Sam Warburton speaking during coverage of Wales v England. (Image: BBC.)
Former rugby captain Sam Warburton revealed that he missed the contact sport so much when he first retired that he wanted to tackle a dog being walked in the park by his male owner. Warburton left his colleagues speechless when previewing the blockbuster finale against .
Warburton had been a key figure on many occasions against England, with his physicality especially being key to the famous 2013 win in Cardiff. This time around there is less at stake for Matt Sherratt’s side, hoping to avoid the Wooden Spoon, while .
Warburton was desperate to be back out on the pitch and revealed that unlike most retirees, he missed playing and even more so when he first hung up his boots. “I love the contact, it’s probably the only thing I really miss about the game,” he said before the match.
“When I was recently retired I remember there was a guy walking his dog in a park towards me and I thought: ‘I would love if he ran at me now’.”
Beeb host asked if Warburton meant that he wanted to hit the dog or the man, to which he replied: “Both. You just miss that contact. Not in training, I hated it during training, Monday to Friday I didn’t like it. But out there, that contact and that feeling of trying to dominate someone, because that is what you want to do as a back row it’s contact all day.
Sam Warburton during his retirement from rugby. (Image: Getty)
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“Collisions, attacking breakdowns, defensive breakdowns, you have got to love it. You won’t get to this level unless you love that contact. It’s weird but it’s quite normal for a mindset amongst all forwards and back rowers.”
Warburton, 36, retired in 2019 after 74 international caps and three British & Irish Lions tours, and his sentiment was echoed by fellow pundit John Barclay. The Scot added: “The most commonly asked question I get now that I am retired is: ‘Do I miss playing?’
“And almost everyone I know says ‘not really’ but when Tom Curry said ‘I missed waking up and rolling out of bed in agony’, it sounds totally ridiculous to say.
“Even saying it out loud, but you [Martin Johnson] was saying before there is a real honesty to that feeling of being so sore. Generally the more sore you are the better you played.
“What you don’t miss is the long-term rehab, the chronic pain side of things, but the immediate misery after a game is so hard to articulate.”