Next season will be not be the same in Welsh rugby. Josh Navidi and Aaron Shingler won't be around as players.
Not exactly a double many Welsh rugby supporters would have wanted served up.
The Wales Grand Slam-winning pair are among those players in Wales who have bowed out in 2022-23 and won’t be seen on the pitch as professionals again.
Read more: Wales international explains why he's staying despite half the clubs in England wanting him
Others could be added to this page when the Ospreys’ list of leavers is confirmed.
But for the time being, here are those who have exited in the campaign that’s just finishing.
Aaron Shingler
Here's some player to start, one who'll be remembered as a Scarlets icon.
Of course he will after 15 seasons and 226 games for his region, including a man-of-the-match performance in the 2017 PRO12 final. James Davies, Jonathan Davies, Steff Evans, Rhys Patchell and others all produced memorable displays on that night of nights in Dublin, but none conjured anything better than the 6ft 6in man who wore the No. 6 jersey for the west Walians.
Whenever Shingler played, Scarlets supporters could rest assured that their team’s lineout would function. When he didn’t play, he was missed.
The former Glamorgan cricketer figured 27 times for Wales at rugby after making his debut against Scotland in the Grand Slam-winning campaign on 2012. There were three appearances the following year when Wales banked another Six Nations title.
Maybe his finest campaign on the international scene came in 2018, with Shingler seen at one point as a potential Wales rugby player of the season. He was also part of the squad that reached the World Cup semi-finals a year later.
Announcing his decision to call it a day as a player, he said: “It’s been an absolute honour to represent this great club for the last 15 years. When I started out playing for my village club Hendy I never dreamt I would have played more than 200 games for the Scarlets and also represented my country on the biggest stage.
“There have been some tough times, some difficult injuries to overcome, but I have loved every minute and I feel immensely proud to have played as many games and for as long as I have.”
He is set to pursue a career in housing development.
Josh Navidi
The end for another player who bows out with a skyscraper-high reputation.
Team-mates enjoyed playing alongside Navidi because he was the embodiment of selflessness: when there was unglamorous work to be done, the back-rower would be the first to put his hand up to do it. He was the cement between the bricks, the player who held it all together, and he never shirked a single task for Cardiff or for Wales.
A serious neck injury forced him to call time on his playing days.
He had sustained the injury while playing for Wales against South Africa in the third Test in 2022. There were hopes that he might return, but also whispers suggesting he wouldn’t and so it was that he recently announced he was finishing after 184 Cardiff outings and 33 Tests for his country.
“Where the hell did you find that guy?” then New Zealand coach Steve Hansen is said to have asked when he first caught sight of the flanker playing for Wales in 2017.
He had been impressed by the Wales No. 7’s all-action display that day.
It was no one-off. Navidi always played that way.
Welsh rugby's 2018 player of the year, he played a prominent role in Wales’ Six Nations Grand Slam of 2019 and their title-winning success of 2021 and was part of the squad that reached the World Cup semi-finals that year. There was also a Lions call in 2017.
“It is with great sadness but also an immense amount of pride that I am announcing my retirement from rugby,” he said. “Although I knew this day would come eventually, I don’t think I was ever really able to prepare myself for how difficult it would be to put into words just how much of an impact the game has had on my life.”
He is involved in Cute Club, a car dealership.
Alex Jeffries
The former Wales U20s loose-head prop is finishing at the Scarlets after four seasons with the west Walians. The east Walian enjoyed a distinguished Welsh Premiership career and also proved a popular squad member with the Ospreys and Dragons, as well as the Scarlets. He is retiring as a player because of a back injury.
Josh Helps
Narberth-born Helps announced he was packing in as a professional player last autumn, having made 41 appearances for the Scarlets after his debut in 2015.
At the time he said: “It is something I have been thinking about for a while. I joined the Academy in 2011 and being able to play professionally and continue the journey with a lot of players from my age-grade rugby has been fantastic.
“Being a member of the squad that won the title in 2017 was special, as was representing the Scarlets at the top level of Europe – playing against Racing in Paris in their new arena was one of the standout games for me.
“But as I said, the big thing was being able to represent my home region and playing alongside a number of boys who I had played alongside in the Scarlets age-grade groups, the likes of Ryan Elias, Javan, Tom Phillips, Dinky (Dan Jones), Steff Hughes and Steff Evans — that has been the real highlight for me.”
He has since dropped down a grade of rugby to represent Carmarthen Quins, making 17 appearances this summer.
