Sam played his last game of rugby captaining the Barbarians side taking on Fiji at Twickenham on 22 June 2024.

Whitelock cemented his place as a regular starter for the All Blacks in 2012 and started in 13 of their 14 tests, only coming on as a replacement against Italy in Rome during a 42–10 win that year.

[12] Whitelock played in every single All Blacks test in the 2015 Rugby World Cup, including the full 80 minutes of the three knockout rounds.

[14] Whitelock was nominated for the best New Zealand Player of the Year at the 2016 NZ Rugby Awards alongside teammates Dane Coles and Beauden Barrett being the other nominees.

Whitelock had an outstanding Super Rugby campaign in 2017 with the exception of a two-week suspension for striking Cheetahs prop Charles Marais.

Whitelock was selected for the All Blacks' 33-man squad for the 2017 Pasifika Challenge against Samoa and three-test series against the British & Irish Lions.

This came after Crusaders teammate and regular All Blacks captain Kieran Read was ruled out of the test due to the need for back surgery.

This was a rare double, with 2016 and 2017 World Rugby Player of the Year- Beauden Barrett, not considered for the awards Whitelock won.

After high amounts of media speculation, on 20 May 2018, Whitelock was named by New Zealand Head Coach Steve Hansen as the Captain of the All Blacks, with flanker Sam Cane and returning-from-injury fullback Ben Smith named as Vice-Captains for the All Blacks' three-test series against France during the June internationals.

[18] Having been in doubt due to his second concussion of the 2018 season, Whitelock returned from injury to lead New Zealand to a 52-11 victory over France in the first test of the series, where he was not subbed off.

The Crusaders beat the Lions 37-18 on 4 August 2018, to win their first Super Rugby title at home in ten years.

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 went on to play five tests in a shortened 2020 season, before captaining the All Blacks eight times in 2021; with Sam Cane missing much of that year due to injury.

Surpassing Keven Mealamu as the second-to-most capped player in New Zealand's history, Whitelock again took the captain's armband for his four final appearances in 2022.

To complete the season, Whitelock with Brodie Retallick created a world record lock combination of 64 tests together.

Following his record-breaking appearance against Italy in a 96-17 win, Whitelock then became just the second male player in history to reach the milestone of 150 caps; after Welsh lock Alun Wyn Jones.

Whitelock replaced Shannon Frizell off the bench in the 2023 Rugby World Cup final, with South Africa claiming the title as New Zealand lost 11-12.

Whitelock, having signed with Pau in the French Top 14, retired from international rugby having scored 7 tries from 153 test caps.