Winter says goodbye to Falcons

Winter: Close to retirement

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Flanker Russell Winter will leave Newcastle Falcons at the end of the season and has hinted he may retire from the game.

The 33-year-old has played 50 games for the Falcons since joining the Guinness Premiership club in 2006.

Winter did not confirm his retirement but revealed that carrying on as a player is unlikely because his body cannot take the strain of elite level rugby for too much longer.

"I'm finding it hard to come to terms with, to be honest with you. I don't want to say that this is the end for me as a player, but it probably is," Winter told the club's official website.

Punishment

"I would love to keep on playing forever, but I've had a discussion with my wife and my family, and I don't think it's going to happen.

"I've got to call it a day some time, and that time is probably right now. I don't think I could get another year out of the body taking that level of punishment week in week out.

"It's hard. I'd love to continue, I love the game and I know that once I stop I'm going to miss it tremendously."

The South African paid tribute to the club set-up, but expressed regret that Newcastle have not been able to fulfil their potential while he was playing at Kingston Park.

Competitive

"If there's one regret I have it is that I didn't come to Newcastle earlier in my career, because I've felt as if I had a really close friendship with the people here in the North-East," Winter added.

"I definitely feel that with the players Newcastle has had they could achieve more, but just for some reason it never quite clicked over a consistent period.

"However, we haven't done too badly, I have enjoyed every second of my time here and I always thought we were really competitive every time we played."

Winter, who coaches at Westoe RFC, said that he would like to remain involved in rugby in some capacity.