Six Nations: Sam Warburton names Shaun Edwards as tournament’s greatest coach

Former Wales captain Sam Warburton has named Shaun Edwards as the best Six Nations coach after the impact he had on the loose forward’s career.

Edwards joined the Welsh set-up in 2008 as their defence guru and helped the side to three Grand Slam titles before moving to France in 2019.

Top of the pile

And speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Six Nations Greatest podcast, Warburton named the Englishman as the best coach in the competition’s history.

“He was so good at making you reach an emotional peak,” said Warburton.

“He would have three or four key messages and he’d drill them in all week. Non-stop reminders of what you had to deliver.

“You never want to let him down. He had everyone’s reviews on the big screen and if you were poor everyone saw it, if you were good everyone saw it.

“You would do anything to earn Shaun’s respect. He has people running through brick walls for him.”

Warburton’s decision may come as a surprise considering the 55-year-old has never been the head coach of a Test team but the influence Edwards has had is unquestionable.

“He was really good at gauging where the lads were,” he added.

“Say you’ve had a big training week, you have your big meeting for the Thursday session and we’d have the full 15-minute meeting, quite emotive, it’s getting close to the game.

“I remember him saying, ‘How you boys feeling?’ and we were thinking, ‘we’ve had one hell of a training week, it’s been tough’.

“He just said, ‘right, training’s off’ and walked out the room. He would have spoken to the fitness staff, he knew when to pull back volume.

“He was really good at managing players, team environments, and developing leadership as well. I thought he was really good at getting the best out of players. I played my best rugby under him.”

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