James Davies is staying in rugby after his on-pitch retirement, with the former openside who conjured turnovers as effortlessly as a magician pulling rabbits from a hat now working as the Scarlets' recruitment and operations officer.
Not every former player stays in the game after setting aside his boots.
Plenty choose to try something different.
MARK ORDERS takes a look at the varied choices of some well-known ex-players.
Richard Hibbard
The former hooker called time on his playing days earlier this year after a thunderous career that saw him represent Swansea, the Ospreys, Gloucester and the Dragons, as well as Wales and the British and Irish Lions. His commitment on the field was matched only by his affability off it, with Hibbard a popular figure wherever he played.
He owns The Hideout Cafe in Aberafan Shopping Centre and The Front bar and kitchen on Aberavon beach.
The big man is about to launch his own rum and gin brands.
Post-playing is being attacked with the same energy and enthusiasm he once showed on the field.
It augurs well.
Delme Williams
“When Shane arrived at The Gnoll, Delme was already either in the Wales A team or there or thereabouts,” Neath RFC historian Mike Price told WalesOnline. “He was the bright young thing of Welsh rugby, scoring tries for fun.
“If it had not been for injury, who knows?”
Indeed.
Shane Williams and Delme Williams were devastating for the Welsh All Blacks a couple of decades or so ago, the club’s very own Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. If Shane didn’t get you with his sidestep, powerlifting record-holder Delme would do the job with his relentlessly direct running.
But while Shane went on to hit the heights with Wales, his mate had to set aside his boots prematurely after shattering a kneecap.
Commendably, he was never bitter, later saying: “I could not have been happier to see the likes of Shane and the other boys I played alongside doing well. You have a career outside the game and a family and you have other priorities. “Life happens. You just move on.”
Williams completed a HND at college in medical electronics, before landing a job at Singleton Hospital, working there for a decade and then heading for the Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend. He went on to move across to Morrison Hospital.
Colin Charvis
One of Welsh rugby’s greatest back-row forwards, he enjoyed a stellar club career with Swansea and also with Wales, skippering them in 22 Tests and scoring 22 tries over 94 games.
There were also two Tests for the Lions in 2001.
Went on to establish a carpet and general flooring business after packing in as a player.
Also does a spot of rugby punditry.
When WalesOnline last met up with former the flanker or No. 8, more than a decade after his final Wales cap, a member of the public came across to tell the All Whites stalwart he had been his favourite player and had called his daughter’s cat ‘Charvis’.
We’ll call that enduring popularity.
Darril Williams
Hugely promising with his pace and eye for a gap, the full-back toured Zimbabwe and South Africa with Wales in 1998, winning a cap off the bench against South Africa. History tells us the game didn’t go well for the visitors as the Springboks ran out 96-13 winners.
“I had one chance and that was it," Williams later told WalesOnline.
“It was a privileged moment in my life.
“Unfortunately it turned out to be a game that didn’t go well for Wales.”
But the Llanelli and Neath player had serious talent.
He also had medical qualifications to gain.
A choice had to be made between playing and focusing on his studies and the rest of his life.
He took the decision to put his long-term career first in 1999. A smashed kneecap while in action for Neath left him sidelined for a long period before a brief but enjoyable spell with Bonymaen.
Qualifications were obtained, though, with Williams going on to own the Promenade Dental Practice in Mumbles.
Hemi Taylor
A fine acquisition from New Zealand for Newbridge in 1986 who helped inspire a successful period for the Gwent club. Taylor and fly-half Paul Turner were superb during that period.
Taylor moved to Cardiff and in 1994 made history in 1994 as the first New Zealander to win a senior cap for Wales. There were to be 24 Test outings for the hard-nosed back rower all told.
He went on to owner pubs and a nightclub and worked as a property developer after finishing rugby.
Taylor later changed tack to become a farmer in west Wales.
A lot has been packed into his life.
Brent Cockbain
The 6ft 8in Australia-born Cockbain was always his own man.
In 2005, he didn't own a mobile phone when pretty everyone else on the planet did. Untypically for a professional rugby player, he also owned an allotment.
"Working on an allotment is seen over here as an old man's occupation, but it's not the case," he said at the time. "I meet a fantastic cross-section of people and we talk about all sorts of things. There's no better way of getting your mind off rugby. It helps me to relax. I love gardening, cooking and fishing."
He was a force on the pitch — an enforcer, even, who didn’t take a backward step.
Unimaginable tragedy struck when he lost his one-year-old son, Toby, to a brain tumour in 2004.
A Grand Slam winner with Wales a year later, he eventually returned to Australia where he worked as a fruit-picker before buying a boat and sailing down the coast for a couple of years, with the former Pontypridd and Ospreys player then landing work driving giant trucks at an opencast mine in Queensland. You can read more about his new life here.
Mark Taylor
The scorer of one of the most famous tries in Welsh rugby history when he crossed for the first-ever touchdown at the Millennium Stadium, when Wales faced South Africa clash in 1999, Taylor won 52 caps for his country and also captained them.
