Jimmy Gopperth faced up to the brutal reality of rugby’s financial crisis as he braced himself to join the jobless.
Gopperth has been a match winner for 20 years at the highest level of the club game, good enough to replace Jonny Wilkinson at Newcastle and Johnny Sexton at Leinster.
At Wasps he was Premiership player of the year while in his one season at Leicester he has helped the champions reach the play-offs.
Even at 39 the future should be rosy for a player approaching 500 top-flight appearances and 4,000 points. Yet the New Zealander is headed for a world of uncertainty.
At the end of a season in which two Premiership clubs have gone bust, the players made redundant at Worcester and Wasps are being joined by a new wave from clubs unable to fit them inside the reduced £5 million salary cap.
An average of 10 to 12 are going from each club and will be lost to the English top flight. Gopperth does not pretend the process is anything but painful.
“It is very difficult, I’m not going to lie,” said the fly-half. “Rugby is not in a great place at the moment.
“I have never known a year when so many have retired, either because they can’t find jobs or they [salaries] have been slashed to such a level that they’re better off going 9-5 and building a new career.
“We’re privileged to be in this profession but for it to be cut short, based not talent but salary issues, is really disappointing - especially when you see France and Japan doing alright and Ireland doing very fine.”
Gopperth is a month and a half away from achieving his goal of playing Premiership rugby past his 40th birthday and won't give up on his dream.
He has known his fate since late January but rather than let it affect his game he has taken the opportunity to show there is “plenty of fight” left in him.
“I’m still looking to play, nothing’s changed,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that I can’t stay at Leicester but I’ve still lots to give. Age is just a number for me.
“The market at the moment is so saturated which means there’s fewer opportunities. But if a team out there is keen to get me along I’m 100 per cent in.”
