Beware, 27 has become a dangerous age for stars

IF I was a betting man I would wager that Julian Savea – who currently finds himself surplus to requirements with New Zealand – will eventually get his mojo back and return for the All Blacks. But it would be a very modest bet indeed. History shows us that the age of 27 is not a good time for a star wing and try-scorer to drop out of favour, even one who has scored 46 tries in 54 Tests.

An extraordinary, seemingly disproportionate, number of quick men and strike runners seems to fall from grace at the age of 27 which is, of course, the age when a stack of hard living or troubled rock stars seems to leave us rather more permanently. The so-called 27 club – Jimmy Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Brian Jones, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Amy Winehouse et al.

Joe Rokocoko was the Julian Savea of the noughties scoring 46 tries in 68 Tests until the axe unexpectedly came at the age of 27 at the end of the All Blacks November tour in 2010. Rokocoko still had plenty of rugby left in him as he has demonstrated with both Bayonne and Racing Metro 92 in recent years.

Another phenomenal try scorer at all level and all stages of his career, Chris Ashton, is beginning the final stage of his career in Toulon where he is considered ineligible to play Test rugby. Ashton made the last of his 53 Test appearances – 22 tries – against New Zealand in 2014 aged 27. We won’t, alas, see him in an England shirt again.

Ben Cohen was a hugely underrated member of that great England team under Clive Woodward, a deadly wing when in his pomp. Cohen amassed 31 tries in 57 Tests – many of them crackers – when he suddenly fell out of favour with his last Test, aged 27, coming against South Africa in November 2006. After that Cohen played out the last five years of his career quietly with Brive and then Sale.

For some it was injury or illness that struck. Jonah Lomu was capped at 18 in 1994 and although details of his serious kidney condition emerged in 1996 he continued, between bouts of illness and hospitalisation, to monster opposition Test defences. At the age of 27, however, he finally had to concede his body could take no more at the top level. By then he had garnered 37 tries in 63 Test matches despite being the most marked player in rugby history.

Simon Geoghegan can’t match any of the try scoring pyrotechnics above – mainly because Ireland during his pomp so rarely gave him the ball – but he was a spectacular presence on the wing before a persistent foot problem finally got the better of him at the age of 27. He had so much more to give.

I’ve got a horrible feeling the 27 club probably extends to fly-halves as well. Without digging too deep I can already think of Barry John, retired aged 27 for personal reasons, while Danny Cipriani was last capped by England in a warm up game for the 2015 World Cup aged 27. Can he ever get back? It looks unlikely.

Meanwhile 27 was the age Nick Evans also decided to up sticks and leave New Zealand and make his home here after the 2007 World Cup.

Perhaps the simple truth is 27 can, for many people, be a pivotal age when careers start taking a turn for the better or worse. For the unlucky ones it can be when you start losing your gas or nerve or your battered body starts falling to bits. It can also be the age when you need to start making proper grown up adult decisions about your future and where and how you intend to live your life.

All that probably comes into play, but whatever the case you can be sure that the current crop of 27-year-old speed merchants – Jonny May, Simon Zebo, Alex Cuthbert and Duncan Taylor to name a handful – will be keen to get through to 28 with their international careers intact.

“An extraordinary number of quick men and strike runners seems to fall from grace at the age of 27”