1
'It was like someone was stabbing me in the back of the heel... I'd sit down for two minutes and limp around to get moving again'
It’s a good job Mathew Tait wasn’t at Welford Road on Saturday. If he had he could have wound up saying something inadvertently about Leicester’s ongoing plunge towards the relegation trapdoor.
ADVERTISEMENT
One of his moving on experiments after officially announcing his retirement as a player with immediate effect on February 26 has been taking up the mic and doing some radio punditry. This adjustment hasn’t been easy, so it was just as well he was nowhere to be seen with 14-man Leicester hammered by league leaders Exeter.
“It’s especially hard trying to remain relatively impartial,” Tait told RugbyPass about his temporary experience in the commentary booth. “I’ve had to keep moving the microphone away from my mouth because I’m shouting, trying to encourage on the pitch.”
Tait is still in and around the club a couple of days a week since pulling the plug on his playing career six weeks ago. It’s a training ground routine aimed at keeping rehab of his damaged achilles ticking along until June when he will probably change tack and go elsewhere.
Being so close, though, is awkward with results the way they are going. “When you see friends out there, work colleagues and a club you care deeply about who are struggling, you want to be able to contribute more than I’m able to,” he said, hoping an upturn in fortunes can get Leicester out of the hole they have dug into, starting next Friday at Tait’s former club Newcastle.
(Continue reading below…)
“Regardless of all the preparation you do there is luck involved in everything in sport, but as players and coaches you have to look at ourselves and be accountable for where we find ourselves.
“The league itself is just incredibly tight. In all the time I was playing I can’t ever remember it being so tight. But ultimately it’s on the players and coaches. They’re the ones responsible for carrying it around, making sure the victories that are needed are achieved.”
ADVERTISEMENT
It was last May when Tait made his final appearance in a Tigers shirt, the 33-year-old unable to escape the injury that forced him into early retirement. “I got an issue around the back of my heel and it just got to the point where I couldn’t really run,” he explained.
?
After 15 years in professional rugby, including eight seasons as part of the #TigersFamily, Mathew Tait has called time on his career and today announced his retirement from the game.#ThanksTaity ? pic.twitter.com/Knf6pyuL9E
— Leicester Tigers (@LeicesterTigers) February 26, 2019
“It was like someone was stabbing me in the back of the heel. I’d sit down for two minutes, try and stand up and I would have to limp around to get moving again. The treatment and the rehab we did it ultimately wasn’t working. The advice was given and the decision made based on that.
“It [the heel] is not as bad as it was since I had the op. I’m still quite stiff in the morning time trying to get out of bed to get myself going. Once I’m up and moving around it’s not too bad.”
The difficult bit comes now for Tait – what to next do with himself? He’s far from sure and candid about how rugby players exist in a dressing room bubble far removed from the grind of a regular working life. In limbo, he hopes he will make the right choice and can move on seamlessly enough.
ADVERTISEMENT
“It [retirement] is sort of the elephant in the room, as soon as you turn 30 everything starts to hurt that little bit more and you take a little bit longer to recover from. I was always proactive. When I was playing I’d be out meeting people, trying different things.
“The whole thing has come probably a year or two sooner than I would have liked and anticipated, but it’s very, very rarely in sport – particularly in this sport – that you go out on your own terms.
“I’m very fortunate I managed 15 seasons, which is longer than most. The hardest thing is there is so many institutionalised behaviours you just get used to doing. You’re told where to be, what you’re doing at certain times, are on a timetable every day and every weekend is based around feedback, feedback on your performance and what you need to improve.
Looking back on the best moments of 2018…
Mathew Tait's try-saving tackle for @LeicesterTigers is as much a life-lesson as it is a brilliant piece of defending ?
