LONG READ George North: 'My friends have had rugby taken away - there's something nice about calling it on my own terms'

Few athletes, no matter how celebrated, are afforded the ultimate send-off, carried from the field on the shoulders of their comrades, medal round the neck, trophy held aloft, sailing into the sunset on an ocean of champagne.

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Sitting on the sidelines in the south of France, any sort of farewell at all seemed remote for George North. This great totem of the game was destined to see out his career from the stands as his Provence side came within a match of promotion to the Top 14. For various reasons, North has not played since February. The Welsh icon watched, unfulfilled and stymied, from the periphery and made his peace with the fact this was how it would end.

For a player of North’s generational prowess, it was no way to finish. So when Robbie Deans picked up the phone and invited him to join the Barbarians, North was raring to play. He will enjoy a fitting swansong, against his dear Wales, on Saturday and the chance to tick one last item off his rugby bucket list.

“The opportunity to draw a line under my career properly was important to me,” he says. “I’ve never played for the Barbarians and to represent them against my home nation, you couldn’t write a better story.

“It’s been frustrating not to play more rugby this season but it’s given me the opportunity to be out here in France for a couple of years, my kids and wife love it, and the French prioritise family above everything.

“I didn’t think I’d get an opportunity to play a last game – it’s been an incredibly difficult season – but I’d processed that, I’d dealt with it. It was like when my Achilles went in my last game for Wales – not everyone gets their fairytale ending.

“When Robbie phoned, it just felt perfect for me. It will be a huge honour to put that jersey on and have that last game.”

 

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North’s near two decades as a professional is thick with accolades. Some 121 caps and 47 tries, two Six Nations Grand Slams and another two titles, a pair of British and Irish Lions tours, and a Gallagher Prem crown with Northampton Saints are the statistical highlights. He says he could keep going, but with his sons Jac and Tomi aged six and four respectively, goals have shifted off the field.

“The age-old saying is when you know, you know. I still feel good, I can still compete, but I’m starting to creak. If I was a second-hand car, I’d have a full manufacturer’s service history and warranty but about 500,000 miles on the clock.

“Mentally I’m in a good spot. But I’m 34 now, I turned professional at 17 and I’ve been on the go ever since. With my young family, I’ve had enough time missing things that were important.

“As I wrote my autobiography – that’s not a plug – and moved to France, you meet new people and it gives you the opportunity to step back and think about what you’ve done. You acknowledge people will know your story and journey in Wales but even out here in the bottom of France I thought I would blend in and play some rugby, and people are still like ‘Oh George, c’est un joueur magnifique.’

“Enough of my friends have had rugby taken away from them; there’s something quite nice about calling it on my own terms. When I left home at 16, if you’d have said I’d achieve what I have, I’d have thought you were drunk or crazy or crazily drunk. It’s been absolutely incredible.”

All the years my dad has been stood on the touchline he could easily have run on and off again but he chooses Stade de France and a pivotal game for us in the Six Nations.

Rugby renown came to North quickly. Meteoric scarcely does it justice. He was 18 when he won his first cap in 2010, all fire and fury with thighs like Californian Redwoods. An instantly game-changing addition to the Welsh arsenal. Warren Gatland started him against the Springboks in Cardiff and North scored two tries, becoming the youngest Wales player to touch down in a Test match.

“I was very lucky with the players I came through alongside: Shane Williams, Mike Phillips, Stephen Jones, Lee Byrne. These guys in Wales were heroes. I was able to hide away behind them which made my life as a youngster very easy. They kept me very grounded and aware this could only be a blip and you have to work very hard every single day to keep it.”

The year 2013 stands proud in North’s timeline, even if it was tinged with the bizarre. When North scored an outrageous try to beat France in Paris, his father Dave, overcome by the euphoria, careered over the hoardings and onto the pitch to celebrate.

“That’s not ideal, to be honest,” North says, ruefully. “I was the butt of a fair few jokes for a while. All the years he’s been stood on the touchline he could easily have run on and off again but he chooses Stade de France and a pivotal game for us in the Six Nations.

“I didn’t even see him, players came up to me saying ‘was that your old man?’

“’No, don’t be silly.’

“’I’m pretty sure it was.’

“It turned out it was my dad. Interesting one.”

