Six Nations: Wales win would rival Springbok victory - Warburton

Wales beat South Africa 12-6 in November

Wales captain Sam Warburton says beating Ireland would rival his side's victory over South Africa in November.

Grand Slam-chasing Ireland travel to Cardiff on Saturday, with Wales knowing a win would keep them in the title race.

Cardiff Blues captain Warburton, 26, who skippers Wales for a record 34th time, is expecting a tough clash.

"It probably would be one of the best wins that we would have had in recent years," he said.

"Ireland have been so good of late.

"If we win that it would be up there with beating South Africa in the autumn."

Flanker Warburton went off after taking a blow to his knee during the 20-13 win over France in Paris. on 28 February.

He has been named in an unchanged team to face the Irish, who have won their last 10 internationals.

Ireland have a two-point lead over England and Wales in the Six Nations standings with two rounds of matches to play,

"The ruck area probably will be... a massive personal battle and making sure we come out on top of that will go a long way towards deciding which team will win the game," Warburton said.

As for the captaincy record, Warburton says a lot of it is to do with the era he is playing in.

"There are more games now than 20 years ago," the Cardiff Blues forward said.

"You can have 12 or 13 fixtures a calendar year now.

"Captaincy records were never a motivation growing up.

"It was something that was given to me and I have adapted to it as the years have gone by.

"The captaincy record has sprung up on me and I have not thought about it a lot.

"It will be nice in the history books to be number one at something.

"A lot of people have won 50 caps or played in 'x' amount of Six Nations games, but nobody has done that, which would be a nice accolade to have."