Never give up! ?pic.twitter.com/gZNOrvzwqN
— Rugby on BT Sport (@btsportrugby) December 30, 2018
“All of a sudden not having that day-to-day initially was quite nice, but now you miss little processes like that. There’s obviously the social side. Just being in and around the group and the collective that is all focused on the weekend, missing that and just the general being around the group, friends you have been there with for the last eight years.
“Things like that are taking time to adjust a little bit. I’m suspect that is going to be something I will have to deal and learn to cope with moving forward for a long while,” he shrugged.
“The honest answer is I don’t necessarily know (what career choice is next). I’m sort of generally interested in lots of things and the difficult thing is narrowing that focus. I’m just finishing my masters in sports directorship, the operational off field business side of sport.
“I don’t know whether ultimately I’d like to be back involved in sport in some capacity, but I’d like to go out of it as well just to get a different perspective. It’s a little bit of an information-gathering exercise for me over the next period of time, reaching out into the network and talking to people who very kindly offer to meet and share their experiences before I decide what is going to be next for me.
“A part of being a sportsman is you always have that end-goal of a game or just being better at your craft, that has always been the end-point. For me now it’s working out what the next end-point is, working just as hard to succeed at that.”
Capped 38 times by England and a starter in the 2007 World Cup final, Tait bowed out having playing over 200 Premiership matches for Leicester, Sale and Newcastle along with more than 60 European appearances. No wonder his injury-enforced departure prompted a wealth of warm tributes, kudos he allowed himself to uncharacteristically wallow in.
“I’m not normally a social media person but the club was very good in putting out bits and pieces. For a day I let myself indulge in it and read the nice comments. I was just really so humbled and blown away. The ones that probably mean most were from players you played with or against because they are the peers you judge yourself against.
“I’m lucky I have a few memories. The World Cup in ’07, just proud of the whirlwind journey. I’m looking back in hindsight with a huge amount of pride that we didn’t necessarily feel at the time because we lost.
“My time involved with the sevens in my early years, the Commonwealth Games and playing in Hong Kong, those sort of tournaments away from the pressure that comes with playing 15s.
“Other memories I treasure are winning the league with Leicester and captaining the team in a European semi-final against Racing at Nottingham Forest. Although we lost it was a very proud moment that I got to captain such a great club,” he said, his recollections even drifting back to how it all first started as a youngster.
Speaking after a Gallagher Insurance Train with your Heroes session at Ilkeston under-10s on behalf of Leicester, Tait concluded: “It brings back memories of my brother Alex and I. We started at Consett and there would be the odd day a Newcastle Falcons player would come to a club we watched with my dad from way back when.
“These kids have infectious enthusiasm, particularly as they have started doing contact, so they are all mad to run into each other and topple each other. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that wears off after a few years, that you go around trying to avoid the contact rather than trying to beat each other up.”
We were with @IlkestonRugby U10s last week, the local winners of our #TrainWithYourHeroes competition for @LeicesterTigers, led by club legends @TomYoungs87, Mathew Tait and Matt Smith. Take a look at the video here… #GallagherPrem pic.twitter.com/YFrYLIN82m
— Gallagher UK (@GallagherUK) April 3, 2019
Comments on RugbyPass
Hope he stays as believe he can do a great job.
1 Go to commentsMake what step up? Manie has a World Cup winner’s medal around his neck and changed the way the Springboks can play. He doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone. The win record of the Boks with him in the team is tremendous. Sacha can be wonderful and I hope he has a very succesful Bok career, but comparing him to Manie in terms of the next Bok flyhalf is very strange. Manie is the incumbent (not the next) and doing pretty incredibly.
