MELBOURNE, April 22 (Reuters) - Former Australia flyhalf Bernard Foley, who earned the nickname 'Iceman' for nailing crucial kicks, will retire from professional rugby at the end of the Japanese season, his team Kubota Spears said.
The 36-year-old earned the last of his 76 caps for Australia in 2022 before heading to Japan, where he helped the Spears to the League One title in 2023.
Once a rugby sevens specialist who won a Commonwealth Games silver medal at Delhi 2010, Foley booted a 79th minute penalty from 45 metres to seal the New South Wales Waratahs' first Super Rugby title in 2014 with a 33-32 win over the Canterbury Crusaders in the final.
He attained national hero status the following year as Michael Cheika's Wallabies reached the 2015 World Cup final in England, producing a 28-point game to knock out the hosts from the pool phase before booting an 80th minute penalty to eliminate Scotland 35-34 in the quarter-finals.
Foley was also a member of Cheika's squad for the ill-fated 2019 World Cup in Japan, where the Wallabies were knocked out in the quarter-finals.
Although he left Australian rugby for Japan after that World Cup, Foley earned a Wallabies recall under Dave Rennie in 2022 and was never far from the selection conversation in recent years whenever injuries struck Australia's flyhalf stocks.
Kubota confirmed Foley's retirement along with two other Spears players -- Japan test flanker Lappies Labuschagne and lock David Bulbring.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
