'The last third of my career': All Blacks star Brodie Retallick reveals surprise retirement plan

Since then, the 2014 World Rugby Player of the Year has played significant roles for both the Chiefs and All Blacks.

With two Super Rugby titles and a World Cup crown to his name, Retallick has been an integral figure for whichever side he has played for.

In addition to his 81 tests for the All Blacks, Retallick has also featured 107 times for the Chiefs, but that heavy output has come at a cost.

He said the physical toll of taking to the field so regularly has caught up on him, with injuries – including the dislocated shoulder he suffered in the lead-up to the 2019 World Cup – playing their part in his decision to head to Japan for a sabbatical.

“When I arrived at the Chiefs, and from there, making the All Blacks, those first five or six years were pretty full-on – I played a lot of rugby,” Retallick told The XV.

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“I’d sometimes joke with people, they’d say to me, ‘Oh, you’re not that old’ and I’d say, ‘Yes, but I’ve played a lot of rugby.

“Looking back over the last two or three years, I don’t know whether those sorts of injuries that started to catch up on me were a price of playing a lot of rugby in those early years or not, I’m not sure. But coming to Japan was definitely a result of how much rugby I played in those first five or six years.”

It’s that attritional aspect of the game that prevented Retallick from turning out for the Chiefs in last year’s Super Rugby Aotearoa, despite returning to New Zealand from Japan amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

“To be honest, it was a pretty easy decision,” he said of his decision to turn down an offer from Chiefs coach Warren Gatland to turn out for the Hamilton franchise.

“The Chiefs asked if I would be interested in playing when Tyler [Ardron] went up to Europe and Michael [Allardice] had his shoulder surgery but for me personally, in the bigger picture of my game, the break was something that I wasn’t really willing to compromise on.

“If I had gone to play Super Rugby, then it would have gone against my whole reason of going to Japan. Not only that, but my family would have also stayed in Napier while I would have gone back to Hamilton and one of the reasons for going to Japan was to spend some more time with the family. So, in the end, it wasn’t a very hard decision.

“I was actually sitting at home watching Super Rugby Aotearoa and I was pretty glad of my decision. It was pretty brutal, those Kiwi teams going at it each weekend – but I’ll look forward to doing that when I get back.”