The four Whitelock brothers – George, Adam, Sam, and Luke – have been named in the Crusaders starting XV for the first time and will mark that occasion on home ground when they run out to play the Hurricanes at Mangatainoka on Saturday afternoon.
Among the sell-out crowd of more than 8000 for the Crusaders second Super pre-season match will be proud parents, Braeden and Caroline Whitelock, who have a dairy farm in the Manawatu about 25 minutes from Mangatainoka.
"It will be a proud moment especially with it being up in Manawatu as well," eldest brother George said on hearing the news after a Crusaders practice in Christchurch on Thursday.
Whitelock, the first of the brothers to link with the Crusaders in 2008, said he did not imagine then that his three younger siblings would all be playing alongside him for the most successful franchise in Super rugby history.
"It's bizarre when you think about it, but it is great that it is reality now and we're really enjoying it."
The last occasion all four brothers took the field in the starting line-up was nine years ago when they were at the Fielding Area High School hostel and they played against the day boys.
Lock Sam Whitelock and fellow All Blacks, prop Owen Franks and wing Israell Dagg, will make their first appearances for the season, while Adam Whitelock replaces an injured Ryan Crotty at second five-eighths.
Tom Taylor, recovered from a shoulder injury, starts at first five-eighths ahead of Tyler Bleyendaal from the team which accounted for the Highlanders, 47-19, in Greymouth last Friday.
"Some pre-seasons we've gone in overcooked but it did feel very good last week in terms of energy and you could notice that in the boys' spark and it was a pleasing first-up effort after nine weeks of frustration of just training," Whitelock said.
"But the test now is how we follow that up. We want to keep progressing with what we are working on."
Crusaders: 1.Wyatt Crockett (c), 2.Quentin MacDonald, 3.Owen Franks, 4.Ross Kennedy, 5.Sam Whitelock, 6.George Whitelock, 7.Matt Todd, 8.Luke Whitelock, 9.Willi Heinz, 10.Tom Taylor, 11.Israel Dagg, 12.Adam Whitelock, 13.Robbie Fruean, 14.Patrick Osborne, 15.Tom Marshall.
Reserves: 16.Corey Flynn, 17.Ben Franks, 18.Tom Donnelly, 19.Luke Romano, 20.Joe Wheeler, 21.Brendon O'Connor, 22.Kieran Read, 23.Ben Funnell, 24.Andy Ellis, 25.Tyler Bleyendaal, 26.Sean Maitland, 27.Mitchell Scott, 28.James Schrader.