‘It was absolutely savage… literally eat, sleep, train. So brutal’

Sam Warburton was thankfully alive and kicking this past week, restored to rude health after feeling unwell and being unable to speak when originally lined up to do some ambassadorial work on behalf of Canterbury after they extended their existing partnership to cover the upcoming 2025 British and Irish Lions tour to Australia.

Canterbury and the Lions have a special place in the heart of the retired two-tour skipper. Despite collecting multiple jerseys throughout his stellar career for Wales and Cardiff, the shirt he wore in the first half of the 2017 second Test win over the All Blacks in Wellington is the only one up on display at home.

Warburton has never been the type that shows off his past achievements but what he had done to commemorate what was achieved on tour six years ago in New Zealand sounds iconic. “I have only got one jersey up in my house actually and that is when the Lions won in the second Test in 2017,” he revealed to RugbyPass.

We gave U20 New Zealand rugby players cameras and let them do whatever they want | Fuel Me

We gave U20 New Zealand rugby players cameras and let them do whatever they want | Fuel Me

“It’s my Canterbury jersey. We had two every game and I would change at half-time and put my second one on. I swapped my second-half jersey for Kieran Read’s jersey, which was his 99th cap. Given it was a winning Lions Test jersey and it was in that infamous second Test in Wellington, I have got that up with my Lions cap and Kieran Read’s jersey in a frame as well.

“I don’t like having much up in my house, that is just in my garage where my gym is. I don’t want to reminisce too much. That is the only one I have got up. That is my personal favourite jersey and it was great that I managed to get Kieran Read’s as well.”

Explain the logic, though, behind the half-time shirt change. “With the Lions, I always changed at half-time so that I had two authentic playing shirts and that if someone did want to swap, you’d be giving them a proper one. When you played internationals, you didn’t swap every game. Sometimes you did, sometimes you didn’t. But when you play for the Lions, every game the opposition floods in.

“New Zealand don’t swap very often when they play Wales. But for the Lions they all swap, they all want to swap with you, which makes you realise how high a regard they hold for the Lions. So for the Lions, we get given two shirts and it’s only at Lions level because at Lions level everybody wants to swap.”

Warburton sure looked the part at the time in his red Lions jersey. “It’s lightweight but also looks casual at the same time,” he attested about the garment that the tourists wore in a series drawn one-all following third Test stalemate in Auckland.

“We have seen jerseys which are really skintight, and they look skintight and they are not very attractive, but I always think Canterbury are very practical, breathable, lightweight and durable. It is a very difficult…