South Africa captain Jean de Villiers has announced his retirement from the South Africa national side. The 34-year-old was forced off of the pitch in his side’s last fixture following a broken jaw and now, after 104 appearances for the Springboks, de Villiers has been forced to retire from international rugby.
RugbyWorldCup.com reports that the South African legend has announced his retirement from the Springboks following his broken jaw that he sustained in the victory over Samoa on Saturday.
During his announcement, de Villiers admitted that he knew his international career was over from the moment that he went down injured.
“When I got injured yesterday and I left the field, I knew that I had played my last test for South Africa, I won’t get this opportunity again.”
The South African acknowledges that he never expected his international career to end the way that it has, especially after everything he has experienced.
“Having played for the Springboks for 13 years now, you’ve been through so much, you’ve made so many good friends, you’ve seen so many good things. You never think that it would end like this.”
Jean de Villiers made his debut for the Springboks back in 2002 and has made 109 appearances since then. However, his international career has been blighted by injuries which have caused him to miss out on several major tournaments with South Africa. He injured himself on his debut one year before the World Cup in and so missed the competition. Then, in the 2007 World Cup, he suffered another injury in his side’s opening fixture against Samoa and played no further part in the competition. The 34-year-old also missed the majority of the 2011 World Cup after he sustained a rib injury. As a result, even after having played over 100 games for South Africa, de Villiers only managed 160 minutes in the World Cup.
However, even with his minimal game time in Rugby’s biggest competition, de Villiers claims that he is happy with his international career, even though his last full game for the Springboks came in their shock defeat to Japan.
“I think being able to do it with so many of my friends, and being able to do it probably in the toughest week of my rugby career, and then being able to get through that, get a win and finish it off like that – I’ll take that.”
Heyneke Meyer, head coach of the South African national side, claims that de Villiers is a fantastic ambassador for his country and is someone who the people of South Africa should look up to with pride.
“Jean is a true ambassador for South Africa and a person everyone in our country can be immensely proud of.”
When asked to reflect on de Villiers’ international career, Meyer has only positive things to say and even suggested that he one of the greatest Springboks of all time and one of the greatest international captains of all time.
“He will go down as one of the greatest Springboks ever and in my eyes he is probably one of the best captains in the history of world rugby, who always put the team first and gave his time for any player, young or old, without ever-changing who he is.”
South Africa fans everywhere will be dismayed by de Villiers’ tragic news but should join Meyer in their support of his decision. Jean de Villiers will go down in history as one of the greatest players to have ever played Rugby Union and his efforts for his national side will certainly become the stuff of legend in years to come.
