Sasagi (33) has retired from all levels of the game as he concentrates on family and other matters.
Sasagi, who played on the tighthead side of the scrum for Otago, and also had four caps for Samoa, spent most of the past season on the bench for Otago, but still made an impact when he came on.
He had not sweated over the retirement decision.
"I just wanted to concentrate on other things. Family time, other work. In the end it wasn’t a hard decision to make," he said.
Sasagi made his debut for Otago in 2012 and all up played 68 times for Otago. He was a strong scrummager who got round the park the longer his career went on.
Otago has been strong in the set piece over the past few years and Sasagi was a big part of that. He worked hard on his scrummaging and fitness later in his career.
He has a new 15-month-old baby, with partner Nadia Oxby, and a 10-year-old boy, Jonty, with a previous partner. Add in a fulltime job as a youth worker with Oranga Tamariki and he felt something had to give.
"But I’m happy how my career has panned out. I didn’t expect to make it to any level so I’m proud of how far I went. To be able to represent my country of birth at international level was something special as was [being able] to play Super Rugby."
The former Otago Boys’ High School pupil was born in Samoa but moved to Dunedin aged 8.
He said there were no regrets over his career, although he had to pull out of contention to play for Samoa at last year’s World Cup because of the birth of his daughter Niva.
Sasagi was picked in the Hurricanes in 2016, the year the side won the Super Rugby title.
He was plagued by injury that year. He was all set to make the reserves bench for the quarterfinal but was injured and missed the game. Sasagi did not end up getting on the field in that season.
He finally made it to Super Rugby when he came off the bench for the Blues against the Hurricanes last year.
Sasagi, or Yoshihisa Sasagi using his full name, also linked with English club Saracens in 2018 as injury cover.
All up in those 60 plus games for Otago he estimated he would have played about two or three games of 80 minutes.
He did not mind playing only part of the game — it was simply the way the game was and he enjoyed coming off the bench to play the last 20 to 30 minutes as he could make an impact.
