Lizo Gqoboka has retired from professional rugby at 36, ending a career that began when he first picked up a rugby ball at age 19 and culminated in two Springbok caps and more than a century of appearances for the Bulls.
The loosehead prop made his announcement to the Bulls the week after his final appearance — a warm-up fixture against the Falcons in which he was named Man of the Match, scored two tries and won eight scrum penalties. It was not injury that prompted the call, but a settled sense of readiness.
"I just felt that it's time. I knew I was always on the edge, but I just had this knowing now that it's time, at 36. I've had a good run. I've had a really good run, and so I think my heart is just full with gratitude and contentment," Gqoboka said.
His backstory stands apart from most professional careers. Raised in the rural Eastern Cape and educated entirely in isiXhosa until university, he was loading trucks at 15 and working at a funeral parlour at 17. He completed a business management qualification in Durban and held down a full-time job at a construction firm building a bridge in Pinetown while training and playing club rugby in the evenings. His professional career started at the EP Kings before he joined the Bulls, with stints at Montpellier and the Stormers along the way.
"I couldn't tell you the difference between a prop and a hooker when I started. I had never watched rugby before I played it. I just took the ball and ran fast because I played soccer and did athletics," he said.
Blue Bulls Company chief executive Edgar Rathbone described Gqoboka's journey as "one of the most remarkable stories in South African rugby," adding that his humility and character off the field defined him as much as his physical power on it.