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Leaving Bath was '100 per cent the best decision I have ever made'

By Jamie Lyall
(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

When Nick Abendanon plucked a soaring Camille Lopez parabola from the air and skidded over the Agen line two months ago, he never imagined it would be his last try as a professional player, let alone the final game of a magnificent career. There is nothing wrong with the full-back’s body, even at 33, no blunting of his rugby instincts or waning of his hunger to keep pulling on the boots. It is wholly preposterous that a talent so profound can be perched on the precipice of enforced retirement. 

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The problem is, while many would surely love to snap Abendanon up, no club seems to be in a position to do so. There are tightening regulations on the number of foreign imports Top 14 clubs can keep, and so his Clermont contract will not be renewed when it expires this summer.

More pressingly, the Covid-19 pandemic has shut down the sport indefinitely and inflicted untold financial chaos on some of the game’s behemoths. When clubs are staring at a potentially ruinous future, recruitment slams into the buffers and nobody is taking a chance on a wizened full-back.

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For Abendanon, there will be no fanfare, no last hurrah, no final shot at silverware and a joyous cheerio before the braying Marcel Michelin support. In short, he is being quietly and inexorably forced out of the game.

“In my mind now, that’s what is happening, it’s the end,” he told RugbyPass. “I’ve still got the desire and the motivation to play. So if I was forced to retire because of the pandemic, but still hungry, it would be a shame because something that is uncontrollable has forced my hand.

“Clermont go to great lengths to say goodbye to players properly. After the last home game of the season, all the fans stay behind and they send you off well, make you feel like you have contributed to something over the years you have played for this fantastic team. If I was to stop early and not get that after playing here for six years, I’d feel a little bit hard done by.

“The rumour here in France is that they are potentially going to do the play-off games in August but that will be with next year’s squad, which means the players like me won’t be involved after playing the majority of the season. Stuff like that would be hard to take – not being able to complete what I have felt has been the highlight of my career, playing out here.”

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Clermont informed Abendanon in October that they would not be keeping him on. There was fleeting interest from Grenoble and the Pro D2, but the often savage and unglamorous second tier did not appeal. There might yet be an offer from San Diego Legion in America’s fledgeling professional league, but that won’t materialise for many months and Abendanon is not entirely sold on the idea. 

How he longed for a return to Bath, his hometown club where he dazzled for the thick end of a decade. “I tried to get the Bath flame going and potentially go back there for a year,” he revealed. “I know the owner Bruce Craig and Stuart Hooper, the director of rugby, and it’s where I’m from.

“But for them, they have got some young guys coming through who deserve a chance and Tom Homer is there playing pretty good rugby at the moment so that one fizzled out pretty quickly as well. Apart from that, there hasn’t really been anything else.

“Most clubs would go down the younger player route rather than signing an experienced head simply because it’s a cheaper option for them during a time that is so uncertain. Signing someone like me is a risk I’m sure some aren’t willing to take.”

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And so, barring any late bites, that will be all. There are other players gazing at the same desolate prospects, among them Abendanon’s 31-year-old team-mate Loni Uhila, better known as the Tongan Bear, and heaps more besides whose contracts are expiring with futures distinctly murky.

The little maestro has earned handsomely from the game, particularly from his six years in the Massif Central, but in roughly ten weeks’ time that income judders to an abrupt halt.

 

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The Rugby Players’ Association of England are working manfully to support players through these deeply distressing days, their liaison officer Christian Day taking a machine gun to the approaches of the Premiership clubs to cutting salaries and furloughing staff. 

The French teams have followed a uniform central directive, but Abendanon is wary of Provale, the players’ body looking after the Top 14. “I never actually joined Provale; it’s very poorly run,” he explained. “I don’t think it’s an organisation that is at all beneficial to the players. For me, they are in the pockets of the LNR and the FFR. They basically get told what to do by them and they’ll do it. I don’t feel they are representative of the players here.

“There have been plenty of cases since I have been here where players have really needed their help and they haven’t come through. Scott Spedding, for example, trying to become French-qualified after being here for a number of years, he wasn’t able to get any contracts in France and they completely gave him the cold shoulder. So I never signed up to Provale, but when I was at Bath I would say the RPA was a great organisation. It really was there for the players and worked hard to secure their best welfare.”

In six glorious years in the Auvergne, Abendanon has won the Top 14, played in two Champions Cup finals and graced a slew of monumental rugby occasions. He would dearly love to have won more than the two England caps that are a measly reflection of his ability, but rules on selecting foreign-based players, a plethora of rivals and an unfair perception that he was a weak defender put paid to that.

In the months before England’s heinous World Cup campaign of 2015, Abendanon was in the form of his life and the reigning European player of the year. Pugnacious flanker Steffon Armitage had also been nominated for the award after helping Toulon to the double. Stuart Lancaster didn’t select either for his tournament training squad, fearing undue disruption to the camp. 

“After the season that we had both had, if I was Stuart Lancaster I would, without doubt, have brought us into the squad at least,” said Abendanon. “It doesn’t mean you have to select us for the World Cup. First of all, there were definitely players that kicked up a fuss about it, but that was mainly because they felt threatened. If I was Stuart I would definitely have brought us in and said, ‘at this stage you’re not going to the World Cup, prove to me otherwise’.

“If I was in the England squad that would have motivated me more to make sure I didn’t let the new players take my spot. It creates competition within the squad and looking back, that’s obviously something they maybe lacked having had their worst World Cup ever. It’s a shame I don’t have more caps, but I’m more than happy to sacrifice those caps for the last six years that I have had out here playing for one of the best clubs in Europe.”

He treasures the opportunities Clermont have given him, the fervour and the sheer infatuation of its people with their rugby team. These past six weeks have been a time for quiet reflection on all that Abendanon has achieved in the sport, precious hours with his two infant children and ferocious solo training just in case the phone should ring.

“When I decided to leave Bath, I was scared. Looking back now, it is 100 per cent the best decision I have ever made. I played in some huge games I would never, ever have experienced had I stayed. Playing at the Marcel Michelin is like playing in Bath vs Bristol every week. I won trophies here, played in Champions Cup finals, learned a new language, came out here with a girlfriend and now we’re married with two kids and a house.

“By making one simple decision to leave my comfort zone, it opened up experiences I will hold dear to my heart. I’m totally at peace with retiring. I’ve had an incredible ride, I’m one of the lucky ones to have been able to have done what I have done in the game, and if it is the end, then I do it with a huge smile on my face, fond memories and no regrets.”

If the curtain has come down, he can live with that. But what he’d give for an encore.

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Jon 2 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

35 Go to comments
j
john 5 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

21 Go to comments
A
Adrian 7 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

21 Go to comments
T
Trevor 10 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

21 Go to comments
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