Welsh legend George North, a player rich with moments, bows out of international rugby
The 31-year-old Welsh icon calls time on his 14-year international career, which began with two tries on debut against South Africa back in 2010 and ends against Italy this Saturday.
The complete moment lasts no more than six seconds. Brian O’Driscoll, wearing the British and Irish Lions jersey for the final time, flings the ball between his legs to 21-year-old George North in the 60th minute of the Lions’ second test against Australia in 2013.
A rushing Israel Folau, on his second test for the Wallabies, smothers the Welshman and seemingly douses the Lions’ attack.
An armless North wrestles the Australian winger and manages to leverage his hulking 6ft 4in frame under Folau’s impressive build and free a single arm. With a swiftness he makes look effortless, North hoists him onto his right shoulder and carts him to the halfway line like a red dump truck, a feat that is as imposing as it is entertaining.
Listen to the roar of the Lions tourists reverberate around Docklands Stadium in Melbourne in those brief few seconds and it’s easy to forget that Australia won that game, or that North’s iconic stunt ended with him clutching his head on the ground as a medic attended to him. Those are tangential threads in this tapestry, unimportant parts of a moment now etched in rugby union’s chronicles.
That is, in truth, what defines and immortalises an athlete, moments. It is not solely their accolades and trophies. Are broken records and unbeatable statistics important? Of course. But moments are the true currency of an everlasting legacy.
North, 31, has announced his retirement from international rugby ahead of Wales' clash with Italy, in which he'll earn his 119th cap for Cymru.
He leaves test rugby as a man rich with moments. A modern great of Welsh rugby who sits third on Wales’ all-time caps list behind Alun Wyn Jones and Gethin Jenkins, and second to Shane Williams on the all-time try-scoring list. A Premiership win, four Six Nations titles and two World Cup semi-finals all stick out on his glittering resume.
He is still a tender age even in the demanding arena of test rugby but North has played at the highest level since his debut for Wales at 18, scoring twice against South Africa. At that time, he had made only six competitive appearances for the Scarlets, scoring four tries.
Former Wales wing Shane Williams called him “a monster of a young man” before his debut. Parc Y Scarlets called him “the freak.
When North first received the ball against South Africa an unrecognisable voice from the Welsh contingent could be heard shouting “Go batter him, George,” before the youngster pushed Springboks Bjorn Basson and Frans Steyn back roughly five metres with the ball in his hand.
Today, wingers with North’s build are more commonplace but 14 years ago he was an outlier. 6ft 4in and easily over 100kg at 18, test rugby wasn’t ready for him.
It is not what an athlete leaves with, but what they leave behind that cements themselves in their sport’s pantheon. By that logic, North will deserve his place alongside the greats and legends of Welsh and Lions rugby.
Few, if any, possibly no other, could have made that scene with Folau. North represented a perfect blend of genetics and technique. He runs like a sprinter, lifting and driving his knees high, a mechanical proficiency he owes to incredible hip and upper leg strength. His excellent running technique combined with pure power and brawn reminded many of rugby’s first global superstar, New Zealand’s Jonah Lomu.
His conquest of Folau, an effort made even more enjoyable after the former Wallaby’s homophobic rant on social media in 2019, was not the only defining moment of North’s tour. His try in the first test in Brisbane, which the Lions won 23-21, is one of the great tries in the Lions’ modern era. As he caught Berrick Barnes’ kick shortly inside the Lions’ half a single thought floated in his mind, “run.”
Pat McCabe and James O’Connor hit the deck as they tried to stop him, his quick feet stepping into a gap between them. Barnes joined them on the turf as he tried to stop North by the ankles. Then it was the turn of Australia’s talismanic Will Genia to, in his own words, “eat grass.”
The wonder try is one of the greatest scored in test rugby but as North inched to the line the emotion overcame him, he quickly turned his head and pointed to Genia, throwing down the gauntlet to the nine and the entire Wallabies party.
The gesture may be viewed with disdain by those who cherish rugby union’s traditional mantra of respect but it is the cherry on top of a glorious moment.
Yet it’s a garnish that North himself regretted, almost instantly. "I got caught up in the emotion of the try. Looking back I feel horrendous for doing it now. I'll have to live with that and take it on the chin,” he said soon after the first test.
Therein lies a key part of North’s character. He’s a player with the undeniable instinct for seizing the spotlight. Made to deliver the highlights, built for the big moments and the instinct to amplify them, but imbued with a taut humility that brings him back down to earth. From his Wales debut to the Lions tour in 2013, North’s career was a flurry of rising to the occasion.
That humility returned to the fore as North announced his retirement ahead of Wales’ clash with Italy this week, telling journalists in a midweek press conference “I think there’ll be a few people saying that I had a few caps too many.”
In a way, he’s right. When the spotlight of reflection turns from his achievements to his challenges, the persistent and ugly shadow of head injuries and concussions comes into the frame.
That North will bow out with almost 120 Welsh caps is in itself a marvel, to do so on his own terms is certainly something to be celebrated.
Perhaps no other player in rugby’s modern era has faced calls for retirement more than North himself. He quickly became a poster boy for rugby’s head injury dilemma as high-profile concussions mounted throughout his career.
A stretch of four head injuries in the space of five months between November 2014 and March 2015 was particularly gruelling, and led to him spending five months out of the game in 2015. Those pieces of brilliance from his early years felt like a long time ago.
The true number of bangs to the head he’s experienced in his time on the pitch cannot be quantified, less so the number of sub-concussive hits - impacts that fall below the concussion threshold and don’t show symptoms, but contribute to CTE and head injuries just as much.
For a player whose game was so centred on dominating his opposite man in contact the perceived ease with which North began to pick up head injuries was incredibly worrying. Former teammate and Wales captain Sam Warburton has suggested that the knocks affected North’s confidence in contact.
For North to not only persist, perhaps even stubbornly, through a cluster of head collisions but to evolve and reinvent himself is proof of a work ethic and durability matched by few.
Once a golden boy in a golden generation of Welsh talent, the winger-turned-centre has relished his role as an experienced leader. He chose not to chase past glories but to make new ones as a new version of himself.
In a Welsh side that has witnessed some historic lows in the last few years, North has consistently been a standout in the centre and has formed a robust partnership with Nick Tompkins in the midfield.
It feels as though North has been around forever. He is just 31-years-old but so battle-scarred that he may as well be 37, the age at which Alun Wyn Jones retired last year.
The moments of magic may be behind him, and who knows if he’ll cap his exit with a try or a captivating piece of individualism that his younger self would be proud of. It doesn’t matter really, he has banked more than enough of those over the past 14 years that when he steps off the Principality Stadium pitch for a final time this weekend, he does so as a veritable legend of Welsh rugby.