Split loyalty but Sam is glad to be leading Wales

SAM WARBURTON will captain Wales against England at Twickenham tomorrow - eight years after cheering Martin Johnson's men to World Cup glory, writes Sam Peters.

The 22-year-old flanker, whose father was raised in Birmingham before moving to Cardiff as a child, insists he holds no ill feeling towards a nation often derided in his homeland.

"I have a number of relatives in the north of England, and my grandmother speaks with a Yorkshire accent," he said.

"I never thought about making myself available for England but I did support them in the 2003 World Cup in Australia.

"I am not like a lot of other Welshmen who have an anti‑English attitude, even if my thoughts this week are about beating them on Saturday."

Warburton was a 14-year-old schoolboy playing football in the same team as current Tottenham and Wales star Gareth Bale when England conquered the rugby world under Sir Clive Woodward.