Brits ready to quit despite his latest vintage display

Around 5pm on Saturday deep in the bowels of Twickenham, hookers Dylan Hartley and Schalk Brits crossed paths sporting vividly different expressions.

Asked to assess the contribution of his opposite number, who had a hand in five of Saracens’ nine tries, Hartley, the Northampton captain, sighed wearily: “I wish I could do some of that stuff.”

Brits is simply a rugby freak. His basketball-style pass to set up Alex Lozowski’s try was wondrous, as was his sleight of hand to free Vincent Koch and set up Sean Maitland’s second score. Since arriving at Saracens in 2009, he has lit up the Premiership and redefined the position of hooker with his allcourt game. At 36, he is embarking on his farewell tour after confirming this will be his last season.

Catch him while you can. The South African, whose tally of 10 international caps confirms everything that is wrong with the Springboks, was talked out of retirement once but is adamant he will be riding off into the sunset in May – or at least taking up a role in accountancy. His off-season alone featured three operations.

“For me it feels like it is the right time – there are younger guys coming through,” Brits said. “It is time to sit back and have a beer and enjoy watching it and not just get bashed up. My mum saw my nose and said, ‘buddy you need to stop, you are not getting prettier.’ Luckily I married young.”

Do not be surprised if Saracens director of rugby Mark Mccall, who describes Brits as the “Peter Pan” of rugby, makes another effort to keep him, although Brits was not alone in playing wonderfully. In Koch, Saracens have another South African front-rower who loves to maraud as well as maul, while flanker Schalk Burger also keeps getting better with age at 34. Maitland, meanwhile, grabbed a first-half hat-trick.

Brits was persuaded to stay on this season as much for his changing-room presence as his playing pyrotechnics. “There was always an inkling to play another one, from a cultural point of view we have lost some big individuals, so I decided to do one more,” Brits said.

While Brits walked away beaming his megawatt smile, Hartley was still coming to terms with how Northampton had been pulverised so completely. If the knives were already out for director of rugby Jim Mallinder after last season’s seventh-place finish, then this leaves his position even more precariously poised. Hartley, though, promised the club will circle the wagons.

“Sarries are a good side but I think we made them look even better with some pretty passive defence,” Hartley said. “It was humbling. We need to keep our heads down and keep working, stick together as a team as we have a big challenge next week in Leicester.”