Mulianina, Smit and Matfield retire

twinytwo · 10-10-2011 5:48pm #1

And so it begins... The start of what could end up being a very entensive list

Mils Mulianina John Smit and Victor Matfield all announce retirement.

http://tvnz.co.nz/rugby-world-cup/muliaina-draws-curtain-fine-career-4458601

http://www.sport24.co.za/Rugby/RugbyWorldCup2011/Matfield-best-Bok-ever-Smit-20111010

totallegend · 10-10-2011 6:28pm

Pity to see Matfield retiring, absolute legend of the game. The emergence of du Plessis put the writing on the wall for Smit, the lure of european cash sealed the deal.

handsomecake · 10-10-2011 7:07pm

smit out stayed his welcome.
muliaina and matfield are class.
mils was electric in his early days and became more and more pragmatic as the years went on.although in the calender year of 2010 muliaina was brilliant (think he was AB's top scorer). matfields engine stopped revving 2 years ago but his lineout prowess was incredible.

handsomecake · 10-10-2011 7:21pm

last try is lovely. he was brilliant back then

SuprSi · 10-10-2011 9:00pm

I always liked how Matfield seemed to spend time after each game shaking hands with everyone, with a big smile on his face regardless of whether his team has won or lost. It was the same against the Aussies on Sunday - you'd swear he'd just won! He seems really gracious, both in victory and defeat.

PhatPiggins · 10-10-2011 10:01pm

I liked Matfield because he was a very 'un South African' South African, especially for a tight 5 player.

Smit was great up untill 2009, I've no doubt he'll be a great coach or a high profile politician

Muliania was a classy player and the fact that he got 99 caps in a positon were Kiwi produces international class back 3 players on an annual basis is a credit to him. I do think he got preferential threatment under Henry though,Leon MacDonald was far better then him for a 3 year period when he came back from Japan.

MyPeopleDrankTheSoup · 10-10-2011 10:30pm

Muliaina got his 100th cap yesterday! He got a standing ovation on his own before the kickoff against Argentina.

And technically he's not retiring, he's off to Japan to ply his trade.

MyPeopleDrankTheSoup · 10-10-2011 10:32pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0Zxr_E1ow0

chupacabra · 11-10-2011 5:21am

I met both Matfield and Smit in 2009 and they were two of the nicest guys I have ever met. Full of praise for the irish performance the day before where we beat them and were just very very gracious and humble gentlemen. They are players from another era in the same mould as POC, Cullen and BOD. The early professionals who always brought a certain level of dignity and humbleness to all facets of their game and lives. A dying breed.

handsomecake · 11-10-2011 10:03am

du preez,russow and bakkies botha retired too.

trackguy · 11-10-2011 10:04am

handsomecake wrote: »

du preez,russow and bakkies botha retired too.

retired from internationals? They would all be great signings althought Botha is already signed up is he?

thomond2006 · 11-10-2011 11:46am

handsomecake wrote: »

du preez,russow and bakkies botha retired too.

Bakkies had stated he would make himself available while at Toulon I thought?

Du Preez and Rossouw are moving to Suntory in Japan.

totallegend · 11-10-2011 11:58am

handsomecake wrote: »

du preez,russow and bakkies botha retired too.

Du Preez is still quite young, no? He might fancy an international comeback after stuffing his pockets in Japan for a year or two.

Edit: he's 29, according to Wikipedia

handsomecake · 11-10-2011 12:50pm

thomond2006 wrote: »

Bakkies had stated he would make himself available while at Toulon I thought?

Du Preez and Rossouw are moving to Suntory in Japan.

http://www.allblacks.com/news/17729/Disappointment-as-once-in-a-generation-Springboks-retire

irishbucsfan · 11-10-2011 4:40pm

Slightly OT, but where is Stephen Brett off to?

handsomecake · 11-10-2011 4:52pm

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Slightly OT, but where is Stephen Brett off to?

toyota verblitz japan.

shame really.

nz have their best players a gap then young guys.not much middle ground any more. evans /mcalister playing abroad is an example.they would have been next in line to DC.

young guys like tim bateman and tamati ellison foxtroted oscar before they were 25 and were both very good players

thomond2006 · 11-10-2011 7:52pm

Yeah it seems any kiwi player who is 25-27 years old leaves NZ as soon as he realises the All Black jersey has passed him by.

Even still, the talent pool in NZ remains deep!

Fishtits · 11-10-2011 11:06pm

Had the pleasure of meeting J Smit near Durban in 2000, nothing rugby related - although it obviously came up. A complete and utter Gentleman, polite and modest in equal doses.

V Matfield is on record as saying that our very own P O Connell is the only second row to have beaten him consistantly. Given his status, that's one hell of a complement to Paul.

Schalk Burger turned dirty as he got older, ie in the last 5 years. Its a pity because he was one hell of a player in his younger days. I'll never forgive his gouge on Luke - or its lenient punishment by the IRB...

But, the game goes on.

PS any more on the rumour that a certain M Nonu is heading Shannon side?

castie · 12-10-2011 3:16am

handsomecake wrote: »

http://www.allblacks.com/news/17729/Disappointment-as-once-in-a-generation-Springboks-retire

Says theyve played their last test as a springbok.

pickarooney · 13-10-2011 5:46am

I presume this is some sort of typo from The Telegraph ?

Victor Matfield and John Smit have gone for the Boks, Brian O’Driscoll for Ireland, Mario Ledesma for Argentina, Jonny Wilkinson, Mike Tindall and Lewis Moody are unlikely to pull on an England shirt again, and there will be other notable retirements and demotions as this tournament plays out to a climax over the next 10 days.

The Aussie · 13-10-2011 5:56am

pickarooney wrote: »

I presume this is some sort of typo from The Telegraph ?

Dont know, your a Mod for Creative Writing, is that "story" Creative enough for you? its still better than Hugh Farrellys drivel though:D

castie · 13-10-2011 7:19am

pickarooney wrote: »

I presume this is some sort of typo from The Telegraph ?

He did say unlikely though.

touts · 13-10-2011 7:26am

All we need is for one of them to break their leg or have an arm chopped off and Tony McGahan will have his dream candidate to fill the last place in the Munster 2011-2012 squad!

GerM · 13-10-2011 7:44am

I think the earliest we'll see BOD call it a day will be next summer. He has three tests against NZ and he'll want to try and end things on some sort of a high note. The lure of beating NZ will prove too strong I suspect. Wouldn't be as sure on ROG. He hasn't enjoyed the best of times when it comes to NZ in his career and if being away from his family is an issue, then this certainly won't help as he'll be down there for a month.

pickarooney · 13-10-2011 7:52am

castie wrote: »

He did say unlikely though.

His punctuation is a bit screwed up but unless he's saying that it's unlikely that O'Driscoll and Ledesma will ever pull on an England jersey (:D) he's saying that O'Driscoll has gone. It was the first rugby story I read this morning though and seems to be just the dribblings of a half-wit.

castie · 13-10-2011 8:16am

pickarooney wrote: »

His punctuation is a bit screwed up but unless he's saying that it's unlikely that O'Driscoll and Ledesma will ever pull on an England jersey (:D) he's saying that O'Driscoll has gone. It was the first rugby story I read this morning though and seems to be just the dribblings of a half-wit.

Yeah think he meant the "O Driscoll for Ireland" and the rest for England but wording was crap

Mulianina, Smit and Matfield retire

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