1
Dusautoir to quit at end of the season
By Peter Thompson
Former France captain Thierry Dusautoir has announced that he will retire from rugby union at the end of the Top 14 season after 16 years as a professional.
The 35-year-old Toulouse flanker won 80 caps for Les Bleus, with a record 56 of those coming as skipper.
Dusautoir claimed three French titles across a five-year period from 2008 to 2012 with Toulouse, as well as a European triumph in 2010 and an additional two league trophies at fellow Top 14 club Biarritz in 2005 and 2006.
An emotional Dusautoir, who was named World Player of the Year in 2011 after leading France to the World Cup final, made his announcement at a press conference on Wednesday.
"This sport has changed my life and I owe it a great debt. I never thought I'd go on to have the career that I did." he said.
"If I'm emotional it's because I'm finishing my rugby playing career at the end of the season,
"It's a very special moment, charged with emotion for me but not sadness, as I'm going to be enthusiastically pursuing a new opening which I've begun to develop, a second life as a businessman."
Watch the every match of the Top 14 streaming live on rugbypass.com, home of the best online rugby coverage including news, highlights, previews & reviews, live scores, and more!
Trending on RugbyPass
2
Four Ireland talking points as Aki axed and two rookies make bench
3
New scrumhalf rule among 4 global Law trials as others shot down
4
All Blacks team to play France
5
Latest Comments
Rassie has admitted the goal for SA need to be more consistent between RWC tournaments, and his goal of squad depth is a key part of that. NZ did not concede #1 ranking as SA has. Having said that, some of the period in question has been Covid disrupted, which would have impacted both results and development programs.
Go to commentsAgree.
England traditionally are competitive in almost every game, and we should expect that this time around.
It will be interesting to see whether England is able to score tries. They scored 5 against Australia, but only 1 against NZ. My guess is that SA will hold them to 1 or 2 tries, score three or four themselves, and be much better on penalty discipline than the Scotland game (because conceding fewer penalties would have been an area of focus this week).
I am expecting SA to win by about 23-15. But cards, weather, injuries and the bounce of the ref can always intervene.
Go to comments