Dan Biggar admits 'huge low' as he was 'knocked for six' following international retirement

Former Wales captain Dan Biggar has admitted his international retirement "knocked him for six."

The fly-half played his last game for Wales as they crashed out to Argentina in the quarter-finals of the Rugby World Cup last year, having announced his retirement before the tournament.

Now plying his trade for Toulon, the former Ospreys player told BBC Radio 5 Live: "If I'm brutally honest I expected us to win that quarter-final, I don't think I was quite prepared for it to end so abruptly."

He added: "When you lose in a quarter-final there's no hanging about for a third and fourth play-off.

'You basically pack your bags when you get back to the hotel, you check out and you're home within 24 hours."

Having had a strong tournament - topping Pool C and beating Australia 40-6 - Wales were expected to beat Argentina but suffered a disappointing 29-17 defeat, partly due to their poor discipline.

The former skipper admitted: "I think we allowed ourselves to get carried away [with the World Cup performance]."

Despite crashing out earlier than expected, Biggar earned 112 caps for Wales, having been the first choice in his position for the best part of a decade.

After such high achievements, there was a low.

The number 10 said it "knocked the absolute stuffing out of me afterwards and it was such a huge, huge low really afterwards."

He added: "For me it came as a bit of a shock and it knocked me for six a little bit.

"After everything I'd given to the sport for as many years as I had, I didn't really think that was how it was going to end.

"I remember just walking down the tunnel in the velodrome in Marseille after doing a lap and thanking the fans and that sort of hit me then because I knew that at that point there would be no more, that would be the last time that I'd walk back down a tunnel in a Wales shirt."

Biggar decided it was time for a break from rugby and so jetted off to Dubai on a family holiday following the tournament.

Admitting he "just couldn't hack being around" rugby after donning the Wales jersey for the last time, he added: "I was definitely able to switch off from rugby for that week which was pleasing because the last thing I wanted to do was be talking about rugby, or watching rugby, or analysing the game."

The Wales legend said it enabled him to "come back fresher," returning to France to play for club side Toulon.

He might now be back in France but beating Argentina would have secured two more matches, with a semi-final followed by either a third place play-off or the final.

It would have meant more time together as a team - something Biggar would have valued.

He said: "I felt like if we had won that quarter-final it would have given me a bit of a free shot at a semi-final and a bit of a chance to know that I would be in camp for two more weeks and maybe plan what we were going to do for maybe the last meal in camp or the last time we go to the stadium.

"I think that was my real aim. I know that we were nowhere near as good a side as South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand and France but that's what I think I was robbed of a little bit, in terms of those couple of weeks of enjoying people's company with no real pressure going into a World Cup semi-final, which is bizarre really when you think of it."

Talking about the immediate aftermath of retirement, Biggar said: "It was a really, really tough week to come to terms with after that."

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