LIONS and Wales rugby captain, Sam Warburton, visited Chepstow last Wednesday (18th December) as part of an event organised by Chepstow Bookshop.

The youngest winning Lions' captain came to talk to around 250 supporters about leading the Lions team to victory and spent an hour and a half signing copies of his new book Lion's Triumphant: The Captain's Story.

The Beacon was able to have a quick chat with the captain before the event about his book, the Lions tour, Wales, and eating too much chocolate.

On being the youngest winning captain of the Lions, Sam Warburton said: "I didn't know the statistic until I heard it. I wasn't originally going to take the captaincy but Warren (Gatland) was great, he explained to me that senior players don't necessarily have to be the oldest players.

"It's great that Warren's stayed on as coach for another few years, he's the best coach I've ever worked with.

"The Lions tour was such a success and other than winning the tournament I'd say the highlight of the tour was getting my test jersey from Sir Ian McGeechan.

"The whole process of the book has been brilliant, I was originally approached to do one before the World Cup and after the Lions tour I felt I wanted to do another one. I've really enjoyed meeting the fans and signing books."

On Wales' preparation for the Six Nations tournament next year, Sam said the team would not be returning to Poland for their usual gruelling training sessions: "We'll be training in the Vale this year which the boys are all delighted about. The WRU have built cryotherapy chambers for us at the training centre so we're very grateful to them for that."

For young Monmouthshire rugby players Sam had this to say: "The advice I give to all rugby players is to watch the pros, a lot of players as they get older are not always clear as to what their position entails. I used to watch some of the top number 7s in the world and see what they were doing and apply it to my game.

"It was great to have Hallam (Amos) on the team a few weeks back. He's a great athlete and he's very lucky in that he's genetically gifted. He'll be on the squad for the long run."

In terms of what's next for Sam, he spoke of his desire to push the World Cup dream further: "2011's World Cup ended cruelly, so I'd like to take it that one step further in 2015 and make the final. The tournament will be held in England this year, so if we make it to the final it'll be the closest we'll get to being finalists at home."

On Christmas celebrations Sam is looking forward to spending time with his family: "We spent Christmas at my fiancee's parents' house last year, so this year I'll be spending it at my parents' house. I'm injured at the moment which means I'll get to eat a bit more chocolate than usual!"

Organiser of the event and owner of Chepstow Bookshop, Matthew Taylor, said: "The event went really well, Sam was a very warm, engaging guy who took the time to talk to everyone in the very long queue after the talk. It was a great way to end a year of events for us which included David Suchet, Chris Hadfield, Kate Humble and Rick Stein.

"The bookshop is groaning under the weight of signed copies and we are looking forward to a busy week and then will start planning our 2014 programme."

To view upcoming Chepstow Bookshop events visit: http://www.chepstowbooks.co.uk">www.chepstowbooks.co.uk