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A week ago his relentless hard-hitting tackles and big ball carries were sapping confidence and energy out of a crumbling English assault, but today Jamie Roberts is celebrating a different milestone.

The 26-year-old Wales, Cardiff Blues and Lions centre has, for the past few months, been balancing 2013 Six Nations commitments with studying for his final medical school exams at Cardiff University.

And having completed his final paper on Thursday, Jamie is ready for a well-earned mental and physical break.

“I don’t get the results for two or three weeks so I’ll be feeling nervous until then,” he said.

“But in terms of finishing, it is a pretty incredible feeling after what have been gruelling months.”

Jamie began a full-time three year course at medical school in 2005 and went on to complete an intercalated BSc in Sport and Exercise Science at Cardiff Metropolitan (then UWIC) for which he gained first class honours.

He then returned to Cardiff University to complete his fourth and fifth year of medical school, which, because of his rugby commitments, have taken four years to complete.

Jamie said: “It’s been a long journey.

“It feels weird, a strange feeling to think that these last exams bring to an end something that I’ve done for eight years.

“The majority of people told me I was crazy trying to balance this year's Six Nations with my studies.

“But Saturday was just an amazing day.

“That sense of achievement on the pitch and hopefully off it as well will, I’m sure be a moment in my life which I will look back on and think wow, I really dug in and reaped the rewards.”

He added: “Around four or five months ago I sat down and had words with myself.

“I just thought I cannot start the Six Nations having not done any work, leaving it until the last minute, under so much pressure. So I started revising for these exams around mid December.

“Some days during the Six Nations though I’d be getting into the team hotel at 5am and getting three hours work done before breakfast with the squad.

“If we were travelling to say Scotland or France on the Thursday I would do some work in the evening but on match day and the day before I would switch off, I would flick a switch and it was all rugby for 36 hours.

“Admittedly I did relax on Saturday night this week.

“I don’t think Cardiff has ever seen a day like it, I have certainly not seen a day like that in Cardiff.

“But the library was a hard day to be on Monday and Tuesday, I promise you that. Seeing the smiles on everybody’s faces, being congratulated by strangers, it is an amazing feeling, and Saturday was unbelievable for the country. But I had to lock myself away in one of the private study rooms in the library.”

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Balancing the demands of sport and study has not been easy though.

“I owe a debt of gratitude to both the Blues and the Wales set-up for helping me through it,” the 6ft 4in, 17-stone juggernaut said. “You don’t really appreciate it at the time. I have to thank the Blues board, everybody at the club for believing in me.

“And certainly Rob (Howley) during the Six Nations was fantastic. I owe him a nice bottle of bubbly. He gave me a day off after the Italy game just so I could get my head down.

“The WRU sorted out a flight home for me straight after the Scotland game just so I could get in a full day in the library on the Sunday.

“That Monday, five days before England, was my first exam, so I only had 24 hours to prepare for that.

“I also have to give huge thanks to the medical school, a lot of people there have bent over backwards for me.”

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He admits though that being the unofficial Welsh rugby doctor does come with its burdens, like having to diagnose fellow players’ ailments.

“There’s always good banter from all the boys and yes they do pick my brains, but put it this way, it’s not usually injuries they ask me about.”

Roberts will quit Cardiff Blues at the end of the season and become the latest big name to leave Wales for the riches of France having signed for Racing Metro in suburban Paris.

And he has no plans to practise medicine just yet.

“I’m not going to try and work as a doctor until I retire,” he said.

“Once I hopefully get the degree, it’s there, in my back pocket in a sense.

“But I don’t want to become a doctor until I can fully commit to it. I think that would be quite wise.

“I’m looking at the possibility of doing a post graduate course, maybe an MSc, to keep my learning up. Just so I can focus on something away from rugby while keeping my learning up.

“And I’ll have to think about learning to speak a little French which I guess will use another part of my brain altogether. That should be interesting.”

He added: “The past few months have been an amazing mental challenge more than anything and in contrast to the physical challenge of rugby.

“It has been a rollercoaster process, but something I have taken great satisfaction from.”