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Launchbury will end his career with Quins, having decided to retire from rugby at the end of the seasonEddie Keogh\/Getty<\/p>\nJoe Launchbury cannot really believe it, but he is going back to England\u2019s training base at Pennyhill Park this weekend.\u00a0The visit will bring back a flood of memories \u2014 from Eddie Jones beastings to lighter teasing by Joe Marler, most of which the old prop has posted on Instagram this week to retake the mickey out of him \u2014 across all those days with the national team.<\/p>\n
He had promised himself he would never return, happy to close off that chapter when he last represented his country, winning his 70th cap, in 2022, but it just so happens that it is the perfect place for a celebration.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His sister is over from Hong Kong, his parents are marking their 40th wedding anniversary and he has announced his retirement from rugby at the season\u2019s end.<\/p>\n
Launchbury will end his career with Quins, having decided to retire from rugby at the end of the seasonEddie Keogh\/Getty<\/p>\n
For Launchbury, this announcement has been a long time coming. He has felt his body creak over the past two seasons, and needs a hip operation, so at 35 is calling it a day. In typically understated fashion, Launchbury wanted to slink out unnoticed, but was convinced to do a proper announcement last week, and does not regret it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was putting my son to bed when I kept getting notifications going, \u2018Joe Marler has added you into a story,\u2019 and I knew that wasn\u2019t going to be good news,\u201d Launchbury says, on The Ruck podcast from The Times, with a knowing chuckle. <\/p>\n
When it comes to picking his dream XV, Launchbury has his revenge. \u201cBecause Marler stitched me up, I\u2019ll go for Mako Vunipola,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know how he\u2019s got a vault of videos from ten years ago, but he does. I think it shows the importance of verbalising your feelings about people.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMen and people in general can be a bit stoic, and onto-the-next-job, so it\u2019s nice to show appreciation to each other. It\u2019s meant a lot to me to receive messages from players and coaches I\u2019ve spent a lot of time with, and it\u2019s been really nice to hear their words.\u201d<\/p>\n
Launchbury has had a fine career. He made his debut in November 2012 against Fiji alongside Mako Vunipola and Tom Youngs as a 21-year-old bright light, and battled through a forest of locks \u2014 particularly Courtney Lawes, George Kruis and Maro Itoje, who were all British & Irish Lions ahead of him \u2014 to win 70 caps.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The 6ft 6in lock takes pride in the way he \u201ckicked on\u201d and evolved as an England playertimes photographer Marc Aspland<\/p>\n
He lifted no domestic trophies, but came agonisingly close to winning two Premiership titles with Wasps; the first in 2017 when Exeter Chiefs beat them 23-20 in extra time, and then three years later when Exeter did for Wasps again, winning 19-13 in the Twickenham rain.<\/p>\n
Those near-misses are perhaps Launchbury\u2019s only regrets. His resilience is what he prides himself on most.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI look back on my international career with a huge amount of pride as I got the opportunity to play young when I hadn\u2019t played many games for Wasps but was entrusted to play when I thought I wouldn\u2019t have been good enough. I really took that opportunity, and loved my time there,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be brutally honest, when Eddie took over I probably wasn\u2019t his cup of tea, but I was really proud of how I changed my game. I was probably on the way out a few times, but managed to remodel a few things and not necessarily prove him wrong \u2014 he\u2019d probably say that was part of his technique \u2014 but I\u2019m proud I showed resilience to play as many times as I did.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so thankful that he must have capped me 40-odd times, but I always felt, and maybe a lot of players in that time felt that they were being pushed, and always one bad game from being out of the team. I was always striving and striving to stay in. I guess that\u2019s what international rugby should be.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat brought the best out of me, and I might not have agreed with it at the time, but looking back now I\u2019m so thankful as you see some players plateau a bit and don\u2019t kick on.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo to go from ten caps right through to over 50 caps it takes some real staying power. I was a tight-five forward who enjoyed the open spaces and carrying the ball in the wider spaces, but remodelled my game a bit. My body slowed up but I developed a real appreciation for the set piece and the tighter arts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watching his Wasps team go bust in 2022 was a brutal experience. It still pains him now, and he wishes that one day he can sit in a stand somewhere and watch the reborn club that helped him make his name.<\/p>\n
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A happy spell at Wasps turned into a \u201chorrible episode\u201d when the club folded in 2022David Rogers\/Getty<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no way I can\u2019t talk about that experience and what happened then and not see it as anything but that horrible episode,\u201d he says. \u201cI probably would have never left Wasps. I had plenty of offers to go elsewhere and nothing really interested me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember Jimmy Gopperth saying, when he got older, trying to explain to his kids, \u2018I used to play for Wasps.\u2019 And the sad thing would be, maybe in a couple of generations, some of your grandkids or your great-grandkids would be like, \u2018Oh, I don\u2019t know who you\u2019re talking about there.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t want to be the last group of players who have played for the club, so I\u2019d love the club to live on. I know the amateur team in Acton are still thriving and doing unbelievably well. The appetite to bring a professional club back, I believe, is there, but I guess it\u2019s a longer-term project.\u201d<\/p>\n
It makes Launchbury beam to see what his old squad have made of themselves elsewhere \u2014 whether it be Jack Willis in Toulouse, Alfie Barbeary at Bath or Paolo Odogwu with Benetton and Italy \u2014 and his glass-half-full view is that their collapse allowed him a year in Japan and to reconnect with Harlequins, where he came through as a child.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite the poor results, he has enjoyed this season, knowing it is his last, and believes brighter days are ahead under the leadership of Jason Gilmore and Robbie Deans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The battle now for Harlequins will be to make the Champions Cup, by finishing eighth. \u201cWe know we have to compete and be a part of the top tier of Europe next year,\u201d Launchbury says.<\/p>\n