1 Go to comments00 😍 U
1 Go to commentsSabbaticals have helped keep NZ’s very best talent in the country on long term deals - this fact has been left out of this article. Much like the articles calling to allow overseas players to be selected, yet can only name one player currently not signed to NZR who would be selected for the ABs. And in the entire history of NZ players leaving to play overseas, literally only 4 or 5 have left in their prime as current ABs. (Piatau, Evans, Hayman, Mo’unga,?) Yes Carter got an injury while playing in France 16 years ago, but he also got a tournament ending injury at the 2011 World Cup while taking mid-week practice kicks at goal. Maybe Jordie gets a season-ending injury while playing in Ireland, maybe he gets one next week against the Brumbies. NZR have many shortcomings, but keeping the very best players in the country and/or available for ABs selection is not one of them. Likewise for workload management - players missing 2 games out of 14 is hardly a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Again let’s use some facts - did it stop the Crusaders winning SR so many times consecutively when during any given week they would be missing 2 of their best players? The whole idea of the sabbatical is to reward your best players who are willing to sign very long term deals with some time to do whatever they want. They are not handed out willy-nilly, and at nowhere near the levels that would somehow devalue Super Rugby. In this particular example JB is locked in with NZR for what will probably (hopefully) be the best years of his career, hard to imagine him not sticking around for a couple more after for a Lions tour and one more world cup. He has the potential to become the most capped AB of all time. A much better outcome than him leaving NZ for a minimum of 3 years at the age of 27, unlikely to ever play for the ABs again, which would be the likely alternative.
1 Go to commentsJake White talks more sense than anything I've read in the last 5 years. Hope someone's listening.
9 Go to commentsThe Springboks tried going down the road of only picking home-based players and it was an unmitigated disaster in 2016 and 2017. Picking overseas-based players has been one of the main reason the Boks have done so well since 2018, not only because of the quality Rassie could call on, but because of the knowledge and experience those players brought into camp from England, France and Japan. With some of the big names playing abroad it also gave younger players in SA the chance to break through at franchise level. Would we have seen the emergence of a Ruan Nortje if RG and Lood were still at the Bulls? Not so sure. I understand why Jake would want to block players leaving since his job depends on good results but it’s an approach that would take Bok rugby back to the bad old days and no South African wants to see that.
9 Go to commentsExeter were thumped by 38 points. And they only had to hop on a train.
39 Go to commentsI am De Groot.
1 Go to commentsHad hoped you might write an article on this game, Nick. It’s a good one. Things have not gone as smoothly for ROG since beating Leinster last year at the Aviva in the CC final. LAR had the Top 14 Final won till Raymond Rhule missed a simple tackle on the excellent Ntamack, and Toulouse reaped the rewards of just staying in the fight till the death. Then the disruption of the RWC this season. LAR have not handled that well, but they were not alone, and we saw Pau heading the Top 14 table at one stage early season. I would think one of the reasons for the poor showing would have to be that the younger players coming through, and the more mature amongst the group outside the top 25/30, are not as strong as would be hoped for. I note that Romain Sazy retired at the end of last season. He had been with LAR since 2010, and was thus one of their foundation players when they were promoted to Top 14. Records show he ended up with 336 games played with LAR. That is some experience, some rock in the team. He has been replaced for the most part by Ultan Dillane. At 30, Dillane is not young, but given the chances, he may be a fair enough replacement for Sazy. But that won’be for more than a few years. I honestly know little of the pathways into the LAR setup from within France. I did read somewhere a couple of years ago that on the way up to Top 14, the club very successfully picked up players from the academies of other French teams who were not offered places by those teams. These guys were often great signings…can’t find the article right now, so can’t name any….but the Tadgh Beirne type players. So all in all, it will be interesting to see where the replacements for all the older players come from. Only Lleyd’s and Rhule from SA currently, both backs. So maybe a few SA forwards ?? By contrast, Leinster have a pretty clear line of good players coming through in the majority of positions. Props maybe a weak spot ? And they are very fleet footed and shrewd in appointing very good coaches. Or maybe it is also true that very good coaches do very well in the Leinster setup. So, Nick, I would fully concurr that “On the evidence of Saturday’s semi-final between the two clubs, the rebuild in the Bay of Biscay is going to take longer than it is on the east coast of Ireland”
11 Go to commentsWhat was the excuse for the other knockout blowouts then? Does the result not prove the Saints were just so much better? Wise call to put your eggs in one basket when you’ve got 2 comps simultaneously finishing.
