The former Wales captain says there was nothing worse in his career than what happened to his team-mate
Sam Warburton(Image: Richard Williams)
Wales legend Sam Warburton has revealed the lowest point in his career as a rugby player in an interview with former England international James Haskell.
British and Irish Lions tourist Haskell asked Warburton to provide three career highlights as well as three career lowlights. The former Cardiff flanker said his top three moments were the 2012 Six Nations Grand Slam, the 2013 Six Nations title and his first cap for the Lions. Then, the Welshman discussed some moments he would rather forget.
Warburton said that watching his team-mate Owen Williams sustain a career-ending injury was, without a doubt, the lowest point of his career.
“There was a player, you might have played against him, he’s called Owen Williams,” said Warburton to Haskell.
“And in 2014, he got paralyzed playing for Cardiff.
“Owen was an amazing athlete. Probably one of the best athletes I’ve ever played with.
“But literally, he went down in a summer game, just pre-season and done – quadriplegic.
“That was the lowest point, just seeing a team-mate go through that. That was really tough.”
Williams made four appearances for Wales in 2013 before suffering the career-ending moment for Cardiff Blues in the World Club Tens tournament in Singapore in a freak incident.
Owen Williams, playing for Wales in 2013(Image: PA Wire)
Owen Williams, pictured in 2020(Image: © Huw Evans Picture Agency)
He was left paralysed from the chest down, suffering significant damage to his cervical vertebrae and spinal cord that left him with no feeling in his legs or torso and just limited sensation in his arms.
In 2020, Williams said he now has movement in both arms and is able to drive a specially configured car through hand controls. He also revealed he was going to become a father.
Speaking about his other low career moments, notoriously clean-living Warburton went on to explain that he doesn’t have regrets, before Haskell joked, “Had a couple more pints? Not nursed them until they caught fire?”
Despite the clear jibing, Warburton explained that he genuinely wished he let loose a little more as Lions captain. He said he felt the responsibility to remain squeaky clean, being the skipper, but with the benefit of hindsight, says he wishes he “bought into it a little bit more.”
His third ‘lowlight’ was, unsurprisingly, the spear tackle on France back Vincent Clerc in the World Cup of 2011.
Wales were one of the best teams in the tournament that year, and it was the birth of their golden generation that featured the likes of Taulupe Faletau and George North.
Cymru played the rest of the game with 14 men and lost narrowly 9-8 to France in the semi-final, with many fans theorising that Wales could have beaten New Zealand in the final.
Warburton, despite this low moment, went on to become one of the greatest ever rugby players. He was captain on two Lions tours – 2013 and 2017 – winning one against Australia and drawing against New Zealand. He retired in 2018.