David Pocock quietly slips into retirement

David Pocock closed the door on his 13-year professional rugby career on Friday.

David Pocock in one of his last appearances for Panasonic Wild Knights

It was a chapter many people mistakenly thought had already been written, but David Pocock closed the door on his 13-year professional rugby career on Friday, announcing he would not be seeing out his contract with the Panasonic Wild Knights in Japan.

In fact, while Pocock had announced last year he would retire from international football at the end of the World Cup, his intention always was to continue playing in the Japanese Top League. COVID, however, had the final say. Effectively his rugby career ended on February 22 against the Docomo Red Hurricanes in Osaka, though no one knew it at the time, least of all the former Wallabies captain.

“Ultimately, it’s a pretty scary decision to leave what has been such a massive part of my life, but that is the challenge that people face in life transitions and in that challenge there are opportunities to explore other things and hopefully grow as a person,” Pocock told The Weekend Australian on Friday.

Now home in Canberra, the 32-year-old flanker was forced to break the news to his former Australia and now Panasonic coach Robbie Deans from afar. “Robbie was incredibly understanding and in moments like that he shows the man that he is and he always cares about his players as people first. So it was a tough decision in the end.

“It really feels like I have had a great run and it is time to step away rather than hanging in there until I can no longer play.”

A professional career that began as a teenager with the Western Force in 2007 and a Test debut against the All Blacks in 2008, ended at international level with a World Cup quarter-final against England last October. It was his 83rd Tests, though if ever a player deserved to receive his 100th Test cap it surely was Pocock. Throughout his career, however, he was plagued by injuries.

Finding an individual highlight among so many achievements defeated him yesterday, though it always brings a wry smile to his face recounting the awkward moments he experienced on his trips to his homeland, Zimbabwe, and to South Africa when Springbok supporters darkly recalled his matchwinning performance against their side in the 2011 World Cup quarter-final. That will be the enduring image people carry of him, standing over the tackled player, defying the Boks’ increasingly desperate effort to move him and repeatedly winning the penalty for Australia.

It’s generally accepted that Pocock would have been voted International Player of the Year in 2015 had Australia won the final against the All Blacks. They lost, with Dan Carter taking the award.

Now that the Wallabies have ventured into the Test arena without him, and under a new coach, Pocock is content to play the role of supporter, enthusing over the tremendous young talent Australia has coming through.

“Real excited to see so many young guys getting a chance and they are really playing with some confidence and are enjoying themselves and hopefully can build something,” he said. “There has been no way around it. It has been a pretty tough period for Australian rugby and plenty of doom and gloom stories. But I’m optimistic.”

Asked if there was one player he particularly was enjoying, Pocock surprised. “Seeing Matt Toomua get more game time really excites me. I think he is such a great Test rugby player. And when the margins are small he is the kind of guy you want on there.”

But now, with a masters degree in sustainable agriculture almost done at Charles Sturt University and with his Rangelands Restoration Trust aimed at restoring resilient ecosystems, creating sustainable economic opportunities and re-establishing wildlife migration corridors building momentum, it is time to move on.

“There is plenty to do,” Pocock said. “It’s a matter of me getting stuck into something and seeing how I go.”