{"id":655344,"date":"2026-05-07T11:01:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T11:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/655344\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T11:01:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T11:01:08","slug":"prince-william-reacts-to-bombshell-announcement-from-welsh-rugby-icon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/655344\/","title":{"rendered":"Prince William reacts to bombshell announcement from Welsh rugby icon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                        <img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/663301_025801_updates.jpg\"   width=\"1200\" height=\"686\" loading=\"eager\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" alt=\"Prince William reacts to bombshell announcement from Welsh rugby icon\"\/>Prince William reacts to bombshell announcement from Welsh rugby icon<\/p>\n<p>Prince William has paid a heartfelt tribute to Welsh rugby icon after he announced to retire from professional rugby at the end of the season.<\/p>\n<p>The Prince of Wales, who serves as patron of the Welsh Rugby Union, shared a personal message to laud Halfpenny\u2019s extraordinary contribution to the sport after a career spanning nearly two decades.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, shared on William and Kate&#8217;s official Instagram Story, the future monarch said: \u201cCongratulations to Leigh Halfpenny on an outstanding career representing Wales and the British &amp; Irish Lions.<\/p>\n<p>Kensington Palace shared a photo of the legend with William&#8217;s message.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA player who embodied courage, professionalism and humility throughout every chapter of the game. Your dedication to Welsh rugby has inspired so many, and your achievements will long be remembered.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWishing you all the best for the future. W\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/663301_7537678_updates.jpg\" alt=\"Prince William reacts to bombshell announcement from Welsh rugby icon\" width=\"461\" height=\"761\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Halfpennyconfirmed earlier this week that he will hang up his boots at the end of the current campaign, bringing to a close one of the most decorated careers in modern Welsh rugby.<\/p>\n<p>The 37-year-old full-back earned 101 caps for Wales, scoring 801 points, and became one of the most reliable goal-kickers of his generation.<\/p>\n<p>He also represented the British &amp; Irish Lions on three tours, famously being named player of the series during the Lions\u2019 victorious 2013 tour of Australia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prince William reacts to bombshell announcement from Welsh rugby icon Prince William has paid a heartfelt tribute to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-655344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}