{"id":1133705,"date":"2026-08-06T11:02:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T11:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1133705\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T11:02:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T11:02:15","slug":"i-feel-incredibly-fortunate-ex-england-man-freddie-burns-retires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1133705\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I feel incredibly fortunate’ – Ex-England man Freddie Burns retires"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former England<\/a> international Freddie Burns has retired from professional rugby after a two-decade-long career in the sport.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 36-year-old fly-half spent the 2025\/26 season with Romanian side Dinamo Bucure\u0219ti, but has also enjoyed stints in Japan, New Zealand and England.<\/p>\n

\u2018Thank you, rugby\u2019<\/p>\n

The Bath-born back spent the bulk of his professional career in the PREM, beginning with Gloucester in 2008 after a move from the Bath academy.<\/p>\n

He later featured for Bath as well as having two spells at Leicester Tigers<\/a>, where he etched himself into club history after scoring the winning drop-goal in the 2022 PREM Rugby final.<\/p>\n

He also won five Test caps for England<\/a> between 2012 and 2014, and also featured 11 times for England Saxons.<\/p>\n

Rugby Transfers: Wallabies veterans return to Australia, England ace makes decision on future and Mike Catt lands fresh coaching role following Waratahs exit<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAs a child, I dreamed of playing just one minute of professional rugby,\u201d Burns wrote on Instagram. \u201cTo have lived this career for almost two decades is more than I ever imagined. I feel incredibly fortunate.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo Cinderford, Gloucester, Leicester, Bath, the Highlanders, Shokki and Dinamo, thank you for allowing me to live out my dream. It was a privilege to represent every one of you.<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have represented my country will always have been the greatest honour of my career. Nothing will ever compare to pulling on that jersey.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo every team-mate, opponent, coach, physio, S&C coach, analyst, team manager, translator and intern who shared this journey with me \u2013 thank you. Each one of you shaped me in ways you\u2019ll probably never know.<\/p>\n

PREM Rugby signings XV: England, Wales and All Blacks aces lead star-studded side<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cTo every supporter who wears their team colours with pride, thank you. I hope I gave you as many reasons to be proud of your team as you gave me reasons to be proud to represent it.<\/p>\n

\u201cRugby taught me many things, but above all it taught me resilience. The setbacks made the successes sweeter, and the challenges shaped the person I am today.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you, rugby.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: All Blacks team: Five takeaways as Beauden Barrett entering \u2018last chance saloon territory\u2019 following Dave Rennie\u2019s \u2018fascinating\u2019 selection<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former England international Freddie Burns has retired from professional rugby after a two-decade-long career in the sport. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1133706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5008],"tags":[5012,748,393,205932,5014,4884,225,20795,12,6875,16,15],"class_list":["post-1133705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-england","tag-bath","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-freddie-burns","tag-gloucester","tag-great-britain","tag-home-page","tag-leicester-tigers","tag-news","tag-premiership","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1133705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1133705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1133705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1133706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1133705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1133705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1133705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}