For many big names, it's the end of the road

NE by one, the long-distance men who gave Father Time a serious run for his money have come to the end of their epic journeys.

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From the Andes to the Alps and beyond, their suitably mountainous careers bear witness to levels of endurance far beyond the norm.

Every one of the veteran elite has not merely survived in a punishing arena but thrived in it for as long as 20 years and, in two cases, longer still.

The daddy of them all, Ma'a Nonu, has spent the last few years bouncing in and out of retirement, making Tyson Fury seem a novice at the come-back lark. Once he is done at Toulon any time soon, the longest-lasting All Black of all All Blacks does not intend to be making another.

While we have heard all that before, his trans-Atlantic club, San Diego Legion, confirmed to this column yesterday that Nonu will not be reappearing in Major League Rugby. "He is contracted to us as a player," a spokesperson tells us from California. "We are overjoyed to have him on board as an owner."

In other words, a few injuries too many, and who will be brave, or foolish enough to rule out the owner emerging yet again in his natural habitat centre-stage? Other retirements can be taken as meaning there will be no going back.

Mike Brown, 40 this year, has finally run out of road after 20 seasons, likewise Danny Care, by comparison a slip of a lad at 38, after 21. Between them, they played a thousand competitive matches made all the more so by their very presence.