Self-styled caveman Sebastien Chabal retired from rugby on Sunday, the French forward bowing out with critics split over his rugby-playing abilities but no one in doubt over his role as a “monument to marketing”.

The 36-year-old Chabal won 62 caps for France as a powerhouse lock and back row forward, winning two Grand Slams, and his last act of a 16-year career came when he turned out a final time for Lyon, his current club which he has helped seal promotion from the ProD2 to the Top 14.

Lyon beat La Rochelle 27-26 on Sunday, Chabal running on as a substitute to rapturous applause.

Chabal was one of the best-known and best-paid rugby players in the world, his dark beard and long hair catapulting him into the public eye, with a couple of notable performances on the pitch in 2007.

“I adore rugby but I’m very conscious of the efforts needed to perform at the highest level,” Chabal had said when announcing he would retire earlier in the week.

“Lyon have been promoted into the elite division of French rugby, a level at which I played for a long time.

“My body and my head tell me it’s time to stop. My body is suffering and my head no longer wants to make my body suffer.

“You have to know to accept when it’s over. My sporting career is finished, but my life is not.”

France’s rugby newspaper Midi Olympique headlined its piece on Chabal: “A look, some nicknames, some adverts and a little bit of rugby: what Sebastien Chabal will be known for.

“Do the test,” the paper said. “Take a random person: your grandmother, a busker on the subway or the local check-out girl.

“These people might not have a particular interest in rugby, but one name will be emitted from their mouths: that of Sebastien Chabal.

“Don’t go looking for a rational or scientific explanation, it’s a fact… he’s the best known rugby player in France.”

Chabal was one of the faces of the 2007 World Cup in France, but as Rugby World argued, while the retiring Brian O’Driscoll of Ireland and England’s Jonny Wilkinson are monuments to rugby, the Frenchman was simply a “monument to marketing”.