“When a player gets to 30, so does his body.”
We can’t be completely certain that the former England football manager Glenn Hoddle won insight of the month for that line back in the day, but the suspicion is it might have been struggle.
How important is age in rugby today?
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Warren Gatland has just named a Wales squad for the Six Nations which contains 13 players aged 30 or older, with a captain who has just blown out 36 candles on his birthday cake. Ken Owens has been playing professionally since 2006, a time when Tony Blair was still prime minister, Bolton were riding high in the Premier League and Dafydd Jenkins had yet to start school.
Alun Wyn Jones is 16 months his senior, at 37.
Phil Bennett retired from Test rugby at just 29, later saying he wanted to be remembered as he had been in his prime, which is fair enough. But a decade or so later, Benny was still fit and displaying skills in golden oldies’ matches that made you wonder whether he could still do a job in the senior game.
People have been writing off Jones for a number of years but when he played against Australia in the autumn he was one of the top-performing players on the field. He has played 65 times for his country since passing the age of 30. Arguably, his peak year came in 2019, when he was 34. He keeps himself in condition, does everything by the book and still retains his enthusiasm.
Then there is Justin Tipuric, a player who has been performing at an extraordinary level for the Ospreys of late. Last weekend against Montpellier he made 16 tackles, carried for 17 metres, made four passes, won two line-outs, contested ball at the breakdown and scored a try for the ages, one that saw him pick up off his toes, put in a diagonal kick, support play and then expertly gather Keelan Giles’ cross kick to finish. Someone on social media called the skills “uncoachable”, another poster said Tipuric should be prime minister. Whatever your view, it was a special score, and a special performance.
Another foremost member of the old guard, Taulupe Faletau, has also been playing some of his best rugby, in his case for Cardiff. Dan Biggar is now at Toulon after a successful spell at Northampton Saints. How much was he missed by Wales in the autumn when injured? Three defeats in four matches tells a story.
As a newly-installed captain, Owens is now firmly on course for a fourth World Cup, while Faletau will probably be the first name on the team-sheet. Tipuric and Biggar shouldn’t be far behind. Jones? He’s looking good to be there as well.
But the golden rule for every player in a Gatland squad is never to take anything for granted. Ask Adam Jones, Mike Phillips and Jamie Roberts, all wonderful players who always gave everything for the cause, but who saw their Wales careers end agonisingly short of 100 caps for their country. Sentiment didn't come into it, the Sir Alex Ferguson mantra. It was about doing what the boss felt what was right for the team, whether others liked it or not.
This time, eight months out from a World Cup, Gatland doesn't have much time to develop too many younger options, so he has placed his faith in a number of seasoned warriors, despite previously mentioning the “age profile” of the squad.
For Leigh Halfpenny and Rhys Webb, who are both 34, a big campaign awaits. Both deserve huge credit for making it back into the set-up.
Some doubted whether Halfpenny would play again after the full-back sustained a major knee injury while on duty for Wales against Canada in the summer of 2021. Five months shy of his 33rd birthday, he could have been forgiven for deciding enough was enough, that there were easier ways to make a living. But Gorseinon’s finest has resilience in his DNA and embarked on a long-haul recovery which earned its reward with a cap during an injury-haunted November and now this, his inclusion in Gatland’s Six Nations squad.
Webb has also refused to give in. Like Halfpenny, he wouldn’t take no for an answer. When everything screamed at him that the previous regime didn’t feel he was good enough, with omissions from any number of squads, Webb kept playing well for the Ospreys, battling in adversity at times last season, marshalling the team superbly this term. For character alone, he deserves to be back in the fold.
There will be a spotlight on him and Halfpenny, though, and Gatland will be keen to see if they can still do it after so little Test rugby of late. Both having been around a long time, they will reason that it goes with the territory. Anyone who plays the international game is under scrutiny, especially in the digital age when the whole world seemingly has a megaphone.
The same will apply to Alex Cuthbert, who is enjoying a renaissance in his career at the age of 32. He is big and he can finish, as he showed against Montpellier last weekend, while also having aerial skills. He gives Wales size and balance in the back three, and he has experience. So many boxes ticked, then, but throughout his career Cuthbert has had to justify himself at Test level. Gatland is not a man to take too much heed of outside chatter, though. If his form is good, it would be a surprise if Cuthbert didn’t make the panel for France in the autumn.
Now 31 — where have all the years gone? — Liam Williams will also be involved, provided he can stay fit. Is it the way he plays the game, fearless and with total commitment, that has seen him pick up so many injuries over the years? Probably not. Some players are just unlucky. But Gatland views Williams as a Test animal.
Making up the baker’s dozen of seasoned stars in Gatland’s squad, there are four 30-year-olds: George North, Owen Williams, Wyn Jones and Tomas Francis.
Someone really needs to slow down the march of time if we are classing North as a veteran. But with 109 Wales caps and a Test career which has spanned 12 years and counting, the centre has forgotten more than some will ever learn in international rugby. Gatland will value him hugely, though, for he has both size and speed and has never stopped working at his game.
North has courage as well. Rewind to the final play in the Ospreys v Montpellier game last weekend, with the Welsh team desperately clinging on as the French champions went for the converted try which could have won them the game. North was returning after a horrendous facial injury which left him with four fractures around an eye socket and cheekbone. But he still locked himself over the ball in those final seconds to affect a game-settling turnover. It was a moment which said much about him. Not all would have been brave enough to put themselves in harm’s way in their first game back after injury.
Jones is a Gatland favourite to the point where he has been picked on the strength of just 28 minutes of rugby in three months, underlining how strong his World Cup chances are, while Owen Williams earned his selection through his recent form. With his calm game-control and accurate kicking, he looks another one who is set fair for a run in the set-up.
Players don’t automatically lose it after turning 30. Their knowledge built over years gives them a different dimension and they add to their skill sets.
Last year, Dan Lydiate was asked how he compared to the Dan Lydiate who had been named Six Nations player of the tournament in 2012. “If I ask myself that question, I think I’m better than the player I was then,” he replied. “It’s a long time ago and the game has changed a lot. You have to develop as a player. I feel good at the minute.”
Injuries seem to regularly conspire against him, but he showed in South Africa last summer he can still deliver at Test level.
The likes of Jonathan Davies, Johnny McNicholl, Willis Halaholo and Gareth Davies will believe the same of themselves. Balance in any squad is important and youth provides energy and enthusiasm, but experience counts.
“If you asked a lady her age, she’d say it’s just a number,” laughed Ospreys coach Toby Booth last term, when asked whether he checked birthdates or tackle, carry and turnover numbers. “I look at capability. The similarities between, say, someone like Stephen Myler and Dan Lydiate are in their appetite, their professionalism, their desire. They just love the game and they just want to play. Rhys Webb, Alun Wyn Jones, Justin Tipuric — the constant is they love the game and want to compete.”
Ken Owens is cut from the same cloth and so are others mentioned above.
Sporting life doesn’t end when an individual reaches a score of years and 10. Performances matter. Much else doesn't.
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