Sam Warburton was a coach’s dream and will be an enormous loss to Wales | Paul Rees
The youngest player to captain a side at a World Cup has called it a day at 29Sam 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...