Peter Jackson: So, have the roaring 40s blown Brad Thorn off course?

Brad Thorn was saying only the other day how he planned to be playing ‘top level footy’ at 40, a long-distance landmark beyond the reach of the modern gladiator.
The most durable of All Blacks had sailed past his 39th birthday in such an apparent state of indestructibility that nobody would have questioned his physical or mental stamina to last another 12 months. Big Brad may be wishing now that he had not tempted fate.
Just like Devon Loch, the Queen’s horse whose four legs gave way 50 yards from a victorious ride at the Grand National more than 50 years ago, Thorn has come to grief within sight of the winning post. A torn bicep during the Highlanders’ Super 15 home win over the Bulls has finished his season.
“It’s a ridiculous age, 39, to still be playing I know but I still feel like I can mix it. My goal has been to play at the top-level at 40 and then I’m finished,” he said before the accident. “I love my footy and the team still want me.”
Whether they do now, is another matter.    He wouldn’t be the first to bust a gut within sight of the finishing line. No full-time professional got closer than Simon Shaw, the gigantic English Wasp who was counted out this time last year within four months of completing his fourth decade.
Another of England‘s Grand Old Men, George Chuter, called it a day last week not far short of his 38th birthday, a decision which presumably allows him to concentrate on his party piece from a previous life with Croydon Cricket Club – slapping his head with a heavyweight bat.
Victor Matfield has done the opposite two years after he quit on the basis that the retirement lark is not all it’s cracked up to be. After 110 Tests, the Springbok lock aims to be back for his 111th against Wales in June, a month after turning 37.
Others in their late 30s are embarking on new clubs next season or staying at old ones on renewed contracts.
Nathan Hines, the Scotland lock from Wagga Wagga, is joining Sale from Clermont on a two-year deal which means he will be almost as close to 40 when it runs out as Shaw was when his Toulon contract ran out last year.
Another 37-year-old lock, Ian Gough, will be back in Wales next season at the Dragons. Julien Bonnaire, still a force in his 36th year, has convinced Clermont that he has at least two more seasons in him after this one.
Nick Easter, a month older than Bonnaire, is far from finished at Harlequins, likewise Clermont’s Canadian lumberjack of a lock Jamie Cudmore, a mere broth of a boy at 35, and Michael Swift, Connacht’s evergreen former England schools cap, will be continuing as normal next season. As will another 36-year-old, Peter Stringer at Bath.
Thorn, though, is still out in front. Should the Highlanders decide not to retain his services, he will find no shortage of takers in the English Premiership, the Top 14 and the Pro 12.