Mike Haywood, the hooker for Northampton Saints, has declared that he will retire from professional rugby when the 2022/23 season concludes.
Throughout his 13-year career at Franklin’s Gardens’ cinch Stadium, the 31-year-old has impressively participated in 269 games for the Black, Green, and Gold, scoring a total of 34 tries.
“It’s been an amazing journey for me with Saints,” Haywood told the club’s website.
“It’s hard to put into words how lucky I feel and how grateful I am to have had this experience at the club.”
Haywood turned out for Colchester RFC during his time in Northampton’s junior ranks, and made his senior debut against Gloucester in 2011 before becoming a regular feature of Saints’ first team squad – playing no fewer than 18 games a season for seven years until injury unfortunately struck in 2018.
The Southend-born hooker started both the victorious Premiership Rugby and European Challenge Cup finals in 2014, as well as the epic win over Leicester Tigers in that year’s Premiership semi-final. And in the summer of 2016, Haywood was named in the Premiership Dream Team after a string of impressive performances during the 2015/16 season.
The hooker then became Saints’ top try scorer the following campaign, scoring eight times in 29 appearances that term, and played almost every game of the 2017/18 season – scoring an outstanding effort against Harlequins which was nominated for the league’s Try of the Season.
Despite a knee injury picked up on his 200th Saints appearance in 2018 keeping Haywood on the sidelines for most of the 2018/19 campaign, the hooker’s third piece of silverware with Saints came that term as the side toppled Saracens in the Premiership Rugby Cup final.
A bout of Covid-19 set Haywood back ahead of the 2021/22 season, but he recovered impressively to make 20 appearances, which included a last-minute winning try at Bath (that proved vital in helping Saints reach the Premiership play-offs) and his 250th Club cap against Bristol Bears.
