Mulvihill will help Warburton beat off rivals for the Wales No7 shirt

NEW Cardiff Blues coach John Mulvihill is a lucky man. Just look at the talent he has available to him in the back row.

Who does he give the No 7 jersey to – Josh Navidi, Ellis Jenkins or Sam Warburton? He can perm any two of those three at No 6 and 7, but you’ve also got Josh Turnbull to factor in.

Add into the mix the giant Nick Williams and the new man has a great base to work off if he can get his front five working even harder.

It has been amazing to see how Navidi and Jenkins have taken their chances while Warburton has been injured.

Fair play to both Navidi and Jenkins for biding their time at the Arms Park and learning in the shadow of the master. Navidi’s reward was a superb international season and then Jenkins stood in as co-captain on the summer tour to replace him when he was unavailable.

The question now is in what shape will Warburton return next season? One thing is certain, he will have to get back to his very best, or even better, to overtake his two protégés to make the Blues starting line-up.

But, mark my words, the Wales and British & Irish Lions captain likes nothing better than a challenge. He set the standards to which so many others, Justin Tipuric and James Davies among them, have had to aspire and he can do that again.

It was great to hear Mulvihill say that he wanted to make Warburton an even better player.

If coach and player work in harmony and achieve that then I’d expect Warburton to be back in the No.7 jersey for Wales at the World Cup.