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Saracens statement: Immediate effect retirement of Tom Woolstencroft

Saracens' Tom Woolstencroft (Photo by Patrick Khachfe/Getty Images)

Saracens hooker Tom Woolstencroft has called time on his playing career with immediate effect at the age of 29. The former England U20s front-rower played for Bath and London Irish before switching to Sarries in 2018, going on to win numerous trophies and battling the likes of current England skipper Jamie George for selection.

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A statement read: “Saracens regret to announce that Tom Woolstencroft has retired from rugby with immediate effect. The hooker, who has been one of the great Saracens hookers across his six years at the club. has unfortunately been recovering from concussion for the majority of the 2023/24 campaign and has now been forced into retirement on medical grounds.

“The 29-year-old made 85 appearances after joining in 2018 from London Irish, with his try-scoring record speaking for himself as the master of breaking away from rolling mauls.

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“In his first season at StoneX Stadium, he won the Premiership and Champions Cup double, and he went on to add another Premiership title to his collection in the 2022/23 season.

“He also played a crucial part in helping Saracens’ return to the top flight as he was an ever-present during the Championship-winning campaign in 2021.

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“Woolstencroft’s leadership ability saw him captain the club on a number of occasions, and his battles with the likes of Jamie George and Theo Dan for the No2 shirt have been a crucial part of the success in North London.”

Woolstencroft said: “Coming to terms with having to retire has been tough, particularly when it’s a club like Saracens you are leaving behind. I am proud of my career, and particularly my contributions to this team.

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“Saracens is a club everyone aspires to play for, and to have been involved these last six seasons has been the greatest privilege. The success on the pitch surpassed anything I could have ever wished for, but it’s the time off the field and friendships made that I will cherish the most.

“I have got to thank the coaches for putting their faith in me, and to the medical staff for patching me back together a fair few times. To the supporters, you have always given everything and carried the team and me through tough times, thank you. Sarries will always be home for my wife and I, and we can’t wait to see what this squad can achieve.”

Director of rugby Mark McCall added: “We are of course sad that Tom has had to bring his career to a premature end, but he can look back and be incredibly proud of what he achieved and the high regard he is held in by everyone at the club.

“Tom was a tough, uncompromising player who always led by example, the sort of player you were glad was on your team and not in the opposition. He has contributed enormously to our club over the last six years and we wish him success and happiness in what comes next.”

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J
JW 1 hour ago
How can Scott Robertson revive the All Blacks’ playmaking ‘triple threat’?

Love how you stoke up the fire with these slow burners Nick, great time to let the air into this one too coming into Jordies new home for a few months.


Razor (and possibly Cullen?) is the perfect coach to keep fueling Jordies own flame. Foster on the other hand has to be a people person because he's always trying to douse everyones due to his own lack of enterprise.


I didn't want to nark on the man but we still have Reiks waiting to be ignited as well. His own play when he first moved to center was full of threat and tact. He could cut in just as easily as swing out and had some great ball handling to put people away with. While we haven't seen much more of that since, I think he has at least been working hard on his defence and his books under Foster and Schmidt, and could turn into a Conrad (or even Nonu) one day. I'm not quite so sure Jordie has been making the same progress in the meantime.


I've been really happy with Jordies workons this year however, but that Final was a big learning curve and I've not really sure I've seen the calmness required to pull off Nonu type plays through his career so far. In fact he has often been the opposite and been a bit ropey when he was in more of a playmaker role at 15, I do think he has all the skills and desire to make these sorts of plays though, just having such a wide scope as a 'triple' threat put's a big demand on being able to read the game. So perhaps I might not go too much further than trying to use that big boot, and keeping it simple really. Like Nonu did.


I'm happy with all those 10 and 15 pictures myself, especially the ones where Jordan is playing more of a hand. He is someone who certainly could do with some sort of 'double' threat to help his line breaking ability and I certainly think he has some sort of innate skill to do the right thing. Sadly it's not going to happen in conjunction with Beaudie I don't think. This is going to be retirement. 2nd start back playing with his old courage (he actually did run the ball after all) and he's concussed again, not good.


Trouble is for this team, it could be a completely different 10, 12, 13. That shouldn't stop Razor from encouraging all the options the All Blacks have in those positions, right now. Also looking forward to Perofeta coming into fullback late instead of BB or Dmac going there.

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