Saracens wing David Strettle: It’s time to retire when your team-mates haven’t heard of Ghost!

Fearsome finisher: David Strettle scores against Glasgow in March
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Will Macpherson25 April 2019

There were a few moments this season that made David Strettle feel old and realise retirement was close. There was remembering that he played with the father of his 27-year-old Saracens club-mate Owen Farrell. Or there was the time a team-mate had never heard of rugby league legend Martin Offiah, or the other who did not know of the 1990 film Ghost.

“That’s when you know,” says Strettle, who is 36 in July and announced this week that he will retire at the end of his 17th year as a professional. The announcement came three days after a mighty performance in the Champions Cup semi-final against Munster.

Certainly, Strettle is leaving fans when he still has more to offer, but a Champions Cup Final offers a chance to win a trophy he never has across four seasons with each of Rotherham and Quins, five with Sarries, three with French club Clermont and this swansong back in London, which he describes as “truly a dream come true”.

“Going to France was a beautiful experience,” he says. “I had accepted I would retire there, so to get one more year here, I’m not stupid enough not to appreciate that. I came back because I wanted a challenge. I had a reputation here, a level that people expected of me. I had to show I hadn’t just been eating baguettes for three years! I wanted to show I was the player that left and give the coaches some selection headaches. I like to think that’s happened.

“Sport is funny. There aren’t many jobs you get worse with age. You can understand everything about it but the body can just give up. Also, in the real world, as you get older you become more high-ranking. Not in sport. If an 18-year-old rocks up and is better, the job is his. That would never happen in an office. That keeps you level and is humbling.”

From his Rotherham debut, back before England won the World Cup in 2003, to today, Strettle has watched rugby change markedly. He was doing a sports science degree at Sheffield University then.

“Players of my generation had a life before rugby,” he says. “University, or a profession. Now the academies being so professional means there aren’t many who go down that route.”

The only thing he would change is “to enjoy playing for England more” when he won his 14 caps between 2007-13. He cites winning Saracens’ first Premiership in 2011 as a career high, along with his Clermont exit.

“After the final game of the season, the departing players address the crowd, which is a test of your French,” he explains. “In a game against Ospreys, I’d scored two good tries and the crowd started chanting my name. It was amazing, but I didn’t think anything of it until we were in training the next week and the boys said they’d never seen that before, especially for quite a new player.

“I’m getting goosebumps telling this story! Anyway, it’s my turn to address them. I’m holding my little boy Leo, who was born that week, and my daughter Isla, who was 18 months. My wife is there. As I get given the mic, the whole place starts chanting ‘Davide!’ again. I was happy because they could not hear my French, but that was so special.”

‘Transition’ is perhaps sport’s most fashionable word and Strettle admits retirement is “daunting”. He has property interests but could decide to work in rugby.

“You’ve been immersed in it all your life,” he says. “The important thing is knowing that a network (of former players) is there. That’s what you miss. So many old pros have told me that it’s not the game you miss, it’s being with your mates.”

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