{"id":399855,"date":"2025-09-05T11:34:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T11:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/399855\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T11:34:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T11:34:12","slug":"hull-fc-back-jordan-rapana-makes-retirement-call-as-right-decision-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/399855\/","title":{"rendered":"Hull FC back Jordan Rapana makes retirement call as &#8216;right decision&#8217; explained"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rapana will hang up the boots at the end of 2025.<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_Jordan-Rapana.jpg\" alt=\"Hull FC back Jordan Rapana. \" loading=\"eager\"  \/>Hull FC back Jordan Rapana. (Image: SW PIX)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Jordan Rapana will retire from professional rugby league at the end of the 2025 season \u2013 despite having one year to run on his current <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hulldailymail.co.uk\/all-about\/hull-fc\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Hull FC<\/a> contract.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Rapana has been weighing up the decision for several weeks, coming to his final call and signing the papers this week. That will see him bring the curtain down on a stellar 18-year career where he featured with distinction in both the NRL competition and on the international stage before joining Super League.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">In total, the 36-year-old has made over 260 senior appearances, including 16 Test matches for New Zealand. He is a club great at Canberra Raiders, having debuted in the NRL with Gold Coast Titans, who were then coached by current Hull coach John Cartwright.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Making his professional debut in 2008, the Kiwi won rookie honours before taking a break from the game to go on a two-year Mormon mission. He returned to the NRL with the Raiders in 2013, where he became a club legend.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">As well as New Zealand, Rapana also featured for the Cook Islands on the international stage. He played for the Kiwis in the 2017 World Cup final.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">He joined Hull ahead of the 2025 season as one of several senior signings, helping to change the culture and fortune of the club after last year&#8217;s disappointing 11th place finish. He has made 22 appearances for the Black and Whites to date, scoring three tries, having played in the full-back, centre, wing, and half-back positions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Explaining the decision to call time on his career, Rapana said: &#8220;It&#8217;s a really tough decision but one that I know is the right decision. I&#8217;ve played my whole career being really competitive and that has taken its toll on my body. My body just can&#8217;t compete like it used to be able to.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;As sad as it is, I know that it&#8217;s opening up another opportunity for somebody else to come in and take my place. And making that decision is a year too early rather than a year too late \u2013 I&#8217;m happy that it&#8217;s on my terms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;I&#8217;m incredibly grateful to so many people who have helped me throughout my career. And it&#8217;s strange that the same head coach who took a shot on me and gave me my debut will be the same head coach who sends me out for my final game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;I look back on my career with a lot of pride and I&#8217;m grateful for the opportunity to come over to England and spend my final year with this great club, where I&#8217;ve been fortunate enough to make some friends for life.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rapana will hang up the boots at the end of 2025.Hull FC back Jordan Rapana. (Image: SW PIX)&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[115424,138029,4151,6531,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-399855","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-hull-fc","9":"tag-jordan-rapana","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-rugby-league","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115151481469023691","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399855","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=399855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}