Hanging up your rugby boots – or any boots for that matter – is far from easy and it is often the days and months after that last game that are the toughest.
As most rugby players will tell you, they pretty much have 11 months of each year planned for them.
Players like Rob Kearney or Conor Murray could tell you where they will be and what they will be doing at 2pm on Thursday, April 12th 2018. More likely than not, it will be something got to do with rugby.
That sense of order is a major change for retired players but most lads will tell you it is the dressing room and that sense of camaraderie that they miss most.
One of the other things they must endure, in coming to terms with retirement, is leaving the team WhatsApp group. Even worse is when you hang around too long after retiring and get turfed out.
The social sharing and messaging app is a key part of life for many players and teams, in Ireland and abroad. Players like Garry Ringrose, for example, will closely follow the separate Leinster and Ireland groups but he has admitted he tries his hardest to avoid the invites from groups of mates.
The perils of WhatsApphttps://t.co/cP2aIjsGTh
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) May 4, 2017
Retired Leinster and Ireland scrum-half Isaac Boss told The Hard Yards how tough the end of each season would be:
“The end of every season is an emotional time at any team or club. You know you’re not going to see the guys from that next week on – when you go on holidays – and you’ll probably never see some guys again. That’s something that is part and parcel of being a rugby player these days.
“You get to know each other, day to day, and you get to respect each other and you play for each other. These lads are in your path and in your social group for so long and, literally, you don’t know the next time you’ll all be together. It’s such a hard thing. There’s such a change to your environment.”
Boss spoke all about rugby’s WhatsApp etiquette:
“Some of the lads, even from last year [at Leinster], we’re in the same city and it is still hard to meet up. That social circle is never going to be the same again. It is strange but it’s inevitable.
He added, “WhatsApp is a new phenomenon. We never used to have that back in the [Ulster and early Leinster] days.
“When someone finishes up, they either don’t announce it and leave the group. Everyone else is going, ‘Eh, did you see he left the group?’.
“Or there’s a ritual where if someone doesn’t leave the group they get kicked out. It’s a jokey mean way to say, ‘Right, you’ve got to move on!'”
You’ve got to be cruel to be kind, Boss remarked.
Time to move on.
*Listen to the full chat from 20:00 below
https://soundcloud.com/thehardyardssportsjoe/episode-17-donnacha-ryans-character-irelands-2006-tour-of-nz-and-munsters-pro12-final
