Sam Warburton was reflecting at the start of last year on how long his career may have to run. He had turned 28 two months before and, while he wistfully thought of still playing at the age of 35, he conceded that his body, after 18 major injuries, would probably not hold out that long. As it turned out his final outing would come six months later, helping the British & Irish Lions draw the series in New Zealand with a decisive intervention at the end of the third Test when he gently dissuaded the referee, Romain Poite, from awarding the All Blacks a penalty that would have won them the match and the rubber.
Warburton took last season off to allow neck and knee injuries to repair fully and give himself a tilt at playing in the World Cup next year but the rest only convinced his body that it had had enough. Realising he would not be the player he was, he announced his retirement in what is his testimonial season nine years after making his debut for Cardiff Blues and Wales, concerned more at the thought he was letting down his region than what he was going to do for the rest of his working life.
Written by Paul Rees
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2018/jul/18/sam-warburton-retires-wales-lions under the title “Sam Warburton was a coach’s dream and will be an enormous loss to Wales | Paul Rees”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
