Only Three Players From The 2003 Rugby World Cup Are Still Playing

On average, a rugby player’s professional career tends to last 10-12 years, but there are some players who have defied the odds with their incredible longevity.

RUCK decided to take an interesting look back at the 2003 World cup, held in Australia, in which England emerged victorious.

The younger generation of rugby fans may not have a good recollection of the spectacle, but there are only three players who played in that tournament that are still active in rugby today.

So, which players still playing today were at the 2003 World Cup?

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Current club: Toulon

Parisse is to retire at the end of the season but is still hoping to win more caps before he hangs up his boots.

His retirement will bring an end to a 21-year playing career during which he has won two Top 14 titles and a Challenge Cup.

“I will finish next June. I know that after twenty years in professional rugby, there will be difficult moments,” Parisse told French rugby website Rugbyrama.

“I know that I will miss rugby and I am trying to prepare myself for this period of my life in the best possible conditions.”

The 39-year-old made his professional rugby debut with Benetton Treviso in 2003 but spent most of his career with Stade Français after racking up over 250 appearances with them between 2005 and 2019 before joining Toulon.

He is also the most-capped Italy player with 143 Test appearances and is still hoping to have one final display at the international level despite not being part of the Six Nations squad announced by Kieran Crowley.

“I haven’t given up on my international career. I still think I’m on the radar and if the coach calls me I’ll be happy to answer his call,” the Argentine-born Parisse said.

“In the meantime, I’m trying to concentrate on the things I can control: my fitness, my lifestyle, my performances.”

Current club: San Diego Legion

San Diego Legion re-signed former New Zealand All Blacks Ma’a Nonu for the 2023 Major League Rugby season. The 40-year-old center (41 in May) is 6’0″ and 240 lbs.

Ma’a played 872 minutes in 13 matches, starting 12, and scored one try in 2022. For Ma’a, 2022 was is his second stint with the Legion. During the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, he played 289 minutes in 4 starts and scored 3 tries. He then signed with Toulon as a medical joker and spent 2020 and 2021 with the team.

Ma’a is from Wellington, New Zealand, and attended First Strathmore Park Primary School and then Rongotai College.

He played his amateur rugby for Oriental Rongotai, the Wellington Secondary Schools from 1999-2000, and Wellington U19s in 2001. He also played rugby league as a youth.

He played for Wellington from 2002-2015, Super Rugby for the Hurricanes from 2003-2015, the Ricoh Black Rams in 2011-12 in Japan, the Blues in 2012, Highlanders in 2013, Toulon in the Top 14 from 2015-2018, and the Blues in 2019.

Ma’a represented the New Zealand Sevens team in two competitions from 2002-2004.

He played for the New Zealand All Blacks (#1031) making his debut against England on June 14, 2003, and playing through 2015. He was selected to the 2003 Rugby World Cup squad and played in Pool matches against Canada, Italy, and Tonga. He also won two Rugby World Cups in 2011 and 2015.

While with the team, he won five Tri-Nations/Rugby Championships, and eight Bledisloe Cups, and was capped 103 times. In 2005 he played against the British & Irish Lions.

After considering a code switch in December 2006 to the National Rugby League following the 2007 Rugby World Cup, he was dropped to the Junior All Blacks and not selected for the RWC squad, but returned to the All Blacks squad in 2008.

Ma’a also played for the Barbarians from 2007-2010.

Recently, a Mike Tindall XV squared off against a James Haskell XV as part of the RFU’s Play Together, Stay Together campaign at Aylesbury Rugby Club. 

Taking to the pitch were a range of ex-internationals including Phil Vickery, Matt Banahan, Lee Mears, Delon Armitage and Tom Wood alongside Mike while James and Alex Payne coach from the side-line.

The game ended 36-36 following a last-gasp try from England legend Tindall, which you can watch below.

Tindall also plays a selection of matches for Minchinhampton, the club close to his home.

Tindall is married to Zara Phillips, the daughter of Anne, Princess Royal, and the eldest granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

He is regarded as one of the best players to never wear the Lions jersey, However, he did play against them as part of a Barbarians XV in 2013.

Tindall, whose nose was famously broken at least eight times during his rugby career, underwent a surgery in 2018 which fixed the fractures.

Mike’s sometimes nickname is “The Fridge” due to his sizeable 6ft 2inch bulk.

Every year since 2013, Mike has hosted an event called ISPS HANDA Mike Tindall Celebrity Golf Classic, where several celebrities come together to raise money and awareness for disability groups and in aid of curing Parkinson’s disease