Canada great John Moonlight retires

Canada Sevens stalwart John Moonlight has announced his retirement from rugby, effective immediately, to become a fire-fighter in Ontario.

The 30-year-old has been an integral part of Canada’s Sevens and Fifteens Teams for nearly the past decade, helping the team lift their first-ever Cup title in 2017 in Singapore and being named Canada’s Sevens Player of the Year on four consecutive occasions.

Moonlight made his sevens debut in Hong Kong in 2009 and is Canada’s all-time tournament leader with 65 appearances on the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series. He was named in the World Sevens Series ‘Dream Team’ in 2013/14 along with Phil Mack after helping his side tie their best-ever series finish in sixth place, which included their first-ever cup final appearance in Scotland against New Zealand. His 318 total matches on the World Series, a Canadian record, is fourteenth highest all-time.

His 116 tries is good for second on the all-time list for Canadians, three ahead of Nate Hirayama and only eight behind flyer Sean Duke for the record. Moonlight sits third on Canada’s points scoring list this season, having scored 16 tries and racked up 80 points through eight tournaments so far.

Moonlight made his debut for Canada’s Fifteens against Georgia in 2009 after climbing through the provincial ranks within Rugby Ontario and picked up a further 23 Test caps for Canada’s National Team, including three at the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England. His three international tries came against Japan, Samoa and USA.

Moonlight was also pivotal in Canada’s historic back-to-back Gold Medal performances at the 2011 & 2015 Pan American Games in Mexico and Toronto. He also represented Canada in the 2010, 2014 & 2018 editions of the Commonwealth Games in India, Scotland and Australia, along with the 2013 Rugby World Cup 7s in Russia and two Olympic qualifiers in USA and Monaco in 2015 and 2016.