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The 28-year-old South African who turned his back on Top 14 to farm sheep and goats

(Photo by Steve Haag/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

Ex-South African under-20s international Paul Jordaan is finished with professional rugby at just the age of 28. It was last May, just two months after agreeing on a contract extension through to 2021, that La Rochelle announced that the Junior World Cup-winning centre was leaving. Now, eleven months later he has confirmed he is finished with the sport for a life on the farm.

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Jordaan arrived in Europe in 2016 following five Super Rugby seasons with the Sharks and his initial two years at La Rochelle were highly productive. Injuries became an issue in his third year, yet the club still offered him an agreement that somehow wound up getting torn up within a matter of weeks.

At the time of his sudden departure, Jordaan remained mysterious about the reasons for his choice. “What an adventure,” he posted at the time. “A place that has helped me grow not only as a player but also as a person. 

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“I have had immense disappointments and joys over the past three years, both on the field and outside. I made incredible friends who are now my family. Each of you has had an impact on my life in one way or another, I am very grateful to you.”

Eleven months on, he has finally lifted the lid on his surprise exit, telling sarugbymag.co.za that he has no regrets about quitting. “I feel like I left rugby on my own terms, on my own decision. I’m now doing something I really like, so it was not that difficult,” he said, explaining why he decided to settle on the family farm near Durban.

“We raise sheep and goats. We have a few Kalahari red goats and we also have a hunting trip business with American customers, but the past few years have been difficult for the company. We are emerging from a period of five years of drought. For a long time now, I wanted to come back and help. 

“I’m done (with rugby). I decided it was time to hang up my boots and start my life after rugby. When you are a player, you live in a bubble and many boys leave it too late. I don’t want to make this mistake. I feel like it was the right time for me to leave the rugby scene and start my next life.”

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J
JW 34 minutes ago
Why England's defence of the realm has crumbled without Felix Jones

This piece is nothing more than the result of revisionist fancy of Northern Hemisphere rugby fans. Seeing what they want to see, helped but some surprisingly good results and a desire to get excited about doing something well.


I went back through the 6N highlights and sure enough in every English win I remembered seeing these exact holes on the inside, that are supposedly the fallout out of a Felix Jones system breaking down in the hands of some replacement. Every time the commentators mentioned England being targeted up the seam/around the ruck or whatever. Each game had a try scored on the inside of the blitz, no doubt it was a theme throughout all of their games. Will Jordan specifically says that Holland had design that move to target space he saw during their home series win.


Well I'm here to tell you they were the same holes in a Felix Jones system being built as well. This woe is now sentiment has got to stop. The game is on a high, these games have been fantastic! It is Englands attack that has seen their stocks increase this year, and no doubt that is what SB told him was the teams priority. Or it's simply science, with Englands elite players having worked towards a new player welfare and management system, as part of new partnership with the ERU, that's dictating what the players can and can't put their bodies through.


The only bit of truth in this article is that Felix is not there to work on fixing his defence. England threw away another good chance of winning in the weekend when they froze all enterprise under pressure when no longer playing attacking footy for the second half. That mindset helped (or not helped if you like) of course by all this knee jerk, red brained criticism.

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