36-year-old Ross Filipo's Super Rugby comeback may extend into next season. Photo / Getty Images
36-year-old Ross Filipo's Super Rugby comeback may extend into next season. Photo / Getty Images
The wonders of modern sports science are such that maybe it's time to think of 35 as the new 30 and not fall off our chairs if there are a heap of 40-year-olds playing Super Rugby in the next decade.
It wasn't so long ago that players who turned 30 immediately picked up the veteran tag. It wasn't that long ago, either, that coaches felt they were dealing with an antique once an athlete hit 30 and that it would be best to put them somewhere out of harm's way ... like France, Japan or England.
It's been a hard habit to break - thinking that 30 is old. There's an obsession with rugby being a young man's game and an impatience among Super Rugby teams to bring the next generation through.
That culture has perhaps convinced players in the past they are too old to be meaningful contributors in their early-30s.
How many players pulled the pin too early? Believing they were all washed up - not because they felt it, but because they were told it - they decided to retire when maybe they had a few more years of good football left in them.
There have been a few players - good ones - who have been able to reverse their decision and re-enter the game having retired only to realise after a period that they had a bit of gas left.
Tana Umaga is a good example of a second-wind career. He initially stopped playing at 34 to take up a coaching role at Toulon in 2007. By 2009, he was back in the midfield and even won a place with the Chiefs in 2011. At 38, he didn't look out of place at all in Super Rugby.
The same has happened with Victor Matfield. He retired after the last World Cup when he was 34 and took up TV work and coaching consultancy. By late 2013, there were rumours he fancied a comeback and, when he came through a self-imposed six-month training regime, the Bulls re-signed him. Amazingly, he'll be at lock for the Boks at this year's World Cup.
Victor Matfield will be at lock for the Springboks at this year's World Cup at the age of 38. Photo / Getty Images
Blues assistant coach Isa Nacewa has also been persuaded to resume his playing career after retiring and it is possible that Herald on Sunday columnist Ross Filipo will be back in Super Rugby next year after recently being called into the Chiefs as an emergency replacement.
Filipo, 36, decided last year he didn't have the mental appetite to put himself through pre-season and that, mentally, he needed time away from professional rugby.
He's had that break and feels differently now. He's also had a couple of games on minimal training - which he got through surprisingly well - to convince him that his body could cope, that he's certainly not broken or incapable of delivering.
"What you find is that, after so many years in the game, your training age is high so it is easier to tap into that [fitness] base," he says. "It is possible for tight forwards - positions where being able to run fast isn't so important - to keep going well into their 30s. Brad Thorn and Victor Matfield are my mine canaries.
"I don't think hookers really come into their own until they are 29-30."
Looking around the world, it is apparent there has been a change in thinking around age and what is and isn't possible. The likes of Matfield and Umaga are not going to stand out as such exceptional stories in time.
The 30-year barrier has been well and truly smashed and it won't be long before there are vast numbers of players deep into their 30s.
That's just not old any more - 30 really isn't veteran stage at all. Brad Thorn has been the headline act in recent weeks, announcing that he's finally quitting at 40. His career has been remarkable and he will, for a while yet, stand as one of the few athletes able to play first-class professional football of any code at the age of 40.
Chris Masoe, 36, is captain of the Toulon team which won the European Cup and reached the Top 14 semifinals. He will join Daniel Carter at Racing Metro next year, confirming when he signed the deal: "My body tells me that I can still do it for one more year. I feel fresh at training and even the morning after matches when I wake up. Since my knee operation, I feel good, very good - probably better than ever."
George Smith at 34 has just signed with Wasps and may yet make it to the World Cup. Ireland's captain Paul O'Connell will turn 36 at the World Cup and South Africa's captain Jean de Villiers is closing in on 35 - just as Richie McCaw is.
Common wisdom says the three captains - and O'Connell has confirmed he's retiring - will be done by late October. They might think they are but, with a chance to sample retirement, who knows?
The modern rugby player is equipped to endure. Training is tougher but recovery regimes are better. The culture of excess has largely gone, which means players have a better chance of staying in top condition for longer.
It was supposedly impossible to run a mile in under four minutes, or the 100m in under 10 seconds, or hit a golf ball 350m, or bowl at 160km/h. But barriers are always broken in sport. The impossible always becomes the possible and Super Rugby will become a place for old men.
