by playing his 100th test for New Zealand on 18 August 2018, with the All Blacks beating Australia 38-13. Whitelock was one of the best performing players on the field and also played his 47th test in combination with Brodie Retallick, who was Man of the Match. Whitelock also became the youngest All Black to reach 100 tests, being only 29 years old at the time of their victory over Australia. Although he was stricken by an abdominal injury, Whitelock chose to continue playing rugby while he was injured. Whitelock played in all six tests of the Rugby Championship, Captaining the All Blacks for a fifth time, during the competition, leading them to a 35-17 victory over Argentina while Kieran Read was rested, prior to the second test against South Africa, which was a narrow 32-30 win, thanks to a late Ardie Savea try. Whitelock missed the test against Japan during the 2018 end-of-year tests, with selectors saving the last of Whitelock's energy for tests against England and Ireland. Whitelock's outstanding performance, on 10 November, against England, saw the All Blacks beat England 16-15, before losing to Ireland, 9-16, the following week. Whitelock did not play in the final test for the year, against Italy, and went home early in order to rest after a long year, involving over 1900 minutes of rugby played. After an extended off-season, Whitelock returned to lead the Crusaders for the 2019 Super Rugby season in round 6 of the competition, having been named to lead them against the New South Wales Waratahs. This was following the Christchurch mosque shootings, which had caused the cancellation of a fixture against the Highlanders. On Tuesday, 20 April 2019, Whitelock extended his contract with New Zealand Rugby and the Crusaders, signing on to 2023. Whitelock had previously been contracted until 2020 and will miss the 2020 Super Rugby season, to take a sabbatical playing for the Ōta City-based Panasonic Wild Knights, in the Japanese Top League. Whitelock was named in New Zealand's 31-man squad for the 2019 Rugby World Cup, his third World Cup, having played in four of the five warm-up tests for the All Blacks prior to the competition, including a 92-7 defeat of Tonga, as well as a record-breaking 26-47 loss to Australia. Whitelock was named Captain for the All Blacks' 6 October Pool Match against Namibia, a 71-9 win. Whitelock started in the All