Josh Beaumont Exclusive: The 'relief' of retirement, reflections and his testimonial year
Josh Beaumont hung up the boots at the end of the 2024/25 season but has still been busy in his testimonial year
©Sale Sharks
Josh Beaumont has never been the kind of player who has sought the limelight.
But after more than a decade of top-flight rugby, nearly 200 appearances for Sale Sharks, and gaining a reputation for always giving it his all, he deserves his moment in the sun.
Now, as the 33-year-old steps away from the field and into a new chapter off it, Beaumont’s testimonial year not only offers him a chance to reflect on his career, but also to take stock of the highs and lows as well as looking to the future.
“The decision to retire was probably more relief than anything,” Beaumont tells Talking Rugby Union in a candid interview.
“I was still weighing up [whether to retire] around the time we went out to play the Stormers in South Africa in January. I got a knock to my knee, which wasn’t serious, but I saw a knee specialist because it wasn’t really settling.
“He sort of made the decision for me. The amount of work that has been done to my knee over the years…I might have had to have a clean-out of the knee if I wanted to carry on playing, but it would only have been for another year anyway.
“The last four or five years have been tough on my body. I’d put so much work in just to get through a season. It was getting harder and harder, so I just thought it's best to give the body a rest now.”
That honesty is a central theme in Beaumont’s answers. There is no self-mythologising, no polished soundbites. In that sense, the humble 6ft 7in lock has remained the same from when he first began his journey into professional rugby to the present day.
From balancing his studies and rugby at Durham University with a year in Newcastle Falcons’ academy, it was back at his boyhood club, Fylde, where he first caught the eye of Sale.
“I played against Sale in a pre-season game for Fylde and played okay,” Beaumont recalls. “Then it was Nelly [Mark Nelson] and Angy [Pete Anglesea] in ‘The Taps’ [a pub just down the road from Fylde’s Woodlands home] asking if I fancied coming down for pre-season.”
He did - and never looked back.
Within weeks, Beaumont was in the first-team mix. “I remember finishing uni and was straight into pre-season,” he says. “It was all a bit of a whirlwind.”
That was over a decade ago. Since then, Beaumont has arguably grown into a symbol of Sale. A second row with a work ethic forged in the north, always dedicated to the cause and a quiet leader who never made it about him.
There are flashes of nostalgia, too. Beaumont tells a story of how he went to New Zealand for the 2005 British and Irish Lions tour with his father Bill, who was tour manager at the time. As a 13-year-old, he was watching some of his favourite players don the famous red jersey, including Mark Cueto, who would go on to become a teammate.
“That was so weird,” Beaumont laughs. “Cuets is obviously a legend of Sale. It was surreal to then train and play with him a few years later.”
Beaumont’s path into the Sale first team was strewn with familiar faces. The likes of Tommy Taylor, Ross Harrison, Will Cliff, players from school, age-grade squads and county teams all became close friends. “It just felt right coming to a North-West club and representing Sale.”
From the buzz of making his debut in 2013 to his final appearance against Saracens at the end of April, playing for the leading club in his region has never been lost on the towering lock.
Alongside his near 200 appearances for Sale, Beaumont also wishes he could have added to his overall total.
After being voted Players' Player of the Year in 2014/15, England came calling.
Non-Test appearances against the Barbarians did eventually bookend his international journey, but despite being on Eddie Jones’ radar at the time, a full cap eluded Beaumont.
“I mean, it was hard coming into a completely new environment,” Beaumont reflects. “Around sort of 2015/16, it was Eddie Jones’ first EPS squad and you know, Eddie had his ways. I probably just wasn't quite ready for that level at that time, being at Sale for only a year or two.”
But he doesn’t let that disappointment naw away at him: “I had some great experiences. Captaining England against the Barbarians, pulling on that shirt. On the whole, to have played at the highest level in the Premiership for 12,13 years, I can't have too many complaints!”
But perhaps we have to put things into perspective.
When Beaumont first joined Sale, at the time, it wasn’t a club known for producing regular England call-ups.
In England’s 2015 World Cup squad, there were no representatives from the Sharks and even in their 2016 Six Nations roster, Beaumont was the only Sale name included.
“In the early days, that was the way it was,” Beaumont says. “Lads would move on to boost their international hopes. “Tommy [Taylor] went to Wasps, you had James Gaskell, Rob Miller who left.
“Now it’s different. We’ve six guys going on tour this summer, and then two British and Irish Lions. That says it all.”
With a swarm of Sharks heading to Argentina with England and Luke Cowan-Dickie and Tom Curry over in Australia with the Lions, it backs up Beaumont’s next point that Sale are seemingly on an upward curve.
From the foundations laid by Steve Diamond to Alex Sanderson coming in and guiding Sale to four Premiership semi-finals in five seasons, Beaumont puts the club’s transformation down to consistent investment, strong leadership and the promotion of home-grown talent.
“Obviously Simon and Michelle [Orange] and Ged [Mason] came in in 2016 and I think that was always going to take a bit of time.
