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'It's time': Springboks legend Morne Steyn confirms Test retirement
By Liam Heagney
Serial Lions killer Morne Steyn has officially announced his retirement from Test rugby having informed Springboks management in recent weeks that he wasn't available for next month's three-game tour to the UK. The 37-year-old landed the winning penalty in this year's Test series versus the Lions, repeating what he did in the previous series in 2009.
The out-half went on to play in a mid-August Rugby Championship match versus Argentina in Port Elizabeth. However, while he travelled to Australia for the four-match leg of that tournament, the veteran didn't play a single minute and has now decided to call time on his 68-cap career in order to spend more time with his family.
Steyn is just back in South Africa having answered an emergency call to help the Bulls at the end of their United Rugby Championship tour of the UK and Ireland and he told the Springboks boss, Jacques Nienaber, he wasn't available for selection in the 32-strong squad announced on Tuesday for the November games versus Wales, Scotland and England.
With his current Bulls contract set to expire in June 2022, Steyn is currently in negotiations about a possible extension, but his second coming at Test level is over after two August appearances bridged a five-year gap back to his previous games in 2016.
“It’s a good time to make this decision,” said Steyn to Supersport.com after he was one of the players who spent 18 weeks in a bio-bubble with the Springboks. “It’s time to call it a day now. I have had a lot of time to think about things and it has been difficult over the last few months being away from home with touring and being away from my kids.
“I told Jacques I won’t be available for the end of year tour. It has been difficult for me to be away from my family for the past 17/18 weeks and I want to spend more time with them. I said to Jacques that I haven’t been the No1 choice for a while now and it doesn’t make sense to wait for injuries for a chance to play.
"I have a year or two left in my career and I’d rather spend it playing for the Bulls than sitting on the sidelines. I really want to enjoy my last two years of rugby.”
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Skelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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