It’s looking ever more likely.
The final round of this year’s Six Nations championship will likely prove crucial in determining who gets to go on the plane to New Zealand.
Warren Gatland has said on a number of occasions now that the performance of players in the northern hemisphere’s showpiece event will carry more weight as opposed to how those players perform for their clubs.
This ties in with the squad announcement due to be made on April 19, just before the semi-finals of the Champions Cup.
So if players have not performed to the level required over the past number of weeks, it looks likely that it will be their last opportunity to prove themselves.
Of course, the Lions captaincy is another debate, with Gatland saying that the decision surrounding the potential candidate will only be made after he has settled on his starting XV.
Paul O’Connell who captained the Lions for the 2009 tour of South Africa and who was also a senior figure in the 2013 set-up, is probably one of the best people to speak about what it takes to be a captain.
In an interview given to Sky Sports, the Munster and Ireland legend said the following:
“Look, I think it’s important to lead from the front, I think to lead with your actions as much as possible. I think Martin Johnson certainly did that, he was an amazing player.”
Someone who certainly did that last week was Sam Warburton with his performance against Ireland. The former Welsh captain was a considerable thorn in the Irish side with his tackling and particularly his breakdown work proving incredibly frustrating for Ireland.
This isn’t lost on O’Connell who then waxes lyrical about the Welsh star.
“Sam Warburton certainly does that, he absolutely ends himself whenever he plays for Wales and he did the same when he played for the Lions.
“I mean, the amount of work he gets through, you need someone like that, someone who the players can follow in their example.”
With the experience of leading the Lions to victory last time around and with Gatland likely to have a preference for players who he knows best, it seems very likely that Warburton will be named the Lions captain for this year’s tour of New Zealand.