“Dimes did a great job sort of managing a squad, on less of a budget. We'd get Champions Cup every year and we started to really get some momentum in the club just around COVID, actually.
And then, with Al coming in, he added that sort of experience of constantly winning trophies and really pushing us and getting the best out of the squad with continued investment and promotion from within. That’s been a real difference.”
For Beaumont, reaching the 2023 Premiership final - Sale’s first in 17 years - remains a standout moment in his career, even if it did end in defeat against Saracens: “It was pretty special to get there. A lot of hard work went into that from the owners, coaches, players, everyone. It was a journey. Gutted we couldn’t win it, but the success will come.”
Whilst Beaumont may not have lifted the grandest prizes in rugby, seeing the Sharks touch glory again doesn’t seem too far away.
And if they do, he will have a front row seat to witness it.
Retirement hasn’t meant walking away as Beaumont will be sticking with Sale in a commercial capacity, bringing his rugby insight and deep community ties to the business side of the club.
“I’ll still be heavily involved,” says Beaumont, who has an MBA in 'CEO's in Sports Organisations' from the University of Salford. “It’s not as though I’m moving into a completely new industry. I’ll be around the game a lot.
“I keep winding Fylde up saying I’m waiting for my contract! Just to add, there’s no way I’d sign for Preston Grasshoppers [Fylde’s Lancashire rivals in National Two North]. They could pay me all the money in the world and I wouldn’t go!
“There is a reason I’m not continuing to play and that is because of my knee! I am just looking forward to moving into a different side of the club."
So it all means Beaumont will get to enjoy a rare summer off, his first in years without the physically taxing experience of rehab or pre-season: “We [Josh + his wife Ailsa] have got a holiday booked in July. Our little boy Charlie is nine months old, so it’ll be great to get away as a family. I think we’ve not been away since last June so it will be a nice change!”
Although he made just 10 appearances in the 2024/25 season, Beaumont has kept busy off the field, organising events as part of his testimonial year.
Of course, it has been - and will continue to be - a celebration of his career, but Beaumont has used his testimonial as a platform to raise awareness for some foundations and charities close to his heart.
“It’s [the testimonial] is a great thing to do,” Beaumont adds. “There is always so much the club can get involved with, but they said they’d award me with the testimonial and it's fantastic to raise money for some great causes - My Name'5 Doddie Foundation, Restart and the Fylde and Sale foundations.”
Back in March, they held a charity dinner dubbed as ‘The Battle of the Beaumonts’: “Yeah, so this was a bit of a ‘A Question of Sport’ theme,” Beaumont explains. “Obviously Dad [who served for many years as a team captain on the well-known television quiz show] was involved!
“So we had Dad as a team captain and me as the other. Dad got Beefy [Ian Botham] (the former England cricketer who captained the opposing team to Beaumont Sr on 'A Question of Sport') involved and it was a good laugh.
“We had Flats [David Flatman] who did a great job emceeing, we had teams on tables playing along and the feedback was brilliant. We are doing a similar thing up in Manchester in September so hopefully that can be bigger and better.”
But it’s not all dinners. A cricket match is also on the schedule, featuring a ‘Josh Beaumont XI’ going up against a team led by former Lancashire all-rounder Steven Croft on Friday, June 27th, at Lytham Cricket & Sports Club.
“I might roll the arm over,” Beaumont chuckles. “I get shoulder pain now every time I bowl, but I know people probably want to see me bat!
“I actually played for Lytham 2s the other weekend and got one! I’m having a net on Thursday night just to get my eye in. I’ll be coming in lower down the order, I think!”
And Beaumont has also enlisted the help of a couple of his Sale Sharks teammates: “So we played in Will Cliff’s testimonial game a couple of years ago and Duggy [Sam Dugdale] and Gus [Warr] were the standouts.
“I would have liked to have got more lads playing, but a lot of them are away on international duty or with the Lions.
“So Duggy played Lancashire age-grade and is a bowler, but he can bat a bit and Gus is a bit of an all-rounder. He is a bit of a wicket-keeper. I know he’s keeping wicket on Friday but as you can imagine, as a scrum-half, he will chirp the batsman all day!”
Whether Beaumont can channel his inner Ben Duckett or James Anderson sounds unlikely, but he will do so with a smile on his face.
When it comes to his rugby career though, yes, he might have wanted more silverware and that full England cap, but Beaumont’s overall reflections are grounded, measured and ultimately full of peace.
“I have felt like I have not had too much time to reflect, but obviously, I felt playing at Fylde at the time I was there, with the bits of success the club were having, was really great,” Beaumont says. “I had a great time there and Durham was unbelievable as well.
“And just to play near 200 times for your local club, and a few England appearances, I'm pretty proud of all that. I met some great people along the way, had some great memories and the fans always supported me, but yeah, I was definitely ready to retire when I did.”
Catch Josh Beaumont’s XI vs Steven Croft’s XI at Lytham Cricket & Sports Club on Friday, June 27th, starting at 5pm. Tickets are £7.50 for adults, £5 for members, and free for kids under 16.
