Former Wales captain Sam Warburton has described the moment Dan Biggar Biggar came of age in the red shirt of his country.
Biggar was named skipper for Wales' tour of South Africa last summer and he performed in the role admirably in arguably one of the toughest environments to play rugby.
Whether the fly-half is captain or not, he always leads by example and Warburton, who played with the former Northampton Saints man, said in his Times column that "Wales have been so much better for his presence over the years".
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He sets the tone, Warburton added, saying having him alongside him when he himself was skipper helped massively.
"Some think he is petulant with referees, but I see that more as competitiveness and a desperation to win," Warburton said. "He sets high standards too, training ferociously hard — apparently Northampton Saints were a little shocked to see him turn up for his first session there, dive straight into the fitness part that he did not need to do and then beat everybody. When I was captain, it was good to have someone alongside me who led so naturally."
Biggar missed the autumn Tests and the final games of Wayne Pivac's tenure through injury but he is likely to be one of Warren Gatland's first names on the teamsheet when he names his team to face Ireland next week.
Warburton went on to reveal what he called "a pivotal moment" in Biggar's career - a Test match against the Springboks just under 10 years ago in which he found his voice.
With the match on a knife-edge with seconds left, Biggar gained the attention of his more experienced colleagues and grabbed the game by the scruff.
"There was a pivotal moment in Dan’s career when we were playing South Africa in Cardiff in 2014," Warburton added. "We had not won in 22 matches against the southern hemisphere sides, but were leading 12-6 with two minutes to go.
"So many times in the past we had let slip leads in these closing stages, so I was thinking: 'I’ve got to speak to the senior players about what we do here.' At that moment Dan, Jamie Roberts, Alun Wyn Jones, Gethin Jenkins and I were all thinking the same thing and all then started talking at the same time.
"Dan just screamed: “Shut the f*** up! One voice! This is what we’re doing!” We all shut up and he said exactly what we were thinking. We all just went, “Yep”. We did what he said, and we won the game. He came of age there."
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