There are good ways to go, and bad ways. We're not talking about shuffling off this mortal coil, but the departure closest to it: retiring from sport. It's always hard to get it just right: a final wave to the crowd, a few years of feet up followed by dignified anonymity. Phil Mostert tossed his rugby boots over the stern of the ship bringing home the Springbok team of 1937 that had been victorious in New Zealand and retired to his farm in KZN.HO de Villiers, one of the most gifted running fullbacks of all time, suffered mild embarrassment long after injuries had restricted his game time to club rugby with Villagers. After a curtain-raiser at Loftus (Villagers were on tour), he was pointed out "as a great Springbok" by a well-meaning official to some wide-eyed schoolboys hoping to add to their autograph collections.The boys who approached De Villiers were too young to recall the dazzling fullback of the late 1960s, whose beautifully balanced running left even non-WP fans gasping in admiration.By then, however, the sleek frame had filled out somewhat and the boys, once they had overcome initial nerves, ventured to ask of him: "Oom? Oom, did you play loosehead or tighthead?"With television, no laaitie is likely to make that sort of mistake today. They will recognise their heroes in years to come, no matter how gaunt or overweight they have become (the heroes as well as, possibly, the boys).This Rugby World Cup has represented a farewell for some of the game's greats who followed in the bootsteps of Mostert and De Villiers. Sadly, too many have limped off into the sunset rather than ridden tall. Jean de Villiers left clutching a broken jaw against Samoa. Three others departed with that "old man's injury", the hamstring - Tony Woodcock against Tonga, Paul O'Connell in the quarterfinals against Argentina and poor Freddie Michalak when his kick was charged down by Brodie Retallick against the All Blacks. To add insult to the French flyhalf's injury, Retallick scored from that move.On the Springbok side we are unlikely to ever see Victor Matfield in a Springbok jersey again and it's just a pity that rugby has not followed cricket's example of a benefit season. If ever a Bok deserved one, it is the hirsute lock. Even sadder is that he, and his old comrade-in-arms Fourie du Preez, were not able to engineer the perfect sayonara, as All Black Brad Thorn did in 2011 when he was part of the World Cup-winning team.Some of those who will not play Test rugby again, like the wonderful Aussie wing Adam Ashley-Cooper and even All Blacks flyhalf Dan Carter, might not give up right away but go on to play club rugby in the lucrative French league, where Bakkies Botha is accumulating a nice and not-so-small pension.To all those heroes getting ready to put their feet up, I can only suggest some of Gareth Chilcott's retirement philosophy. When the no-nonsense English prop, who played in the first Rugby World Cup, called it a day, he said he would celebrate it "with a quiet pint - and 17 noisy ones". Cheers to them all...