Family first as Read mulls move overseas
All Blacks captain Kieran Read says he will bring down the curtain on his long and illustrious All Blacks career at the World Cup in Japan next year.
Read, who turned 33 last week, is almost certain he’ll be taking up an overseas contract. What he has not sorted out yet is where he will be going.
Read and his wife Bridget have three young children and they have always wanted to have an overseas experience together.
They want to have it before their children get too far into their schooling and 2020 is seen as the perfect time.
By that stage Read will be 34 and have completed his third World Cup — having been part of the victorious teams in 2011 and 2015.
He will have played close to 50 tests as captain, been World Player of the Year in 2013, won Super Rugby titles with the Crusaders and played in a British Lions series.
There will be no major goal left to chase and it’s not realistic to imagine he could push on to 2023.
So the time will be right to follow in the footsteps of Daniel Carter, Ma’a Nonu and Conrad Smith who all retired from the All Blacks after the last World Cup at the same age Read will be next year and took up offshore contracts.
“Yeah I have,” he says about whether he has thought about what he will do after next year’s World Cup.
“So for me I think it probably won’t be in New Zealand. We have always thought as a family that we would like to go overseas and use that experience for the kids. That is probably the main option at the moment.”
The prospect of retiring from all rugby has ventured on to his radar but he says that’s not a preference.
If his body holds up he would rather try to eke out one or two more seasons and it will most likely be somewhere in Europe.
Read’s decision to step down as All Blacks captain will intensify the career planning of Sam Whitelock.
Whitelock will be favoured to succeed Read as the long-term captain. But he is also off contract after the 2019 World Cup and while he’s contemplating making a four-year recommitment to New Zealand through to the 2023 World Cup, he is discussing playing a sabbatical in Japan as part of the negotiation.