New Zealand's Richie McCaw has ended a glorious 15-year rugby career.
The 34-year-old recently captained the All Blacks to their second consecutive World Cup victory and had been expected to call it quits.
The announcement arrived late on Wednesday evening, first on Facebook before McCaw met the media.
It's time to hang up the boots! It has been a hell of a journey over the last 15 years. I've been privileged to do what I love for so long. Here's to new adventures.
Posted by Richie McCaw on Wednesday, 18 November 2015
McCaw captained New Zealand 109 times in a brilliant career, and added: "Today, I thought about whether it was the right thing to do this. But I'm going to be hanging up my boots."
A minute's silence was observed in memory of the late Jonah Lomu, and McCaw spoke about the loss of "a great man."
"My thoughts and condolences go to his wife and two boys," McCaw said.
"When I became an All Black he was in the team. To play with him was amazing. I remember one of my first games, I climbed off the bus and the mob came towards me and I thought 'this is pretty cool, being an All Black' but they kept going because they only wanted to be near to Jonah.
"There are a lot of people round the world hurting at the loss of a great man."