39 Go to commentsReally hope Kuruvoli and his partner rock the Canes.
1 Go to commentsI wonder what impact Samson has had on their attack, as the team seems less prone to trundle it up the middle, take the tackle and then trundle it up again. I lost faith in the coach last year as the Rebelss looked like a 2nd/3rd rate South African team. I also disliked Gordon standing back, often ignored as the forward battle went on and on. Maybe its our Aussie way of not getting off our A***’s until the enemy is at the gate.
86 Go to commentsThanks for the write up. Great to see the Rebs winning, I am a little interested in how they will go against the remaining kiwi teams, I think they’ve only played Hurricanes and Highlanders but how great to see these players performing!! I also see Parling has a job beyond June 30! A good move by RA? Also how do you fix the Rebels previously scratchy defence?
86 Go to commentsbe smart - go black
13 Go to commentsNext week the Crusaders hopefully have Scott Barrett back. Will be great to have the captain back. Hopefully he will be the All Black captain as well.
12 Go to commentsExciting place to be for the young fella. I expected he was French Polynesian when I saw him included in the France 6N squad (after seeing him in NZs), and therefor be strong grounds we might loose him to rugby down here. Good, in that he is good enough to warrant such a profile, and from a journalism’s fan interaction aspect, to finally get a back ground story on the fella. Hope he has settled into NZ OK and that at least one rugby country will fit with him to help his development, which, if so, he should surely continue for a few years, and then that he can experience France to it’s fullest with a bit more maturity and less reliance on family than you would have at his current age. A good 3 or 4 years before he would be ready for International duty if he wanted to wait. Of course he already sounds good enough to accept a call up, and to cap himself, in the more immediate future (he’d have to be very very good in the case of the ABs), and he’ll get a great taste of that being with the Canes who have a bunch who are just a few years further into their career and looking likely Internationals themselves.
13 Go to commentsI remember towards the end of the original broadcasting deal for Super rugby with Newscorp that there was talk about the competition expanding to improve negotiations for more money - more content, more cash. Professional rugby was still in its infancy then and I held an opposing view that if Super rugby was a truly valuable competition then it should attract more broadcasters to bid for the rights, thereby increasing the value without needing to add more teams and games. Unfortunately since the game turned professional, the tension between club, talent and country has only grown further. I would argue we’re already at a point in time where the present is the future. The only international competitions that matter are 6N, RC and RWC. The inter-hemisphere tours are only developmental for those competitions. The games that increasingly matter more to fans, sponsors and broadcasters are between the clubs. Particularly for European fans, there are multiple competitions to follow your teams fortunes every week. SA is not Europe but competes in a single continental competition, so the travel component will always be an impediment. It was worse in the bloated days of Super rugby when teams traversed between four continents - Africa, America, Asia and Australia. The percentage of players who represent their country is less than 5% of the professional player base, so the sense of sacrifice isn’t as strong a motivation for the rest who are more focused on playing professional rugby and earning as much from their body as they can. Rugby like cricket created the conundrum it’s constantly fighting a losing battle with.
9 Go to commentsOh wow… “But as La Rochelle proved in winning in Cape Town this season, a cross-continental away assignment need not spell the end of days.” La Rochelle actually proved quite the opposite. After traveling to Cape town and back they (back-to-back and current champs) got mercilessly thumped the next week. If travel is not the reason, why else would a full-strength powerhouse like La Rochelle get dumped on their @r$e$ one week later?
39 Go to commentsYou know he can land a winning conversion after the full time siren is up. (Even if it takes two attempts.)
5 Go to commentsA very insightful article from Jake. I would love to know how South African’s feel about their move to Europe. Do you prefer playing in Europe or want to go back to Super Rugby?
9 Go to comments