Leinster and Ireland hooker Seán Cronin is to retire from rugby at the end of this season. The Limerick-born player, who turns 36 next month, has to date won 204 caps for Leinster Rugby, and has represented Ireland on 72 occasions.
The Limerick native joined Leinster Rugby from Connacht Rugby in 2011 and made his Leinster debut in October of that year against Edinburgh Rugby. A few weeks later made his European debut, scoring a try off the bench against Montpellier.
In his time with Leinster Rugby, Cronin has won two Heineken Champions Cup medals, a Challenge Cup medal and six PRO12/14 titles. In 2015, he was named the Players’ Player of the Year and his form for Leinster also saw him awarded the Supporters’ Player of the Year Award in 2019.
💙 | 𝗦𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗖𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗻 - 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘁 𝘂𝗽 𝗶𝗻 𝗯𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝟮𝟬𝟭𝟭
🧢 204 apps
🔥 225 points
🇪🇺 2x Champions Cup winner
🏅 Challenge Cup winner
🏆 6x league titles
☘️ 72 Irish caps#ThankYouNugget pic.twitter.com/dEmM7D8Dsh— Leinster Rugby (@leinsterrugby) April 20, 2022
He made his Ireland debut in 2009 and was part of the 2014 and the 2015 Six Nations-winning squads and the Grand Slam-winning squad of 2018.
The year of the Grand Slam, he scored the crucial bonus-point try in the final round win over Scotland.
Announcing his retirement, Cronin issued the following statement: "After 14 years, I can confirm that this will be my last season playing professional rugby.
"It has been a unique journey for me starting off in Limerick many years ago, travelling to Galway to set my sights on playing professionally and finishing in Dublin where it’s been an incredible 11 years of so many great days in blue and green.
"I’m excited for what the future holds. Next season I will be taking over as head coach of St Mary’s College RFC where I look forward to developing my coaching aspirations along with furthering my education in the financial field, but most importantly spending time with my family."
Leinster Rugby head coach Leo Cullen said, “Seán — or Nugget as he is known to us here in Leinster — has left an incredible legacy not only on Leinster Rugby but across all of the clubs he has played for and of course with Ireland.
“I was lucky enough to have played and roomed with Nugget over the years along with coaching him more recently and he will definitely go down as one of the great characters. He will be hugely missed."
