Thomas Leuluai: Wigan Warriors legend to retire at end of season & join coaching staff

Thomas Leuluai will replace Brisbane Broncos-bound Lee Briers on the club's coaching staff

Wigan hooker Thomas Leuluai is to retire at the end of the season and take on the role of assistant coach at the club in 2023.

The 37-year-old New Zealand international is in his second spell with Warriors after re-joining in 2017.

He will lead out his country in a World Cup warm-up match against Leeds on 8 October before joining New Zealand's coaching staff for the tournament.

Leuluai said his 20-year career had been "an incredible journey".

He made his professional debut for New Zealand Warriors in 2003 to become the youngest player to have featured for the club.

A move to London Broncos followed in 2005 and he spent two seasons there before moving to Wigan for the first time in 2007.

He won a Grand Final and a Challenge Cup and then returned to NRL side Warriors in 2013.

However, he re-signed for Wigan in 2017 and has won the World Club Challenge and a further Grand Final and Challenge Cup.

'Outstanding coach'

He was named club captain following Sean O'Loughlin's retirement and to date has scored 74 tries in 325 games.

"I look back throughout the years and I just feel incredibly grateful for everything that rugby league has given me," Leuluai said.

"There have been wonderful times on the field, and amazing times off it. I've loved them all but without a doubt the best thing rugby league has given me is the friendships I have made."

Warriors coach Matt Peet added: "Personally, I owe so much to him for the support and guidance he has given me as a player, captain and friend and, for that, I say a massive thank you.

"Thomas has all the attributes to make an outstanding coach. He will bring so much to our coaching team and I am excited to work with him during the next stage of his career."

Wigan executive director Kris Radlinski, their former full-back, hailed Leuluai as "a fearless competitor" and "a great thinker of the sport" who "will go down as one of Super League's greatest players".

O'Loughlin, who Leuluai will join as an assistant coach, said the Kiwi was "a rugby league great" and "in my eyes the best overseas signing the club has ever made".

"I absolutely loved playing alongside him," O'Loughlin added. "To have a player with the skillset to open up the best defences and then back it up with hits that a front row would be proud of, is unprecedented."

Former Wigan head coach and current England head coach, Shaun Wane, called Leuluai "one of the toughest and fiercest competitors of the modern era" and "a legendary bloke off the field too".

"He has been a terrific servant for the Warriors on both sides of the world and will be a great coach," Wane added.