{"id":11623,"date":"2012-06-19T11:35:08","date_gmt":"2012-06-19T09:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/06\/rugby-australia-lock-sharpe-agrees-to-defer-retirement\/"},"modified":"2012-06-19T11:35:08","modified_gmt":"2012-06-19T09:35:08","slug":"rugby-australia-lock-sharpe-agrees-to-defer-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/rugby-australia-lock-sharpe-agrees-to-defer-retirement\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby-Australia lock Sharpe agrees to defer retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Nick Mulvenney<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

SYDNEY, June 19<\/span> (Reuters) – Experienced Australia lock
\nNathan Sharpe has agreed to delay his retirement until after the
\ninaugural Rugby Championship later this year, coach Robbie Deans
\nsaid on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The 34-year-old, who won his 100th cap at the 2011 World
\nCup, has played in all three of Australia’s tests this year and
\nwas named in the starting line-up for Saturday’s third and final
\ntest against Wales.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Sharpe said in February he would be retiring at the end of
\nhis 15th Super Rugby season in August but has had a change of
\nheart and will play on in the replacement for the Tri-Nations,
\nwhich will also feature Argentina.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“Sharpey’s indicated that he’s willing and keen to play on
\ninto the Rugby Championship so that’s good news for the group,”
\nDeans told reporters.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“He’s vastly experienced, he’s been in this arena for a long
\ntime<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“It is a big decision for Sharpey, he’d made plans around
\nhis life beyond the game and he’s had to put them on hold.
\nThat’s a significant commitment from him. I don’t think it’s an
\nindefinite deferment, though.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Sharpe made his international debut against France in 2002
\nand has played 104 times for his country, including in the 2003
\nWorld Cup final loss to England. He captained the Wallabies
\ntwice.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Australia are likely to be without one of their second row
\noptions, captain James Horwill, for the rest of the season
\nbecause of a hamstring injury and, Sharpe apart, their stocks of
\nexperienced locks are low.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Nick Mulvenney SYDNEY, June 19 (Reuters) – Experienced Australia lock Nathan Sharpe has agreed to delay his retirement until after the inaugural Rugby Championship later this year, coach Robbie Deans said on Tuesday. The 34-year-old, who won his 100th cap at the 2011 World Cup, has played in all three of Australia’s tests this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-11623","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11623\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}