Ex-captain John Barclay calls it quits with Scotland
Former Scotland captain John Barclay has announced his retirement from international rugby. The 33-year-old flanker won 76 caps for his country during a twelve-year Test career that included the recent World Cup in Japan. Barclay, who played in three World Cups, made his Scotland debut during the 2007 tournament.
“All good things must come to an end. After much thought I have decided the time is right to step down from the international game,” Barclay said on his Instagram account. “This isn’t an easy decision to make.
“Playing for Scotland is the culmination of years of hard work and dedication and undoubtedly one of the best things I will achieve in my life. But for me and my family, it feels like the right time. It has truly been a privilege to wear the jersey.
“Not many people can say they got to live their boyhood dream, but I was lucky enough to have that honour, and it is something I am unbelievably proud of. To my family and friends for supporting me all over the world, a big thank you.
“Most importantly though, thank you to my wife for her support looking after our growing family when I have been away and for dealing with the inevitable ups and downs associated with playing international rugby.
"Not the end of my rugby journey, but the end of one chapter. Thanks for the memories.”
Barclay made more than 250 appearances for Glasgow and the Scarlets before joining Edinburgh in 2018. His final Test match appearance came in a World Cup pool victory over Russia two months ago.
- Press Association
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Great point. It would be terrible to have a card for poor tackling cost the all blacks a world cup. Oh hi all blacks captain Sam Cane, how you going?
Go to commentsI like Andy’s critical approach to all hot issues especially when it comes to the rugby big “bosses”. However, sorry Andy, I don’t support your “we shouldn’t be questioning the integrity of Karl Dickson or any other official”. May I ask why? They do have a lot of responsibility, but they are people like us with all their sins and weaknesses. We have to respect their decision during the games, but why they became untouchable afterwards and people cannot even criticize them and the ones, who does express their concerns, got punished for publicly analyzing their mistakes and asking questions. If they believe they did right, there shouldn’t be a problem for any of the refs to answer these “questions” publicly. I don’t really remember such cases. However, I do remember how Craig Joubert shown his running skills in 2015 or Pascal Gauzere shined in Cardiff in 2021. I do believe that Rassie, as anybody else, had a full right to share his vision of Nic Berry’s performance the same year. I do not support the hate in any form especially in public one, but creating the cast of untouchable refs and rugby bosses is not for me. As for Karl, he had all means to question his appointment for the game and since I don’t now whether he did it, blaming just RFU wouldn’t be quite correct at this moment. I love the game of rugby and almost every time I watch it I don’t support any team, I just wanna see the good game and fair referring. Sorry, Karl. last Saturday you got my Craig Joubert”s award of the round. It is up to Karl to prove that I am wrong, not to Andy or RFU’s corporate bla-bla-bla. Something like that…
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