so sam is going to give up the captaincy . personally i will not be surprised if he retires from international after the lions tour this year he has had so many injuries over the years they must be taking toll on him now so wont surprise me if he does finish

Around 70 caps Wales and a 100 appearances for the Blues and burned out ? ... if he is retiring from international rugby, he better pick his club form up, because over the years it has been extremely patchy and at times anonymous . As it was against Glasgow.

Thats very harsh Blindside. Warburton has had an extensive list of injuries. When fit he is a superb,brave and fully committed player.

Harsh but true... there have been outstanding international performances, but in general he often goes missing in action for the Blues. Navidi has been a more valuable club player.

I watched half the game against Glasgow and honestly did not know he was on the field.

Just looked at his stats... i know they can be misleading, but 7 tries in 102 games. No try for over a year.
Its an indication your not tearing trees up.

He scored in the disaster against Japan in November actually.

The discussion was about his form for the Blues..... ? i quoted his appearances for them, so that is what i related the tries too.

I wouldn't judge an openside on the number of tries he has scored. He has been inconsistent but that goes hand in hand with constantly having to recover form having been so regularly injured.
I think AWJ is a better leader but cannot fault Warburton's commitment to the cause of the national team.

I think if Wales want to move from Warrenball, changing captain is also a requirement. To be honest Warbs hasn't looked that great as captain recently in my opinion. The thing that stands out in my head is when Wales played England just before the Welsh tour of NZ and Biggar was having a hissy fit, actions that would rub a ref up the wrong way and could have seen Wales being penalised. Warburton did little to assert himself and tell Biggar to talk to him and not the ref. I don't think Jones would have had that issue.

Its not his fault his form is off, he will get picked as long as he can jog on the field. He probably has not been fully fit and working well all year. He is very patchy, but if I had sholder problems I dont think I would be too keen to get my elbow rolled either.

I dont disagree he has shown up well in some big international matches against top opposition, i would not ever have classed him as one of the best opensides in world rugby, but on occasions he has bettered some i would.

My point is that if he quits international rugby and his dual contract, im not sure his club form would see me offering to make up the shortfall. Also the amount of rugby he has played shouldn't mean he is in anyway burned out.

He is one of the new breed of gym monkeys, i have my views on that.

He never seemed a creative "natural" rugby player to me, but a very fit physical player, who had a tremendous work rate. He has been a good servant for Wales, but hs body seems less willing then 2-3 years ago. Maybe the modern game takes its toll, especially the role he played, and players can only stay at the top for 3-5 years and not 10, particularly in high impact positions like back row and centre.

I'd go with that other than to say he's had fairly regular injuries ... it has been said that he's a 'gym monkey' and although his injuries have not been of the same proportion as Delve, another back rower, who had a similar penchant for the gym and very early development in that aspect.

Fair point - I'd forgotten about that little incident with Biggar - someone really should have shut him up.

Can anyone point me to somewhere Sam has actually said he is making himself unavailable ?