Forshaw may delay Test departure

Two notable international careers will end at the JJB Stadium on Saturday, but if his Great Britain coach and his team-mates have their way, Mike Forshaw will not complete a trio of farewells.

There would be a certain symmetry if the Bradford loose forward decided, as Gary Connolly and Terry O'Connor have done, that the third Test against New Zealand will be his last. It is ideal for them as well, but they are only Wiganers by adoption; Forshaw is a native of the town, still lives there and likes the idea of it being there that he makes his last bow in the international arena.

"I can't imagine a better place to finish," Forshaw said, but he has talked this way before. "I suppose I retired after we had been trashed by New Zealand at Bolton in the World Cup in 1990. That was my reaction at the time, but when David Waite took over [as Great Britain coach] he spoke to me about playing again and gave me some new enthusiasm."

That enthusiasm is mutual, because Forshaw is one of the players about whom the Great Britain coach waxes lyrical. "There aren't many better tradesmen in the game than Michael," he said.

"He is something that all your young back-rowers should aspire to be – not just a tradesman, but a master tradesman. He does all the little things right and has the confidence to make the right decisions at the right time."

Perhaps not every career decision has been as incontrovertible. Given his time again, Forshaw might not have been as eager to leave his beloved home-town club when he despaired of becoming a Wigan regular and he might have given his baffling little stint with Saracens a miss.

Since joining Bradford in 1997, however, he has become a classic, late-blossoming success story. Initially regarded primarily as a second-row grafter, he has reinvented himself as a creative loose forward, with the result that it now strikes few people as odd that the Great Britain No 13 shirt, heavy with the symbolic sweat of the great players who have worn it, is in his possession rather than Andy Farrell's or Paul Sculthorpe's.

For all their outstanding qualities, it has been Forshaw's off-loading that has arguably given the Kiwis the most trouble during the current series. Like most things he does on the field, it is well thought out.

"If you shift the ball, they can struggle. They've got so many big players and we have people with the agility to take advantage. The point is that we can't match them in collision all the time.

"They have a reputation for off-loading the ball, but at times we've beaten them at their own game. Wigan is the best environment we could have for the third Test and the best thing about it is that we know we can still improve."

It will, he feels, be a perfect way to leave an international stage that, at some junctures of his career, he could barely have imagined stepping upon.

"I'll be 33 by the time Australia come here next year and I can't imagine being picked. There are so many good young back-rowers coming through that if I'm in the side something has gone wrong."

Waite disagrees, urging him to keep his options open, but, if this does turn out to be his swan-song, he will have few regrets. "It's all a matter of your form, but if, after this, it's all a matter of playing well for Bradford, I won't be disappointed."

It is typical of Forshaw that his probable last Test on Saturday could be overshadowed by the simultaneous departures of O'Connor and Connolly, two players who arrived at Wigan after he had been discarded.

Connolly is being put out to grass at Orrell, which Forshaw considers regrettable on two counts. "It's a shame he's leaving the game because he's shown in this series that he can still step up a level.

"Seeing the way he's played, I wonder whether Maurice Lindsay might be having a few second thoughts. He's been a fantastic player and I thought it was a shame that he just retired at Wigan without any publicity.

"Terry O'Connor is a real 100 per cent player. He was knocked out about four times in the second Test, but he just kept coming back for more.

"Prop is still the toughest position in the game and he obviously thinks it's the right time to go. But if he has an injury-free season next year he might get itchy feet again."

Mike Forshaw should know. He has suffered from that affliction before and, if David Waite has his way, he could have a recurrence next autumn.