At the end of another punishing season, a whole galaxy of stars have taken their curtain call. Some are retiring on their own terms; others, such is the nature of rugby, have seen their careers curtailed by injury.
There are some blockbuster players on this list, compiled from those who have announced their retirement during the current northern hemisphere campaign. Some positions, such as the second row, have been light on departures, while others, particularly at scrum-half, have seen a host of idols head into the sunset.
This is the RugbyPass ‘retired XV’ of 2024/25.
15 Alex Goode (Saracens, England)
As Goode celebrated an unprecedented 400th appearance for Saracens, the faces lining the StoneX tunnel to greet him stood testament to his extraordinary longevity. Richard Hill, 2003 world champion, was among them. Hill was born in 1973 and played his last professional match as Goode ran out for his first. Sharing the field with Goode last month was Angus Hall, born in 2005. Sean Maitland, Duncan Taylor, Chris Wyles and Jackson Wray were all watching too, paying tribute to perhaps the greatest ever Saracen.
Goode, now 37, won six Premiership titles, playing in every final, and three Champions Cups, scoring in the 2017 showpiece and being named European player of the year in 2019. While 21 England caps are a pale reflection of his intellect and skill, his legacy in North London is beyond question.
Brice Dulin of France and La Rochelle deserves a mention, too, drawing tears from Ronan O’Gara at a recent press conference discussing his impact.
14 Anthony Watson (London Irish, Bath, Leicester Tigers, England, Lions)
One of the game’s ultimate finishers, with blistering pace and ruthless scoring instincts. His 23 tries in 56 England Tests are impressive enough, but you wonder what kind of numbers he’d have racked up were it not for persistent Achilles and ACL problems, before a back injury this term made playing on impossible.
Watson started five Lions Tests in a row across the 2017 and 2021 tours, his prowess on the former voyage to New Zealand outstanding. He won a Six Nations Grand Slam the year before, adding two more championships to his trophy haul, and was part of Eddie Jones’ World Cup runners-up in 2019.
13 Jonathan Davies (Scarlets, Clermont, Wales, Lions)
From the Fox and Hounds pub in Carmarthenshire to international renown, Davies will be remembered as one of the best centres of all time.
Whether charging through the midfield, unleashing a piston-like fend, skittling opponents or threading shrewd grubbers down the outside channels, Davies was the full package. His fusion with Jamie Roberts in the red of Wales was a nigh-unstoppable blend of athletic brawn and keen brain.
To a wider audience, the 2017 Lions tour was his crowning moment. His role in Sean O’Brien’s iconic try, his cheetah-like pursuit of Ngani Laumape and his thunderous shot on Jordie Barrett were telling moments; his consistent brilliance earning him the man of the series award.
To Welsh supporters, this was standard procedure. For Davies would win two Grand Slams and two more championships, a Pro12 with his beloved Scarlets, and feature prominently in the 2011 World Cup when Wales so nearly reached the final.
An honourable mention for Cardiff stalwart, Rey Lee-Lo.
12 Henry Chavancy (Racing 92, France)
Earlier this month, after Chavancy played his last game for Racing, RugbyPass contributor Gavin Mortimer questioned whether we will see his like again; a one-club man in the Top 14 maelstrom; a beacon of consistency and determination at a club where lavish recruits come and go by the season. “He wasn’t the most talented centre,” Mortimer wrote. “He’s not particularly quick, or inventive, hence just his five caps for France, but no-one can ever accuse Chavancy of shirking his responsibilities.”
Some 17 years have passed since Chavancy first donned the fabled ciel et blanc colours. He has amassed over 400 games for the club he adores, and the people who adore him right back. He was there when Racing rose from the ProD2 in 2009 with a stellar cast list and has played in the same backline as some of the game’s giants – Dan Carter, Johnny Sexton, Pat Lambie, Joe Rokocoko, Frans Steyn, Agustin Pichot and Finn Russell – setting standards and driving culture all the while.
Former Scotland centre and Premiership champion Matt Scott also retires at the end of a third – and sadly injury-hampered – stint at hometown club Edinburgh.
11 Mike Brown (Harlequins, Newcastle Falcons, Leicester Tigers, England)
A picture of snarling indefatigability, Brown continued to make eye-catching contributions to Leicester Tigers in his 40th year.
A darling of the Stoop, where he won two English titles for Harlequins and even had a bar named after him, he made his bones in the famous quarters. His 351-game haul is bettered only by Danny Care and though he was suspended for the 2021 Premiership final, his team-mates held him in such high regard he was invited to hoist the trophy high alongside club captain Stephan Lewies.
Brown was not necessarily earmarked for greatness. For a time, some thought him steady rather than spectacular. He went four years between England caps number three and four, and grafted on the track with Margot Wells, the hugely respected sprint coach, complimenting his vision, kicking and aerial ability with greater dynamism.
