David Pocock has announced his retirement from rugby, saying “the time was right” to hang up his playing boots.
Pocock stepped down from international rugby following last year’s Rugby World Cup in Japan after 83 caps, but stayed in the country to play for Panasonic Wild Knights in the Top League.
Already well-known for his activism on social justice and environmental issues, the 32-year-old will now dedicate his time to conservation.
“There was no one pivotal moment or thing that made me want to retire now, I just had a sense that the time was right,” Pocock told Guardian Australia.
And as for politics or, indeed, humanitarian work, he’s not quite sure, but Pocock is adamant that he wants to make a difference.
“I think the two biggest challenges we face are the climate emergency, and the biodiversity and extinction crisis that we have to seriously up our ambition and start to do deal with it in a bolder way,” he said.
“Working in that space. Trying to come up with solutions and trying to make it more tangible to people and finding ways that people can engage and not feel like it’s this massive issue that’s very political, and it’s something that is a big challenge and we can and must face.
“We have to have better policies – and politicians have a huge role to play. We’re certainly not seeing that at the moment. I mean, we have a once in a generation opportunity to rebuild our economy and build a renewable superpower in Australia and we’re propping up gas. It’s insane. It is pretty bleak, but I know there’s a lot of good people in there trying to change things. Who knows, hopefully we get a federal ICAC pretty soon, and I think that’ll start to get politicians on their toes a bit more and hopefully building something better for all of us.”
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LIST | Eight Huge Transfers That Almost Happened
There are always a few rugby tales of the big transfers that were tipped to take place and change the landscape of the rugby world forever but never materialised.
Here are a few of the biggest transfers that almost happened, but didn’t.
1. David Pocock to Wasps
Hot on the heels of landing fly half Danny Cipriani for next season, Wasps reportedly made an audacious attempt to bring David Pocock to the Premiership in a potential deal that would make the Australia flanker the highest paid rugby player in the world. According to The Telegraph, they would offer him a package in excess of the £1.4 million. This would have been one of the biggest transfers ever.
