{"id":296099,"date":"2023-11-01T01:23:55","date_gmt":"2023-11-01T01:23:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/?p=296099"},"modified":"2023-11-01T01:23:55","modified_gmt":"2023-11-01T01:23:55","slug":"retiring-leigh-halfpenny-says-the-the-future-is-bright-for-wales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/rugby-union\/retiring-leigh-halfpenny-says-the-the-future-is-bright-for-wales\/","title":{"rendered":"Retiring Leigh Halfpenny says the &apos;the future is bright&apos; for Wales"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Leigh Halfpenny says the &#8216;the future is bright&#8217; for Wales as the 34-year-old prepares to make\u00a0his final appearance in the red jersey against the Barbarians<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Leigh Halfpenny will play his last game for Wales in Cardiff on Saturday<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Four-time Six Nations winner plans to carry on playing club rugby next season<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>New Zealand Super Rugby giants Crusaders leading race to sign the full-back<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Leigh Halfpenny declared \u2018the future is bright\u2019 for Welsh rugby as he prepares to bid farewell at international level after a glittering 15-year Test career.<\/p>\n<p>Halfpenny will play his last game for Wales in a controversial match with the Barbarians at Principality Stadium on Saturday, one which takes place on the same day as a Welsh domestic derby.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The 34-year-old, who won 101 caps for his country and is third on Wales\u2019 all-time list of men&#8217;s points scorers for Wales with 801, decided to retire from Tests after the World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>Since his Wales debut in 2008, the Wales full-back shirt has been dominated by Halfpenny and Liam Williams but both players are now moving on.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Liam was a world class full-back and has been incredible for Wales. We&#8217;re good mates and it&#8217;s been a pleasure to play alongside him. He&#8217;s a good friend,\u2019 Halfpenny said.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/31\/23\/77247667-0-image-a-81_1698796036304.jpg\" height=\"951\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Wales star Leigh Halfpenny prepares to bid farewell after a glittering 15-year Test career<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Obviously we&#8217;ve had that competition but it&#8217;s never got in the way of that friendship. He&#8217;s been unbelievable. You&#8217;ve got Josh Adams and Louis Rees-Zammit who have played there (full-back). \u2018When they have, they&#8217;ve done an incredible job for Wales. You&#8217;ve got Tom Rogers. He&#8217;s a bright talent. I&#8217;m sure he&#8217;s got an exciting future ahead of him.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018You&#8217;ve got Jacob Beetham at Cardiff, Cai Evans at the Dragons and I worked with the likes of Cameron Winnett from Cardiff and Iestyn Hopkins at the Ospreys while with the Under-20\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018The future is bright and there&#8217;s lots of talent coming through. It&#8217;s really exciting. I look forward to supporting them from the stands. I&#8217;m really excited for the future for Wales.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Halfpenny\u2019s relentless kicking accuracy and defensive solidarity made him a key figure in one of Welsh rugby\u2019s most successful periods.<\/p>\n<p>The four-time Six Nations winner plans to carry on playing club rugby next season and it is understood a move to the southern hemisphere is likely.<\/p>\n<p>New Zealand Super Rugby giants Crusaders are the leading contenders to sign Halfpenny but Japanese sides have also expressed an interest.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I now just have a feeling of huge gratitude for the opportunities to wear the jersey over the last 15 years,\u2019 said Halfpenny, who also won four caps for the British &amp; Irish Lions and was man of the series in the 2-1 series win in Australia in 2013.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018It&#8217;s been an absolute privilege to put on the Welsh shirt. I&#8217;d like to carry on playing for another couple of seasons if I can.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Halfpenny will say goodbye to Welsh rugby at Principality Stadium against the Barbarians who will have former Wales captains Alun Wyn Jones and Justin Tipuric in their ranks.<\/p>\n<p>Both Jones and Tipuric also retired from international rugby before the World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>Jones \u2013 the world\u2019s most capped player \u2013 will quit all rugby after this weekend.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/31\/23\/77247663-0-image-a-82_1698796044807.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The four-time Six Nations winner plans to carry on playing club rugby next season<\/p>\n<p>Ospreys captain Tipuric has been given permission to play for the Barbarians instead of his region even though they play against the Sharks in London on Friday night.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018It was a difficult decision to make, but this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me to face my home nation and play against some of my best mates,\u2019 Tipuric said.<\/p>\n<p>Interim Welsh Rugby Union chief executive Nigel Walker has admitted there should have been no clash between Wales\u2019 match with the Barbarians and United Rugby Championship fixtures.<\/p>\n<p>The fact Wales\u2019 four regions will be without key players who are in action for Wales this weekend has angered supporters of the country\u2019s domestic sides.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/rugbyunion\/article-12695611\/Leigh-Halfpenny-says-future-bright-Wales-34-year-old-prepares-make-final-appearance-red-jersey-against-Barbarians.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Leigh Halfpenny says the &#8216;the future is bright&#8217; for Wales as the 34-year-old prepares to make\u00a0his final appearance in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296098,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Retiring Leigh Halfpenny says the &amp;apos;the future is bright&amp;apos; for Wales - All My Sports News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/rugby-union\/retiring-leigh-halfpenny-says-the-the-future-is-bright-for-wales\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Retiring Leigh Halfpenny says the &amp;apos;the future is bright&amp;apos; 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