Mark Regan column: I'm ready for my farewell to rugby

Mark Regan column: This is it – the last game of competitive rugby I'll be playing.

I'll still keep my boots and play on some other tours, such as the Classic Lions and the World Rugby Classic in Bermuda, but my competitive career is over as of tomorrow evening.

It would have been nice to have played against Wasps at home last weekend, but my foot wasn't quite right. I still managed to say goodbye to most of the fans at the Memorial Stadium when I walked round with the players after the game, though.

Tomorrow we're at Leicester, but I'll go anywhere and play. We know it's a tough game and we know there's something tangible on it for Leicester.

We also know we're not as good as Leicester, full stop. The stats don't lie and we don't have players as good as Leicester's.

But we can go there and play with some pride and passion – and we're going there as the last 22 to play together in a Bristol Rugby shirt in the Premiership for a while.

There are lots of other guys leaving, too, and they don't want to finish on a low. We don't want to go up there and get a panning, put it that way.

I've prepared myself for retirement; it has not been a sudden thing.

I have been preparing for this since the turn of the year, but I'm a great believer that when one door closes, another one opens.

There's definite work for me to do and I've got my fingers in a lot of pies at the moment – my dad's business, another business which I am a director of, corporate work, hospitality work, a bit of speaking and a bit of radio.

There's lot of bits and pieces. I don't want to work full-time, though. I'd like to work part-time, and I'll still be coming up to Bristol Rugby to watch them play every week.

I'm a legend here – those stats don't lie! I'm on the website as a legend and they gave me a nice little montage last week with all my pictures on, that said: Mark Regan – Bristol Rugby legend.

I'm massively proud of what I've achieved and no-one can take that away from me.

I've put in a lot of hard work, although I know I could have worked harder.

I knew where the pitfalls were, but I decided to ignore them every now and then, and I probably could have got another 20 or 30 caps.

But I have had a great time and I realise that all good things come to an end – it's just a question of how you bow out.

And if I have a good game at the weekend, I'll be pleased.