THE NEATH AND WALES FULL-BACK

PAUL THORBURN

Born in Germany but Welsh through and through, to captain my country on ten occasions was a huge honour and privilege. I just wish that we’d had more success but the impact of so many players moving North to play Rugby League was significant.
We’d been building some momentum with a third-place finish at the inaugural World Cup in 1987 followed by the Triple Crown the following year but then, all of a sudden, we lost so many influential players – it felt like one a week.
As a player, I was always criticised for my lack of speed ...