Great player, natural leader and top bloke

IT’S not just Cardiff and Wales who will badly miss Sam Warburton. The entire game will be poorer for his retirement but at the same time united in praise of a quite exceptional career and an exemplary bloke. Sam gave the single best performance I have seen by a British and Irish Lion in the second Test against Australia in 2013 when the Wallabies were fighting to keep the series alive. He had been brilliant in the first Test as well and for 70 minutes he was everywhere, trying to get the Lions over the line. Then he got injured and Australia struck to level it at 1-1. Four years later he was nearly as good in the second and third Tests for the Lions against New Zealand when, after racing to overcome injury, he had been overlooked for the first Test even though he was captain. Only an individual with his maturity and common sense could take that in his stride and it was entirely predictable that he should produce stunning displays in the second and third Tests as the Lions fought back. And only a true gent like Sam, with the respect of referees and opposition, could have kept his cool at the death in the third Test and, correctly, persuade Romain Poite to reverse his penalty decision against the Lions. He was always level-headed and fair — witness the 2011 World Cup semi-final when he was broken-hearted to misjudge his tackle on Vincent Clerc. It wasn’t intentional but he knew Alain Rolland’s decision to send him off was correct and didn’t make a drama out of a crisis. Sam was a superb modern-day flanker, incredibly fit, a natural jackal, chop-tackler, humble in victory, uncomplaining in defeat. My big hope now is that he goes into coaching.