Rugby: Australian pillar Sekope Kepu ends his career

Australian prop Sekope Kepu, a 2015 World Cup finalist with the Wallabies and who plays for club Moana Pasifika, announced on Friday that he would retire from sport at the end of the Super Rugby season next month.

“Over the last few weeks, it kind of became clear to me that it was the right time. Everyone who retires says that we know when the time has come,” Kepu, 38 years old, 19 of them as a professional, said in a statement.

The pillar has 110 caps with the Wallabies, and played in three World Cups (2011, 2015 and 2019), including a final lost against New Zealand in 2015. In clubs, he played for a long time at the Waratahs in Sydney, his city native, but also played in Europe, at Bordeaux-Bègles and London Irish. He spent the last three seasons with the Moana Pasifika, a franchise based in New Zealand.