Former French XV player Morgan Parra has announced his retirement at the end of the season. The Stade Français scrum-half will not go far from the field, however, since he has signed a training contract with the Parisian club.
“You have to know how to say stop”. It is with his few words and without apparent regret that the scrum half of the French Stade Morgan Parra announced his imminent retirement, in the columns of theCrew. The player selected 71 times to be part of the XV of France will put the ball down at the end of the 2023 season, but there is no question of straying too far from the field. If he will no longer be on the lawn, Morgan Parra will remain a member of the Parisian club as an assistant coach for at least three seasons, the contract has already been signed according to the specialized newspaper.
Morgan Parra, from player to coach
Before returning the cleats, Morgan Parra offered himself an additional year as a player compared to his career plan. “I didn’t want to live the year too many, the difficult year, the year when you no longer have fun. I always told myself that I would stop in 2022, at the end of my contract in Clermont “, he confided to theCrew but after 13 seasons with the Auvergne club, the scrum-half joined the Parisian club to end his career, as a smooth transition and to familiarize himself with the team before going behind the scenes: “I tell myself that it’s the right time. This new adventure in the staff of Laurent (Labit) and Karim (Ghezal) also comes at the right time. And to add: “I had prepared. If it wasn’t this year, it would have been the next.”
Morgan Parra’s retraining as a coach has been mapped out for some time, according to the former ASM Clermont Auvergne player. “It all started with an approach from Karim Ghezal, who had just been appointed head coach of Stade Français, along with Laurent Labit from next season. He asked me if, in the future more or less close, I would be interested in becoming a coach,” said the scrum-half. A chance to seize when the thirties had already planned to stop playing rugby.
Grand Slam, Brennus… Morgan Parra’s prize list
Morgan Parra leaves the field with honors thanks to his record and having played to the end with fifteen games played this season, including thirteen as a starter for the Stade Français team. But at 34, the man says he is caught up in physical demands after a right knee injury suffered at the start of the season and another ankle injury at the end of March. “The older you get, the more difficult the training sessions, the matches too. Mentally too, it wears out. There are many sacrifices”, admitted the rugby player despite his love for the oval: “When you are passionate, you want to push the most as long as possible. I would like to play all my life. But the fundamental question is: ‘Will I still be at the level?’ Am I still?”
At the level, Morgan Parra was during his career to the point of being selected 71 times among the Blues with whom he won the Six Nations Tournament in 2010, achieving the Grand Slam. It was then with French club ASM Clermont Auvergne that he won the Brennus shield of the French Championship in 2010 and 2017.