Off the field, he indicated his intention to pursue a career as a financial advisor.
Blade Thomson
He’s another who has left the scene because of injury, in his case after a head knock, one of several such bumps the mobile and athletic back rower suffered over the years.
But Thomson enjoyed his time in Welsh rugby.
He made 54 appearances after arriving at the Scarlets in 2018. A player who unfailingly put his body on the line, he played with considerable skill and was a popular member of the squad. Dwayne Peel dubbed the affable Aucklander as “one of the best technical forwards” he has coached. Many in New Zealand felt he could have been an All Black but for injuries. Instead, he came to Britain and featured for Scotland, qualifying via his paternal grandfather and winning 10 caps.
His call to quit had much to commend it amid his history of head knocks.
A return to New Zealand beckoned.
Cory Allen
Allen may have had to finish prematurely because of injury, but during his career he did something not many people ever get to do, namely score a try hat-trick in a World Cup match. His game against Uruguay in 2015.
He had made his bow for Cardiff as a teenager in 2011 and he played for Wales U20s and Wales Sevens before the long-striding centre or wing earned a senior team call in 2013.
There were to be six caps all told.
Sadly, Allen had more than his fair share of injuries, with the one that cut short his playing days occuring while he was on duty for the Ospreys in 2019. A lengthy fight to save his career followed, but just before Christmas last term, while on the Dragons’ books, he announced he had made the call to finish.
Jason Harries
Announced the Judgement Day game for Cardiff against the Ospreys would be his last, putting out a classy social media post in which he thanked those who had helped him over the years.
He then went out and banged in a big performance, exiting on high as his team secured a Heineken Champions Cup place for next season.
His rugby journey had started out in west Wales, where he was part of the Scarlets academy before he was summoned by Wales Sevens. There was also action for his local side Carmarthen Quins. A call to London Scottish came prior to a switch to Edinburgh and then to Cardiff, where supporters appreciated his whole-hearted displays.
While he has finished as a professional, he teasingly indicated in his post he hasn’t set aside his boots yet.
Kristian Dacey
The Wales international bowed out after 202 games spread over 13 seasons with Cardiff.
There were also eight caps for Wales, including a start in the win over South Africa in 2017 when he opposed arguably the world’s best hooker in Malcolm Marx. In the same year, he linked with the British and Irish Lions on their tour of New Zealand.
Cardiff fans enjoyed what the Merthyr man offered because he gave his all every time he took the field.
His impressive try-scoring record would see him become the club’s leading try-scoring forward since the introduction of regional rugby in 2003.
He told the club’s website when he made his decision to finish: “As the saying goes ‘all good things must come to an end’ and It is with great pride I have decided to call time on my career as a professional rugby player.
“Reaching the milestone of 200 caps for Cardiff Rugby is something I am immeasurably proud of and I have never taken for granted a single time I was able to wear the jersey.
“I have made incredible memories with incredible people. Winning the European Challenge Cup final in Bilbao, captaining the team to a win against a full hit Toulouse team out in Toulouse and beating Toulon in a bouncing Arms Park are among countless memories I will cherish forever.
“Being selected and playing for Wales is, and always will be, a huge honour and one of my proudest achievements. Playing against New Zealand after facing the Haka and beating South Africa in a sold out Principality Stadium are memories that will live with me forever. Being called into the British and Irish lions tour in 2017 was an unbelievable experience, training with and being coached by legends of the game was a priceless experience that I know I was unbelievably lucky to have had.”
Stephen Myler
Myler is the Englishman who never went downhill but built a mountain of points over a wonderful club career that finished with a stint at the Ospreys.
It was the fly-half's calm, knowledge and presence that made him such a popular member of the south-west Wales region’s squad.
He knew how to shape rugby matches on the field and his long career in professional sport had taught him how to prepare and conduct himself off it and his influence was appreciated by all at the Ospreys. “Stephen has served us with the utmost distinction since signing and we wish him nothing but the best in his future endeavours.” said Ospreys head coach Toby Booth when Myler indicated he was leaving.
“He has done so much for the Ospreys on the pitch, coming up big for us in decisive moments and controlling the game, but his work off the pitch is what has really set him apart.”
Myler said his playing career, which saw him switch from rugby league and play Test rugby for England and club rugby for Northampton Saints, London Irish and the Ospreys, had been “everything I hoped for, and more”.
A nice way to bow out, indeed.
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