After a year at Newcastle and two more at Welford Road, he retires with well over 400 club appearances and 72 caps.
10 Dan Biggar (Ospreys, Northampton Saints, Toulon, Wales, Lions)
Alongside Johnny Sexton and Owen Farrell, Biggar is part of a generation of fly-halves with awesome presence and a very visceral take on leadership. His unflinching mentality, force of character and game intelligence were key to a prolific era in Welsh rugby.
He remains the Ospreys’ record points scorer, steering the region to Pro12 crowns in 2010 and 2012, and has two Six Nations Grand Slams and a brace of Lions tours at Test level.
Biggar, 35, has been hit by injuries in his final season, but still played a part in Toulon’s run to the Champions Cup quarter-finals and Top 14 semis, where they play Bordeaux-Begles on Saturday.
In the winter of his career, Biggar has become a sought-after analyst who will be part of Sky Sports’ Lions coverage this summer.
French points machine Camille Lopez and ageless Argentine Benjamin Urdapilleta are also bowing out.
9 Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers, England, Lions)
How do you choose between Ben Youngs, Danny Care and Conor Murray? We’ve cheated a bit here, plumping for Youngs to start with Care adding zip from the bench and the genius of Murray covering fly-half.
There was no storybook ending for England’s most capped man on Saturday, despite a typically assured cameo in the Premiership final. He remains one of the most decorated players in English history, with his five titles and four Six Nations championships, much of those special days shared with brother Tom.
It was for Tom’s late wife, Tiff, who was battling cancer, Youngs chose not to tour with the Lions in 2017, having played with his sibling in Australia four years earlier.
Facing competition from Care, Richard Wigglesworth and other Premiership luminaries, Youngs was consistently top dog for a succession of England coaches, adding layers to his game, and trimming fat from his body. His friendship and rivalry with Care – the Quins man often chosen to finish the job started by the Tiger – pushed each man at the highest level.
1 Steven Kitshoff (Stormers, Bordeaux-Begles, Ulster, South Africa)
South Africa’s ‘Spicy Plum’ is not stepping away of his own accord. A neck injury suffered in a Currie Cup match last September forced the 33-year-old off the front line. Kitshoff thought nothing of the injury at the time, but later revealed he was “two millimetres from death”.
The flame-haired prop has a Currie Cup and a URC on his CV a decade apart, but his most storied feats came in the green and gold. Back-to-back World Cups in 2019 and 2023, plus a Lions series triumph in between. Long respected as a ferocious scrummager, his breakdown excellence, carrying ballast and sheer stamina set him apart over many years. Were it not for the damaged neck, Kitshoff would certainly have been part of the Springboks’ quest for a three-peat in 2027.
2 Agustin Creevy (Biarritz, Pampas, San Luis, Clermont, Montpellier, Worcester Warriors, Jaguares, London Irish, Sale Sharks, Benetton, Argentina)
Creevy used to cry and hide when his local rugby coach fetched up to take him to training. As a boy, he had little appetite for the game. Gradually, that changed. And how. Then a flanker, Creevy won his first cap in 2005 and moved from Argentina to Biarritz, where he sat next to the great Serge Betsen. He was told he’d have to convert to hooker to stand a chance of more Tests. He passed out in his first scrum session and cried in the toilets when he kept missing his jumpers at the lineout.
Creevy dug in. He became first a Pumas mainstay, then the national captain. He played all over the world, featuring in France for Clermont and Montpellier, in England for Worcester, London Irish and Sale, and back home for a fabulous Jaguares side who reached the Super Rugby final in 2019. He retires aged 40 after one final season with Benetton.
Last year, Creevy’s try sealed Argentina’s second-ever win in New Zealand. He was 39 and described the moment post-match as “f***ing amazing”. An apt description for his career at large.
3 Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers, England, Lions)
Like Youngs, Cole was denied the send-off he craved on Saturday afternoon. More woundingly, the final minutes of his career were spent, controversially, in the sin bin, yellow carded for connecting with Finn Russell after a charge-down attempt. You needn’t have been an expert lip-reader to decipher Cole’s view of that call as he headed for the touchline.
None of this does anything to diminish a truly wonderful career, characterised by quiet, redoubtable excellence in perhaps the most demanding and poorly understood position on a rugby field.
Only Youngs surpassed Cole’s haul of 118 England caps. He won three Six Nations titles and toured with the Lions twice, playing in three Tests, and competing at four Rugby World Cups, culminating in the 2023 bronze medal. He is cherished for his deadpan wit and vast scrummaging nous.
Cole and Youngs now co-host the entertaining and insightful For the Love of Rugby podcast.
With Joe Marler and Cian Healy on our bench, we should also offer a nod of respect to Dave Kilcoyne, titan of Munster, who is retiring too.
