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Former All Black Thrush returns to retirement after Super Rugby SOS

(Photo by Will Russell/Getty Images)

Western Force lock Jeremy Thrush is happily back in retirement with the former All Blacks star cutting short his Super Rugby Pacific return due to a heel injury.

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Thrush retired at the end of last season, but he made a shock return to the field in round one after answering an SOS call from Force coach Simon Cron.

The 38-year-old’s return has been etched into Force folklore with Thrush scoring the winning try in a 34-27 win over the Melbourne Rebels.

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Such was his impact Thrush was even elevated to the stand-in captaincy role for the round-three win over Moana.

But it proved to be his final appearance with a painful heel injury ending his chances of adding more matches to his tally.

“I’d love to pull Thrushy back but I think I may have used up every resource that he had in terms of body,” Cron said ahead of Saturday night’s crunch clash with the Highlanders in Perth.

“After those games, his heel was really bad and he needed a cortisone injection.

“He was like, ‘Cronno, I think I’ve done my service’, which he had as he was filling a spot for us when we were really light on in those lock positions.

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“I’d love to have him playing but unfortunately his body has probably had it.”

Related

The Force welcome back captain Michael Wells (Achilles), flyhalf Bryce Hegarty (back) and winger Toni Pulu (knee) this week, but hooker Folau Fainga’a is still battling an Achilles tendon injury that has sidelined him for several weeks.

“It’s hard because it’s an ongoing Achilles,” Cron said.

“I know he ran well (on Wednesday), so there’s light at the end of that tunnel for him.”

Scrumhalf Gareth Simpson is expected to miss another two weeks with a quad strain while star Wallabies lock Izack Rodda is yet to return from the foot injury that grounded him on the eve of the season.

Flyhalf Jake Strachan will miss at least four weeks with concussion.

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The Force sit in 11th spot with a 2-5 record at the halfway point of the season.

Cron said the Force learnt valuable lessons from their 43-35 loss to the Highlanders in NZ on March 19 and are hoping to turn the tables in Saturday’s rematch.

“Gain line was our message in that game,” Cron said.

“We only made three dominant tackles against the Highlanders last time and then the next week against the Blues we made 19 or 20.

“So all we did there was change the speed off the line, putting pressure on them and making contact. Against the Highlanders, we sat on our heels.”

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Comments

1 Comment
B
Big A 830 days ago

Must say I enjoyed Thrush's involvement in those early games this year - a real champion - all the best to him in the future

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Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 49 minutes ago
Andy Goode: Aussie comments didn't cover them in glory

Yes I was happy with the refs ruling of arrival (and that the tackled player wasn’t obligated to release the ball immediately) but if you see the wide angle you can note how Morgan dives to get there in time.


I don’t mind your (or the refs) view, but what Morgan said is accurate. Both Mils and Beaver agreed on the breakdown, and you will also get the same view from Aotearoa Rugby Pod guys for a pretty unanimous NZ view.

Sometimes when both players are low its a rugby collision and this is one of those times.

Not recently. In the SR finals and AB v Arg series weve seen players clearly bent 90 at the waist still be penalised, only when the attacker does something the ref sees immediate mitigation and rules a rugby incident. Tizzano didn’t offer that he was always in the position Morgan aimed to collect him in.


Happy to not throw the rule book at these situations but the precent is that they are in these situations.

many tries out wide the player is allowed to be tackled while diving

They are diving for the line, not to avoid being tackled.

“In principle, in a try scoring situation, if the action is deemed to be a dive forward for a try, then it should be permitted. If a player is deemed to have left the ground to avoid a tackle; or to jump, or hurdle a potential tackler, then this is dangerous play and should be sanctioned accordingly.”

You can read Nicks article for an updated discourse on this though.

30 Go to comments
J
JW 1 hour ago
New Zealanders may not understand, but in France Test rugby is the 'B movie'

But he was wrong, he had to take back what he said. But maybe this only happened because he came out and was honest with his initial plans?


He’s simply in a position where he should be far more professional.


I don’t really follow much media, especially SM, but again, I’ve not seen anyone complaining. Plenty of ridicule and pointing out things like it being disrespectful to the game, but as far as the English language goes, that’s not complaining. Nick Bishop for instance hasn’t been complaining, he’s simply saying Galthie made a bad decision for France’s prospects (which when the common reply is ‘thats how it is’).


Complaining would be views expressing that the FFR should have put the tour back a week so that all T14 finalists could attend. Complaining would be saying they’ve been robbed of seeing the worlds best stars. Complaining would be saying players can simply take extra weeks off from T14. I’ve only seen advice and suggestions that these are things France need to look-at-for-the-future.


Basically I tried to communicate with French fans because they don’t understand what’s being communicated. ALL reactions I have seen shared here by French supports have all seemed way over the top compared what I’ve seen expressed about this tour.

the players are expected to play in too many matches, for too many minutes, and need more rest and recovery time.

This is the message I have been sharing. So something needs to happen, whether thats France pull out of more Internationals or rest players from more domestic games, who knows, but I also don’t think what they have now is working. It’s obviously much better than 3-4 years ago, but they appear to want to work even harder at it like you say. Personally I’ve only seen LNR be reasonable, I hear much less of their other internationals being denied/influenced not to play, so I imagine that they will give even further (as I can’t really see France pulling out the other international windows as well).

147 Go to comments
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