Notre ancien demi d’ouverture et entraîneur des trois-quarts, Brock James, qui avait rejoint son ancien club du Stade Rochelais à l’issue de la saison dernière, pour une dernière saison comme joueur, va prendre sa retraite à la fin de la saison et rentrer en Nouvelle-Zélande. C’est en tout cas ce qu’a annoncé sa femme sur son compte Instagram personnel. A défaut d’avoir trouvé une place d’entraîneur pour la saison prochaine, celui-ci, qui aura porté 16 fois le maillot du Stade Rochelais cette saison et qui se sera vu priver par l’épidémie de Covid-19, d’une fin de carrière face à son ancien club de Clermont lors de la dernière journée de la phase régulière, va quitter la France où il vit depuis 15 ans, pour retrouver les siens.

 

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Where do I begin… Brock – It’s not the way you’d have imagined finishing your French rugby career but what a huge success it’s been and anyone that has watched you, played with you and played against you would agree! You my love – are a LEGEND I get very emotional writing this… we moved to France nearly 15 years ago – for a one year contract. I’ll never forget arriving in Clermont Ferrand thinking where is the beach … We have had 2 beautiful French babies and we’ve been lucky to travel around Europe and have made the most amazing friends that we can call family. It hasn’t all been smooth sailing and it’s not easy living away from loved ones but we did it! We have spent half our lives here and can say all 4 of us are fluent in French (mine does get better with wine) oui oui! We have French passports and citizenship 🇫🇷 meaning we can come back when ever we want – all credit to your hard work. It’s with a very heavy heart to say our French chapters are coming to an end we are super excited to be moving back to NZ, close to our family! We would love to stay in France, but right now there are no coaching roles available. With everything going on in the world I can’t throw Brock the farewell party he deserves but we do hope to see some of you before we leave. Its unlikely he’ll get the chance to play out his final game on French soil with all games on hold. We are here until the end of summer…. thanks for being apart of our journey and to those who have been a part of our lives here in France Brock (my rock) there’s big things coming your way and I’m so proud of you and what you’ve achieved for our family in your no. 10 jersey – on and off the field. I do believe that one day we will be back (who knows maybe head coach at ASM) ❤️😊 MERCI, tears are flowing

Une publication partagée par Libby James (@libbymjames) le 17 Avril 2020 à 11 :32 PDT