4 Anton Bresler (Sharks, Edinburgh, Worcester Warriors, Racing 92, Vannes)
An enforcer lock with an effervescent persona. Bresler is probably best known in rugby conscious as the leaping second-row saved from disaster by Beast Mtawarira and his absurd strength. Those were his early days playing Super Rugby for a Sharks team laden with Springboks.
Bresler is hilarious company. He can talk about being chased by angry ostriches, his Justin Bieber obsession or his penchant for conspiracy theories. He’s also the kind of player coaches love. A rugged pugilist who excels in the set-piece and the close-quarter skirmishes, who raises standards and leads by example.
Alan Solomons was a huge fan, signing him for Edinburgh and Worcester Warriors. He went to France and played in a Racing 92 squad of Galacticos. Bresler retires after two years at Vannes, helping the proud club become Brittany’s first representative in the Top 14 last term.
5 Josh Beaumont (Sale Sharks)
It can’t always be easy carting a famous name around with you, especially when that name belongs not just to an England hero, but the man holding the highest office in the whole sport.
Beaumont never seemed burdened by this. He is respected immensely at Sale, where he has just completed a testimonial year, was named player’s player of the season in 2014 and club captain two years later.
The lock’s career is all the more impressive given his unenviable medical record. Serious injuries to his knee and hamstring might have ended his career, but Beaumont overcame them and went on to play a pivotal role in Sale’s run to the 2023 Premiership final.
6 Dan Lydiate (Dragons, Racing 92, Ospreys, Wales, Lions)
The human scythe. Lydiate’s extraordinary torpedo-like tackles made him the first master of the ‘chop’, a technique kindled on the family sheep farm.
Lydiate retires at 37 but his career could have ended almost 20 years earlier. A neck-break on his first European outing for the Dragons in France left him fearing for his mobility, never mind his sporting future. That injury, he said, gave him a sense of perspective when the numerous, and serious, body blows later rained down upon him. He’d undoubtedly have more than 72 caps and a single Lions tour were it not for so unfortunate an injury rate.
One prong of the Lydiate-Warburton-Faletau trident which became one of world rugby’s premier back-rows in the 2010s, he was player of the tournament as Wales won the 2012 Grand Slam.
Retires at the end of a second spell with the Dragons.
7 Justin Tipuric (Ospreys, Wales, Lions)
Could have played on the wing, or in the midfield, or anywhere, really, save tighthead prop. Even then, you’d back him to do a job.
Tipuric has the lot. The talent and the engine do not seem to have faltered. Indeed, his performances for the Ospreys this season suggests he’s far from done, even if the man himself has decided to call time.
Lean and lithe, he was always sharp enough to mix it with the heavyweights on the gain line and at the breakdown. But it was with ball in hand the flanker really set himself apart. A jaw-dropping array of skills and searing speed makes his career highlight reel more of a feature-length film. You’ll find chip-and-chase tries, obscene line breaks, tasty offloads and exceptional cover tackles, with Tipuric forever encased in the bright blue scrum cap of his dear Trebanos RFC.
A three-time Lion, four-time Six Nations champion and generational player.
8 Peter O’Mahony (Munster, Ireland, Lions)
The scowling totem of Thomond. In a place like Munster, you’ve got to be special to earn the nickname ‘War God’. That’s exactly what O’Mahony was – cussed, defiant, and brutally effective. Like all great flankers, he operated on the edge of – or sometimes well beyond – legality, with his nose for turnovers, head for gamesmanship and heart for a fight. Who could forget his caustic chirp to Sam Cane?
Those who derided him – particularly the Scots – often did so because deep down, they’d love an O’Mahony on their side, the kind of man who can put a team on his back and carry it through his sheer force of personality. The boos were the ultimate back-handed complement.
It wasn’t as if O’Mahony failed to back any of this up. The withering put-down of Cane was delivered during Ireland’s monumental series win in New Zealand. O’Mahony, also a supreme lineout forward, won the Six Nations five times, including two Grand Slams, the URC and the old Magners League, touring with the Lions in 2017.
He bowed out polishing off a wonderful cross-kick try on his own patch. A famously avid gardener, he can admire his pristine lawn and reflect on a terrific career.
Replacements
Tommy Taylor, Joe Marler, Cian Healy, Greg Peterson, Reuben Crothers, Danny Care, Conor Murray, Raymond Rhule.
Ah the withering take down of Sam Cane by O’Mahoney. Nothing compared to the utter destruction of O’Mahoney by Cane during the All Black’s quarterfinal win in the world cup.
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Not the Brown on the wing experiment again!
Some list, probably wouldnt make the 1000 international caps between the lot but cant be too far off.
I'm still waiting for young Josh Beaumont and Alex Lewington to break through into the England team. How the f**k are they retired already? Lol