FORMER ALL BLACK Luke McAlister, who spent the last seven seasons in the French Top 14, announced today that he is retiring at the age of 34.
“I have called it a day on my rugby career,” McAlister wrote in an Instagram post. “It’s been one hell of a ride, 17 years travelling the globe doing what I love.”
McAlister could play fly-half or centre. For New Zealand he was in competition with Dan Carter for the No. 10 shirt and started at centre in the 2007 World Cup. His yellow card in the quarter-final in Cardiff coincided with the start of France’s match-winning second-half comeback.
After the World Cup, he moved to Sale in England but returned to New Zealand, and to the All Blacks, when he joined North Harbour and the Auckland Blues in 2009. But he fell out of international favour that year. He won 30 caps.
McAlister joined Toulouse in 2011. He moved to Toulon in 2017 but finished last season with a loan stint at Clermont.
McAlister won Super Rugby in 2003 with the Blues, three Southern Hemisphere Rugby Championships (2006, 2007 and 2009) with the All Blacks and a French title in 2012.
