SOUTH AFRICA’S RECORD try-scorer Bryan Habana will retire at the end of the season.
The wing will turn 35 in June when his contract with Top14 club Toulon expires.
Habana is second on the all-time list of Springbok cap-holders behind Victor Matfield with 124 and his record of 67 Test tries is only surpassed by Japan’s Daisuke Ohata.
Habana, whose tries were key to South Africa’s World Cup victory in 2007, revealed the decision to hang up his boots on Instagram today after struggling to force his way back into the Toulon side following knee surgery last year.
Habana wrote: “The inevitable moment has come knocking on my door and I’ve welcomed it in for a drink.
“It’s been more than a year of hoping, trying, pushing and willing to get back on the field for one last time, to taste the sweet victory or encounter that gut-wrenching despair. To hear the roar of the crowd or grab the pill out of the air.
“To make that last bone crunching tackle or score that last game winning try. But it’s unfortunately just not to be.
I, like most, would have liked my career to have ended differently, but sometimes things don’t turn out quite the way we hope for.
“So at the end of this season, it’s time to say goodbye and thank you to the game I so dearly love.”
Habana has won two European titles and the Top 14 during his time with Toulon and was a two-time Super Rugby champion with the Bulls.
