, I made this many tackles and I did that in the next game.
"So I wanted it to be real and show what it was like to be a rugby player, that grew up with a rugby mad family like I did," Whitelock said.
He said farming and rugby had very similar traits people looked for: "the obvious one was the work ethic".
"Farmers work very hard and so do rugby players.
"I’m not saying that other people don’t, but I think that’s probably the obvious crossover."
It was good for farming people to get off the farm and do a sport or a hobby and vice-versa, he said.
"You can’t just live and breathe rugby the whole time.
"So I think there’s so many little things that can help no matter what background you come from."
The 36-year-old was looking forward to having a good yarn with Southlanders, and finding out what made them tick.
Meeting children right up to grandparents’ age during his book signings has kept the All Black legend humble.
"When I was younger, the first All Black that I realised I’d met was Inga the Winger and I still remember it today.
"I had a photo with him in Palmerston North and I was pumped because I put my arm around him because he was sitting down and it was like, this is awesome, this is cool.
"So it’s pretty cool being able to pass on some of those cool memories.
"It’s something that I always have remembered and always will remember because that was my first time getting to meet one [an All Black]."
Whitelock will be signing copies of his new book View from the Second Row on November 6 at Paper Plus Invercargill.
If people could not make the session, they could contact the store and order a signed copy.
