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Candid Clerc says it's "scary" as former France wing closes in on retirement

Vincent Clerc, in action for France in 2012

Former France wing Vincent Clerc has announced he will retire at the end of the season with Toulon.

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Clerc enjoyed an 11-year international career with Les Bleus between 2002 and 2013 and was part of three Six Nations winning sides during that period.

He was part of the squad that reached the last four of the 2007 World Cup, and starred at the finals four years later, scoring six tries before France finished as runners-up to New Zealand.

A three-time European champion with Toulouse, Clerc moved to Toulon ahead of last season but revealed on Tuesday that 2017-18 would be his final campaign as a professional.

Also winner of the Top 14 on three occasions with his former club, Clerc is targeting one more domestic title with Toulon to create the fairytale ending to his career.

 

“Here it is, I decided to put an end to my career at the end of the season,” the 36-year-old said in a YouTube video posted via his Twitter account.

“Almost one year ago, I thought everything was over when I got an Achilles injury, I thought about stopping everything, but deep down I had a feeling that history wasn’t finished, that I still had a chapter left to write.

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“And I thought, I worked every day, finally, slowly, with patience and perseverance, I had the chance to do one more season at this level.

“It’s true that I’m going to miss a lot of things: friends, adrenaline, competition, the fans, that’s for sure. What I’ll remember is that for years I lived a childhood dream.

“I was incredibly well surrounded, helped, and with every step of this adventure I realise that it’s the last weeks, the last matches, the last finals.

“It’s scary but it motivates me: I realise that I have the same excitement that I’m ready, that I want to go and get one more title.

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“Nothing is altered and I still have the same motivation and if I could go get a last trophy, because it’s definitely among my best souvenirs and emotions, to go and get a last shield before I leave would be the greatest way to put an end to my career.”

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J
JW 2 hours ago
'Let's not sugarcoat it': Former All Black's urgent call to protect eligibility rules

Yep, no one knows what will happen. Thing is I think (this is me arguing a point here not a random debate with this one) they're better off trialing it now in a controlled environment than waiting to open it up in a knee jerk style reaction to a crumbling organtization and team. They can always stop it again.


The principle idea is that why would players leave just because the door is ajar?


BBBR decides to go but is not good enough to retain the jersey after doing it. NZ no longer need to do what I suggest by paying him to get back upto speed. That is solely a concept of a body that needs to do what I call pick and stick wth players. NZR can't hold onto everyone so they have to choose their BBBRs and if that player comes back from a sabbatical under par it's a priority to get him upto speed as fast as possible because half of his competition has been let go overseas because they can't hold onto them all. Changing eligibility removes that dilemma, if a BBBR isn't playing well you can be assured that someone else is (well the idea is that you can be more assured than if you only selected from domestic players).


So if someone decides they want to go overseas, they better do it with an org than is going to help improve them, otherwise theyre still basically as ineligible as if they would have been scorning a NZ Super side that would have given them the best chance to be an All Black.

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