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Video evidence of Mathew Tait's undoubted ability as he announces retirement
By Josh Raisey
Former England centre Mathew Tait has retired from rugby with immediate effect after suffering from a persistent Achilles injury this season that has prevented him from playing for Leicester.
The 33-year-old is the third youngest player to represent England post-war, after making his debut as an 18-year-old in 2005 against Wales.
He was once regarded as one of the brightest prospects in English rugby, but unfortunately had a career blighted by injury that prevented him from becoming the player many thought he would be. He still won 36 caps for England, nonetheless.
Now that he has retired, here are the greatest moments over his career:
This game in 2008 displayed everything that was good about Tait’s game. Playing at fullback for Newcastle, where he was equally as comfortable, he ran a searing line to cut through the Saracens defence and scored.
A try-saving tackle also showed how reliable he was in defence, something that he never lost throughout his career.
This try-saving tackle will not only go down as one of Tait’s best tackles, but one of the best tackles in recent history.
Although Tait perhaps lost a yard or two of pace throughout his career, he still showed great speed to catch up with Dan Robson last season, and prevent Leicester’s bitter rivals Wasps from scoring.
This run by Tait in the 2007 World Cup final was the first real glimpse the rugby world got to see what Tait was capable of.
Although a try was never scored, the 21-year-old Tait announced himself on the biggest stage of them all with this devastating run through the heart of the South African defence.
This showed what Tait was capable of, and many England fans will be disappointed that he could never reach his full potential in white.
Watch: Eddie Jones - 'Wales deserved to win'
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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