Perhaps the enduring image of North, though, was captured on the Lions trip to Australia, with Israel Folau slung and squirming across his back. He had already scored one of the finest solo tries in the tourists’ history, but even such a stonking memory is eclipsed by that of North, sinew straining, giant legs rippling, carting the Wallabies’ golden boy on his shoulder like a sack of spuds. North is asked what went through his mind in those instinctive beats.

“The problem was, I don’t think I was thinking. In the words of a wise man, ‘don’t think, just do’. I had taken the pass from ‘Drico’ [Brian O’Driscoll] through his legs and I was surrounded by two, three… by the time I get to the end of the story there were 25 Aussies. There were a few around me.

“I thought, I’ve just got to keep this ball. As I duck Folau pops up, so I thought, drive your legs buddy, and next thing you know I end up in a DDT wrestling move, then a pretzel, and the whistle blows.

Under his reign we one more games than we should have through the grit and mindset he gave us. His rugby understanding is second to none.

“It was the best tour I’ve been on and something I’m very, very proud of. Doing the provincial games, then you go one up in the series, one all with one to play, it was the perfect romance.”

Talk turns to coaching and, inevitably, to Gatland. He bestrode an entire era of Welsh and Lions rugby. For some in Wales, the wounds from his tumultuous second spell remain raw, when morale ebbed and the super-coach’s once shining aura seemed to wane. North won all but 18 of his caps under Gatland. He emerged among the golden crop – Sam Warburton, Taulupe Faletau, Dan Lydiate, Jonathan Davies, Jamie Roberts, Leigh Halfpenny, Liam Williams, Dan Biggar and more besides – who would form the backbone of a trophy-laden era for Gatland’s Wales.

“For me, he was great. When he first coached me, I realised he’d only really talk to you when he had something to say. He noticed everything. He kept everyone on song.

“He was tough in how he ran the squad and the games and the campaigns. But he was also very good at understanding where the squad was. The results we had, from 2011 to 2016-17, we were one of the most dominant teams in Europe if not the world. Certainly one of the teams who competed most consistently.

“Under his reign we one more games than we should have through the grit and mindset he gave us. His rugby understanding is second to none, his questions and how he thinks about the game is always pushing on.

“I was very lucky to come through with the players and staff at that time because we were in a bit of a purple patch. For a long time the bulk of that squad was the same.

“He was instrumental to my international career.”

There has been turmoil, too, moments when North’s health was scrutinised more than his rugby. Two years after the glorious Lions tour, he suffered a spate of head injuries. Brain injuries, to be more precise.

“My famous line was: I was the poster boy for concussion,” North reflects. “Not Calvin Klein. I’d have preferred that.

“The strife and the pain and the constant bombardment of people saying something was worth the sacrifice to see where the awareness has got to today. The game has jumped forward leaps and bounds in terms of its protocols, safety, recovery, understanding and it’s advancing every season.

“I had amazing support from Northampton and Wales. We found the right guy who was specialising in concussion in rugby, Professor Antonio Belli at Birmingham University, and he is still leading the way. All I could do was look after myself and have the right conversations with the right people and come up with a plan.”

It was me who insisted on it.’Prof’ said I didn’t need to see him anymore. I use it more as an MOT to stay on top of it.

North still sees the man he calls ‘Prof’ twice a year for check-ups, although not because the expert has identified any additional risk.

“It was me who insisted on it.’Prof’ said I didn’t need to see him anymore. I use it more as an MOT to stay on top of it, as you would check in with your knee or ankle or shoulder, to make sure everything is working fine. ‘Prof’ has become a great confidant and friend. It made no sense not to keep doing it because it is very important.”

Life, for North, will soon look very different. He plans to stay in France until Christmas, allowing his family to savour their adventure, his body to rest and his mind to quiet. He has had time to compete at the kids’ school sports day, which seems grossly unfair on the other parents. “I’m undefeated,” he says. “Put it that way.”

There will be a whole kaleidoscope of emotions come Saturday, for the Norths and the Welsh supporters who can serenade the great man one last time. And maybe, as is Barbarians tradition, a conversion attempt to sign off.

“I’ll give it a go but knowing me, my hamstring will go. I’ll just be grateful to get involved, to be part of it and experience it. It’s a huge honour.”

Tickets for the Barbarians v Wales double-header at the Allianz Stadium, Twickenham are available via Ticketmaster.co.uk and England Rugby starting at just £20 for adults and £10 for children (U16, booking fees apply)