Josh Turnbull has “lived the dream” playing for Cardiff and will hit his latest milestone in Blue and Black this weekend.
This Saturday’s BKT United Rugby Championship matchup against Leinster will see the Cardiff club captain reach more major career landmark - in his 200th appearance for the club.
Turnbull’s career began out west, with the Scarlets, but the majority of his club career has now been spent in the capital.
He said: “I’ve enjoyed every minute of it, and I’m grateful for everything I’ve achieved in this region. The boys I've played with, some aren’t here anymore, it’s been one hell of a journey.
“I just love the game of rugby. I love coming in and being in the changing room with the boys and the day-to-day of training. I can probably say I’ve lived the dream. When you’re a young kid in Wales all you want to do is grow up and play rugby.”
Turnbull truly has lived the dream of many Welsh youngsters, having represented his country on 13 occasions as well as contributing enormously to two regional sides.
Minutes have been hard to come by for the traditionally ever durable forward this season, with injuries, illness and emerging young talent limiting opportunities.
That next generation in the back-row has demanded and deservedly forced Head Coach, Matt Sherrat’s hand in playing the likes of Alex Mann and Mackenzie Martin.
Turnbull admits that it “took a while to accept” he wasn’t going to be playing and starting the majority of the games, as he has in previous seasons but he has grown to love his role as the experienced pro.
The versatile forward has taken some valuable lessons from his new role that he believes will aid him in the next chapter of his career - coaching.
“I had conversations with Jockey where he explained he has to give those players an opportunity and that’s fair enough, that’s how they’re going to get experience.
“My job then is to make sure they’re clear for the weekend. I’m aware that this might be my last season playing rugby and I’ll do all I can to help those boys to kick on for next year.”
Looking ahead to this weekend’s fixture, Turnbull is aware of the difficulty ahead of the stretched Cardiff outfit, but Turnbull believes the blueprint has already been laid out in the victory against Leinster from two years ago.
“The win against Leinster last time we were at home is up there with beating the Stormers and Sale that year. We were really brave that night. We won a lot of our 50-50s and we fronted up physically.
“Hopefully we get some of that on the weekend, to really put the pressure on them. We’ve got a group of back rowers who are really capable of getting across the ball defensively so we need to be aggressive in the tackle to give them a chance to get on that ball.”