Rugby evening headlines as Sam Warburton reveals hatred of Friday night games and Wales star surprised at own selection

Here are the latest rugby evening headlines on Thursday, March 10.

Warburton on Friday night Six Nations matches

Former Wales and Lions skipper Sam Warburton has revealed he hated Friday night matches in the Six Nations.

The Cardiff flanker played in a number of them during his 74-cap career, either in Cardiff or Paris.

He says he enjoyed having the Saturday and Sunday off, but pointed to a couple of key down sides to the fixtures.

One of those was it significantly lengthened the time before kick-off on match day.

“I hated it,” he said on The Times’ Ruck podcast.

“I was very unsociable as a player on a match day.

“Some guys loved going for coffees and making the day pass like that.

“I would kind of get up, eat food, hibernate back in my room for three hours, go back to the team room, have food, hibernate in my room for another three hours.

“I hated match day with a passion until kick-off. When I played, I never had an ounce of nerves ever, but the build-up before was horrible.”

Warburton said it was also a nightmare after the match when it came to Friday night Six Nations fixtures, particularly out in Paris.

“When you have a late kick-off, you take very high energy caffeine drinks beforehand,” he explained.

“It’s the equivalent of maybe five coffees just before you go out.

“After the game then, you have post-match function and the French love a post-match function!

“It’s likes speeches and very formal and takes a long time. You go back to the hotel at like 1am.

“Then you get back, having had all that caffeine pre-match.

“They don’t like giving sleeping pills to boys, but after a night game they would give you one.

“The best form of recovery is sleep, you can have all the nutrition and cryotherapy in the world, but