England centre has explained his shock decision to retire aged 27 after chat with Borthwick

Rugby News
Thursday, 24 October 2024 at 13:49
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Former England and Leicester Tigers centre Guy Porter confirmed his retirement from the sport during the summer with immediate effect aged 27.
about his ongoing rivalry with Owen Farrell.
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In June 2022, Porter received his first call-up to the senior England squad from coach Eddie Jones. Although he was named on the bench for the first test, Porter did not play as England lost 30–28. He made his debut in the second test, starting at centre in a 25–17 victory for England.
Porter was initially left out of the squad for the 2023 Six Nations Championship due to injury. However, he was called up a week before the tournament began to replace his Leicester Tigers teammate Dan Kelly, who was sidelined by a thigh injury.
Porter, who played under Borthwick at Leicester, exclusively told Rugby Dump: "I had a particularly long-term injury from November which I struggled to get back from. I spoke to a few doctors and neurologists along the recovery journey and tried to work it out in my head, but ultimately, I’d decided that I’d pushed it as far as I’d like to.
"It was bound to have an impact on my approach to the game, and I only really enjoyed it if I was willing to put my head in the spokes. As soon as I felt like I didn’t have the desire to do that I realised it was probably time to move on while I was still feeling positive about it.
“I finished my contract and in the context of all that, I just decided not to look for anything else because I felt like the ongoing risk outweighed my desire to continue.”
When asked what is next, Porter said: “I feel lucky, to be honest, I wasn’t professional until I was 22, so I went to uni and I’ve done some work in the past so I’ve got a little bit of a foundation there, so yeah it’s certainly a change of pace!
“I’m feeling pretty positive and excited about it, so it’s certainly not a sob story. I think people are very lovely and endearing, and feel sorry for me to some extent, but I feel like I’ve had a really good experience of it and now I’m feeling positive about doing something else.”

Owen Farrell names four rugby players he can’t stand, including a World Cup-winner

Former England captain Owen Farrell is never afraid of sharing an opinion or two – especially when it’s about someone he doesn’t particularly like.

#1. Dave Attwood

Former England lock Attwood has opened up on the latest RugbyPass Offload
The Bath lock won the last of his 24 caps for England back in 2016, which could have a lot to do with his relationship with the current England captain.
He revealed: "On the pitch, I struggle a lot with Owen Farrell. We just don’t see eye to eye on a lot of things,
“He hates me with a passion. Despite my earthy roots, he thinks I am a posh c***. He hates that. I bagged rugby league once jovially. I was saying it to take the piss kind of thing, ‘a bloody sport for the peasants’. He f**kin’ hated it.
"He had a bit of a shout at me and went off to the toilet and I followed him.
“We all had a drink or two after the game but we didn’t need to get carried away with this. I was in the urinal behind the door and he was three or four down and as I got in his dad walked in as well, he was coaching at the time. He was, ‘I don’t want to fuckin’ hear it’ or something like that and as he walked out he went to open the door and slam it into the back of me. There was like a stop on the floor so it hit the stop and almost clocked him back…
“We never really addressed it after that. That was where it started and it was like a drunken little bit of argy that went too far. He is an incredibly competitive athlete and he is also very f**kin’ good, he has got high standards. He is a very competitive athlete and in order to be that good, you have to flirt on the wrong side of competitive.
“So whenever we play each other there is always some element in the game where one of us is running at the other one or we are trying to bang each other. There always seems to be an element of that to it. I am sure he is like, I don’t even know that Dave is playing.”

#2. Ryan Wilson

The Scotland back-rower was the instigator in some tunnel argy-bargy when the players returned to the changing rooms after the warm-up back in 2018 with Farrell at the centre.
Footage of the incident shows all hell breaking loose when Farrell barged his way past a number of Scotland players to confront Wilson, who had been attempting to get inside the head of George Ford.
Wilson later revealed he was banned from Twickenham following the incident.
“I remember that game, I was actually injured and after tunnel-gate, after everything that happened in the tunnel against England, I’d lined up a corporate gig at Twickenham,” he recalled to Rugby Pass in November.
“Had it all lined up, a little bit of cash, all excited, only to get a message back saying the RFU have banned you from Twickenham Stadium after everything that happened the year before.

#3. James Haskell

The pair have what we can only describe as a love-hate relationship. As legendary as the 'best mates' videos were during the 2016 tour of Australia, Farrell certainly didn't seem to be enjoying it.

#4. Faf de Klerk

Farrell and De Klerk ended up at arm’s length from each other in 2018 during their summer tour just before the 20-minute mark and the rest of the two sides quickly joined in.
The pair have since clashes on multiple occasions, including during the World Cup final a year later. Klerk is clearly someone who gets under the England skippers skin and their appears to be little love lost between the pair.
Speaking about the pair, Tom Curry said they are 'very different characters'.
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