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Former England backrow using lockdown as 'mock retirement'
By Online Editors
Northampton Saints backrow Tom Wood is using the suspension of the Premiership due to the coronavirus pandemic as a 'mock retirement'.
Premiership Rugby this afternoon announced that suspension of the season was set to continue, although the organisation maintain that they want to finish this year's competition if possible.
Wood is putting it to good use, using the break in the season as an opportunity to ready himself for life after a professional rugby career.
“I’ll be honest, because I’m in the twilight of my career now, I’m using this break as a mock retirement,” he told the club website.
“All those challenges that come when you retire – not having the changing room, not having the banter, not having the boys around you or the structure of a daily routine – I’m practising separating myself from that emotionally and physically.
Wood's current Saints contract runs to the end of the 2019/20 season.
“No-one really knows how they are going to deal with those things until you retire, so I’m using this as a dummy run and making sure that I have some structure in my day.
“We’re still limited in what we can go and do, but in terms of being apart from the rest of the team and making sure I’m productive, I’m practising those things a little bit.”
Capable of playing across all three backrow positions, Wood enjoyed a stellar international career during his time at Saints, winning 50 caps for England.
As well as appearing at two Rugby World Cups and captaining the side on three occasions, Wood helped the Red Rose to a Six Nations triumph in 2017.
“I’m actually getting the Mrs and the kids to give me a big cheer every time I bring a new chopping board out of my workshop!” he joked.
“Obviously, the adrenaline you get from playing in front of a partisan crowd is something you can’t replace, and what that looks like post-rugby – I have no idea.
“I’d love to have a role here even after my playing days are done, but I intend to stay local when I retire so I’ll always have a connection to the Club, even if it’s just as a fan.”
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Latest Comments
Steve Borthwick appointment was misguided based on two flawed premises.
1. An overblown sense of the quality of the premiership rugby. The gap between the Premiership and Test rugby is enormous
2. England needed an English coach who understood English Rugby and it's traditional strengths.
SB won the premiership and was an England forward and did a great job with the Japanese forwards but neither of those qualify you as a tier 1 test manager.
Maybe Felix Jones and Aled Walter's departures are down to the fact that SB is a details man, which work at club level but at test level you need the manager to manage and let the coaches get on and do what they are employed for.
SB criticism of players is straight out of Eddie Jones playbook but his loyalty to keeping out of form players borne out of his perceived sense of betrayal as a player.
In all it doesn't stack up as the qualities needed to be a modern Test coach /Manager
Go to commentsBut still Australians. Only Australia can help itself seems to be the key message.
Blaming Kiwis is deflecting from the actual problem.
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