Wales great George North to retire from rugby at end of the season

Retired from international arena in 2024 with 121 caps.

Wales great George North has announced he will retire from rugby at the end of the season.

Think of George North and two iconic moments inevitably stand out. Both took place on the 2013 British & Irish Lions tour when he was just 21 years old. 

Few northern hemisphere players have made a bigger top-level impact at a more tender age than the departing North, who announced on Wednesday he was retiring from all rugby at the end of this season.

The first indelible image occurred in Brisbane in the first Test against Australia. North was inside his own half when he fielded a kick from Berrick Barnes and set off on the kind of surging run that gets longer with every breathless retelling. 

After 40 metres he had already burned off three Wallabies and had only Will Genia left to beat. The photo of North pointing an exultant finger at the trailing scrum-half has taken its place in modern Lions folklore.

Which made what followed the week after all the more striking. The second Test in Melbourne was delicately poised when North was the recipient of an impromptu through-the-legs reverse pass from Brian O’Driscoll. The Wallabies’ new sensation, Israel Folau, was quickly on to him, leaving North seemingly exposed in his own half.

Instead the tables were about to be turned in sensational fashion. North drove determinedly forwards, still carrying the ball, and hoisted Folau over his right shoulder in a fireman’s lift-style wrestling manoeuvre. 

As they watched Australia’s danger man being carried backwards by a red-shirted dump truck, the Lions fans in the stands could have sworn they had uncovered the North Walian version of Jonah Lomu.

Subsequently the 6ft 4in, 17st North acknowledged he had no particular idea what he was doing. He did remember, however, being approached after the game by the tour manager, Gerald Davies. “In all my years in rugby, George, I’ve seen many an amazing thing happen,” said Davies. “Tries scored from 100 metres out, forwards doing beautiful things but I’ve never seen an attacker carry a defender back.” 

As North later recalled: “That made me laugh.”

When you consider that he also registered two tries on his first Test appearance against South Africa at the age of 18, the youngest Welshman to score on debut, the wing was unquestionably a precocious talent. By the time he retired from international rugby in 2024 with 121 caps he was second behind Shane Williams on the all-time list of Welsh men’s try scorers with 47 and had featured in four World Cups. He also shared in four Six Nations titles, including two grand slams.

Above all he was ahead of his time, certainly in Wales. These days there are increasing numbers of powerful wings with pace and footwork but, Lomu aside, North was their modern pied piper. 

As Warren Gatland put it when his lethal weapon stood down from the Test arena two years ago: “George has contributed hugely to Welsh rugby in an incredible career. The way that he burst on to the scene at 18 … I can remember seeing him play and thinking: ‘We need to cap this kid.’” 

Now 34, North began his club career at Scarlets before joining Northampton Saints in 2013 where he won a Premiership title. “My nickname at Northampton was ‘Manchild’: the size of a man and the brain of a child,” he recalled. 

He then spent five years with Ospreys before joining the French ProD2 side Provence but he is now leaving the stage for good.

In a video posted on X, North described it as “the right time” to bow out. “I’ve been able to live out my childhood dream for many seasons playing with some of the best players, coaches and the staff behind. The next chapter? Still working on that one, but I’m excited to see where that journey takes me.” 

He has certainly earned a decent rest, having endured several bleak injury episodes during his career. 

Aged 21 he said: “I already feel like I’m in the body of a 31-year-old” and took a six-month break from rugby in 2015 after suffering a series of heavy blows to the head. He remains adamant that, contrary to the headlines around that time, he never took unacceptable risks with his health. “There are players out there who have had a lot more than me,” he said two years ago.

“I was probably the first real example where it got highlighted. Even to this day I get mentioned in articles about head collisions. But the whole way through I went after the best advice and went out of my way to find the right people. We set up monitoring to make sure I’m OK and have done ever since.” 

Given he has two children with his wife Becky James, the former Olympic cyclist, there must be a chance of the name North resurfacing in top-level sport at some stage. The genes are certainly promising but, whatever happens, the eye-catching contributions of Welsh rugby’s powerful boy wonder are certain to stand the test of time.

Guardian