Leigh Halfpenny will retire from professional rugby at the end of the current season – drawing the curtain on a glittering 18-year professional career.
The legendary Cardiff, Wales and British & Irish Lions full-back returned to the Arms Park last summer, bringing his remarkable career full circle.
Since making his first debut for Cardiff, against Ulster Rugby, in 2008, Halfpenny toured three times with the Lions, winning four Test caps, won two Six Nations titles, including a Grand Slam, reached two Rugby World Cup semi-finals and won both the European Champions and Challenge Cup.
Cardiff Rugby life president Sir Gareth Edwards said: “It’s inevitable that every player comes to the end of their career, but I am genuinely saddened to see Leigh finish this season.
“He has achieved so much in the game and undoubtedly goes down as one of the game’s greatest players.
“He is someone I have admired, respected and enjoying watching over the years, and even more so as a player from Cardiff.
“A prodigious goal-kicker and an outstanding full-back. He was absolutely outstanding in that first stint for the club, where he enjoyed so much success and typically gave his all in every moment.
Halfpenny achievements:
- 101 Wales Caps (801 points)
- Four Lions Test matches across three tours.
- Lions man-of-the-series against Australia in 2013
- Amlin Challenge Cup winner
- EDF Energy Cup winner
- Heineken Cup winner
- Six Nations winner (2012 & 2013)
- Grand Slam 2013
- Six Nations Player of the Tournament (2013)
- World Cup semi-finalist (2011 & 2019)
“He sits among right among the finest players to have pulled on the Blue & Black and can be incredibly proud of everything he has achieved in the game.
“Off the pitch, his personality also makes him such a likeable young man. He is so humble and always has time for people, even in the chaos sometimes brought by his stature in the game.
“Everyone at Cardiff wishes Leigh, Jess and their family the very best for the next chapter. We all feel very fortunate that he spent so much of his career here.”
Halfpenny initially came through the Ospreys pathway but after missing out on an academy contract, made the switch to Cardiff Arms Park.
From overcoming that first set-back he never looked back and enjoyed a stratospheric rise to become one of the world’s finest players.
Between 2007 and 2014, Halfpenny made 87 appearances for Cardiff and scored 568 points. He was instrumental in the club winning the Amlin Challenge Cup and the EDF Energy Cup, as well as reaching the Heineken Cup semi-final.
After joining Toulon, Halfpenny got his hands on that illusive Heineken Cup, before spending six seasons with the Scarlets and enjoying stints at Crusaders in New Zealand, and Harlequins.
Halfpenny returned “home” to Cardiff during the current season and played his first game for the Blue and Blacks in 4,347 days, again against Ulster in a Challenge Cup win in December.
Cardiff have two more regular season fixtures in the URC, in which Halfpenny could feature, Glasgow this weekend in Scotland and DHL Stormers at the Arms Park a week Friday.