His centre partnership with Scott Gibbs for Swansea was formidable. Even now, memories of Taylor’s jolting handoff while attempting an outside break will spark warm memories in Whites supporters of a certain vintage.
The Pontypool RFC product was Welsh player of the year in 2000 and someone who commanded much respect at his peak. In his book My Grand Slam Year, Gavin Henson calls him “a total professional” who “set high standards at Swansea”.
'Tayls' went on to become team manager with the Scarlets and Wales U20. He also forged a successful career away from the game as an accountant, working for HJ Phillips and Son, a car dealership in Llanelli.
Garin Jenkins
Garin Jenkins admits he played the game hard and occasionally went outside the rules.
Whether for Pontypool or for Swansea or for Wales, he gave as good as he got — sometimes a bit more — and didn’t take a backward step.
But he was also good. Very good. Maybe the best scrummaging hooker to play for Wales and a true warrior on the pitch.
He won a then record 58 caps as a No. 2 for Wales and scored a try for Swansea in their win over then world champions Australia in 1992.
Then, the former teenage tearaway found God.
He is still a committed Christian and told his story in an interview with WalesOnline at his place of work at the British Oxygen Gas & Gear shop near Margam Crematorium, with Jenkins a cover manager.
It was startling, sobering and uplifting.
Arwel Thomas
A must-see act in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Rugby was becoming increasingly power-based back then but Thomas was flying the flag for skill and ingenuity. Won 23 caps as he battled Neil Jenkins for the Wales No. 10 shirt.
Thomas was an old-style throwback who played on the edge and often seemed a micro-second away from being caught and pulverised by flankers and assorted power merchants who understood the threat this most inventive of players posed.
At his peak for Swansea, it was a joy to watch him.
He also had no ego — another plus.
After playing, he found a role with Henry Schein Dental as a sales representative.
Nigel Bezani
He was the the unsung figure who emerged from nowhere to become a cult hero in the Pontypridd revolution which put them at the fore of Welsh rugby in the 1990s.
Unashamedly old school, Bezani led the Valley Commandos from the front.
Some of the names in their side from that era still roll off the tongue: Neil Jenkins, Martyn Williams, Phil ‘Gurkha’ John, Paul John, Denzil Earland, Steele and Jason Lewis, Dale McIntosh. A band of brothers if ever there was one.
Bezani took a break from riding his beloved Harley Davidson around near his home in Maerdy when WalesOnline last caught up with him. Work involved heading up a team at the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station construction site in Somerset.
Still leader of the pack, then.
Kevin Phillips
Leader of the Neath pack that ruled the roost in Welsh rugby in the late 1980s and early 1980s, when, for a while, the Welsh All Blacks were the most feared side in Britain.
Hooker Phillips led the charge with quick tapped penalties, and many of them, with the likes of Brian Williams and Phil Pugh to the fore as well.
Phillips boasted a farm in west Wales back then, eventually quitting the industry as the price of milk dropped.
Subsequently, he moved into work fitting roller doors.
Richard Mustoe
Secured his place in Ospreys history when scoring the winning try against Australia in 2006.
The hard-running wing also won a Celtic League title with the Llandarcy-based side and also featured for Bridgend, Celtic Warriors and Cardiff.
He owns and runs Porthcawl Funeral Services with wife Sarah.
Sam Warburton
An all-time great who skippered the Lions twice and led Wales a record 49 times.
He quit prematurely in 2018, unprepared to sacrifice his long-term health for the sake of squeezing a few extra years out out of the game as a player.
Since finishing, he’s formed a successful career as a TV pundit and media commentator, with his views seen as up-to-date, fair and constructive.
Nor does being articulate hurts in that line of work.
There was also a short spell that saw Warburton work as technical advisor on defence and the breakdown to the Wales national team.
But the ex-Glamorgan Wanderers and Cardiff man has never regretted his decision to abruptly stop playing at the age of just 29.
"People say, do you miss it? My short answer is no, not at all," he said recently. "I love that I did it, but do I miss it? Absolutely not. I loved it when I did it and I had no regard for my body when I played, I didn't have kids. Rugby was my life.
"When you have kids, I've got a six and a two-year-old now and I only had the two-year-old when I retired, it just gives you a whole new perspective on life. I wasn't able to play with my daughter. Just going on bouncy castles or carrying her up the stairs, I couldn't do it."
Martyn Williams
Another uncommonly gifted Wales flanker in his prime, he started a role in financial planning after packing in as a player. His time on the field had seen him win a hundred caps for Wales, tour with the Lions and generally impress as one of the most creative No. 7s ever to don the red jersey.
He was equally exceptional Pontypridd and Cardiff.
Nugget, as he is affectionately known, had established himself as a sharp and knowledgeable TV pundit when the offer came to act as Wales team manager under Wayne Pivac.
Williams accepted.
Stayed in the game, then.
In fairness, any rugby environment would be better for having someone of his experience and likeability around.
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