Pat Lambie: Some of his finest moments for the Sharks and the Boks [video]

Former Sharks and Springboks flyhalf, Pat Lambie called time on his professional rugby career at an age where many players would have close to a decade remaining before calling it quits.

Aged just 28, the player who was once South African rugby’s brightest prospect had suffered many injury setbacks, including serious head knocks – two of which resulted in concussion.

While he was due a return from a knee injury which ruled him out for most of last year, the after-effect of those blows to the head had begun to take a toll on him, forcing him to hang up his boots. This was in the year he was expected to contend for a place in the Bok squad for the Rugby World Cup.

Despite his admittedly premature retirement, as well as missing out on a ticket to Japan, Lambie has had a long career, which owed much to the prodigious talent he displayed from when he was a teenager.

Having been selected for SA Schools in his last two years at Michaelhouse, he quickly sprung into the rugby-loving public’s consciousness when he made his Currie Cup debut as a 19-year old in the 2009 season.

The following year saw him earn a call-up to the Springboks, where he notched up 56 caps – the last of which came just after his 26th birthday in the November Tests of 2016.

In his final year as an international, Lambie had suffered the first of his two concussions after colliding with SA-born Irish loosie, CJ Stander at Newlands. The second would come in the following year’s Super Rugby season – which was his last before taking his talents to France, where he joined Racing 92.

In between his professional debut and his last international, the versatile back had delighted fans in the black and white of the Sharks, as well as the Boks’green and gold – leaving South Africa as a firm favourite at Kings Park.

Watch: Some memorable Pat Lambie moments for the Sharks and the Springboks here