When the Springbok lock Eben Etzebeth, one of rugby’s “forever names”, sank a thumb into the left eye of Alex Mann, the upstart insurgent of the Wales back row, at the fag end of a sporting massacre in Cardiff last autumn, some of us wondered if he had decided to bow out disgracefully.
A straight red card, on his 141st international appearance, with one minute left on the clock and 73 unanswered points in the South African bank?
It looked like the end of something – an act of world-weary nihilism.
Ageing players of all levels, particularly those in “enforcer” roles suffering from the condi...