INTERNATIONAL TEST - WALES v SOUTH AFRICA Venue: Millennium Stadium Date: Saturday, 5 June Kick-off: 1430 BST Coverage: Exclusively live on BBC TWO Wales & online, full commentary on BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Cymru & online, score updates on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sport website
Flanker Sam Warburton has a point to prove for both club and country
By Steffan Garrero BBC Sport Wales
It is 08:30 at the end of a long, hard season. Sportsmen have better things to be doing with their time.
There are plenty of exhausted bodies around the Vale of Glamorgan Hotel, the home of the Wales rugby team.
But Sam Warburton arrives smiling in the sunshine. He is relaxed in shorts, T-shirt and flip-flops and ready to talk.
The Cardiff Blues flanker has plenty of energy to burn. Since January he has only played a full 80 minutes twice - once for the Blues and once for Wales.
His role in life at the moment is to answer questions about the man who keeps him out of the number seven shirt for club and country.
"If I'm being honest, I do see myself as being second to Martyn Williams," Warburton said. "I really want to be first choice but then Martyn has been playing really well for the Blues at the end of the season.
He's definitely going to last until the World Cup and we need him
Sam Warburton on Martyn Williams
"Obviously with the number of caps he's got and his experience he's invaluable to the squad. He's definitely going to last until the World Cup and we need him."
Realism and personal drive are difficult things for any sportsman to balance.
Being the second-choice number seven means Warburton tempers everything his says with deference to Williams, but the fiery competitiveness is evident.
The 21-year-old will need every ounce of that competitiveness against South Africa on Saturday, when the 6ft 2in open-side will win just his seventh cap.
"Even though it's great having Martyn around, it's great to get a run and have a start rather than being on the bench. I was on the bench against France [a 20-26 home defeat during this year's RBS Six Nations] and didn't get on, so it's nice to know on Saturday I'm definitely going to get a game."
On his right arm Warburton wears a wristband, which the manufacturers claim help with the body's "natural energy field" to improve performance.
The bands may have been dismissed by critics as bad science and no more than lucky charms, but Warburton reveals that players' take-up of them is another example of Williams' influence.
"Nugget [Williams] swears by his. He's had it for a long time, but now we're all starting to wear them in the squad now. It might all be psychological," Warburton giggles, "but everyone's stats go up when they wear them."
Whatever the players think might give them an advantage, extra percentage points are where Test rugby is won and lost.
This month if Wales are to compete against the Springboks and then take on New Zealand twice in the All Blacks' backyard they will need every trick of the trade.
The only time the Welsh have beaten South Africa, Warburton was a 10-year-old. The victory of 1999 passed him by without registering.
"I played rugby then," he chuckles. "But I wasn't a real fan until I was about 15. I was a bit too young and didn't really realise what was going on back then."
There is a reassuring confidence about the 21-year-old. He is a new breed of Welsh rugby player, not afraid to mix with the big boys of international rugby.
"I used to watch [New Zealand captain] Richie McCaw playing Super 14 rugby when I was a kid. He was always a player I've aspired to be like, a bit of an all-rounder.
"There's no point in playing duff nations in the summer, let's be honest. We need to play against the best.
"If we get thumped then we know we're way off. We're only missing five or so players - if most teams had lost five they wouldn't be too worried about it."
If he is to keep Williams out of the number seven shirt for either the Blues or Wales next term Warburton needs the best three games of his career so far.
*Listen to the full interview with Sam Warburton on The Back Page this Saturday, 0830 BST on BBC Radio Wales and online.
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