CARDIFF: Not only did Nathan Sharpe have to play all 80 gruelling minutes of his final Test match against Wales, but he also found himself lining up to take an injury-time touchline conversion kick.
Needless to say, the 34-year-old lock’s effort fell well short of the posts, but he had already guided his Wallaby team to a nail-biting 14-12 victory thanks to Kurtley Beale’s last-gasp try at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday.
“Yeah it was (my first ever conversion) and I’d say it’s my last!” joked Sharpe, who brings a curtain down on 16 seasons of international rugby.
“Of course I’m going to miss it. It’s what I’ve done since I can remember. I’m going to have to find some walls to run into every weekend just to get my head around things and ease my way out of things.
“The thing I’ll miss the most is being part of the team environment and having a collective goal that is in a pressure cooker situation each weekend.
“As much as you love it, you hate it, it’s big highs and low lows, so that’ll be the most challenging thing for me.”
Try-scorer Beale, had only words of admiration for Sharpe.
“What better way of finishing a game for a great man as Nathan, our skipper who’s retiring?” said Beale. AFP
