Warburton: I’m fighting for my place

SAM WARBURTON has admitted he faces an uphill battle to prove that he should be chosen to lead the Lions into the first Test against the All Blacks.

The Wales flanker knows his status as tour captain does not come with any selection guarantees attached. He has reclaimed the coveted No 7 shirt and the armband for tomorrow’s match with the Highlanders at the indoor Forsyth Barr Stadium, but his latest injury setback has left him under pressure to justify inclusion in the side to face New Zealand in the series opener on June 24.

Having strained his ankle in the first tour fixture, Warburton played no part in the subsequent defeat by the Blues and Saturday’s success against the Crusaders, when Sean O’Brien made a powerful impact at openside. Warburton is realistic enough to concede that his Test hopes lie in the balance.

‘I know there’s every chance I might not even get involved in that first Test,’ he said yesterday after the Lions arrived here in Dunedin, the provincial capital of Otago. ‘As I see it, I’m tour captain and if I’ve made the Test that would be a bonus. But there are three Tests, so it’s not the be-all and end-all with the first one.

‘I’ll be honest with Gats (head coach Warren Gatland) and Gats will be honest with me. If I play Tuesday and I still feel I’m a bit under-cooked, then I’ll tell him I don’t feel ready for that first Test. Or I could have a blinder on Tuesday and feel absolutely fine.

‘Now we’ve all had a game, it feels like it’s audition time for the Test series. I’ve learned from experience that it takes me at least two games and then by the third I’ll probably be playing some good rugby.’

The accelerated recovery process for Warburton’s ankle last week involved icing the joint throughout the night, using a £3,000 Game Ready compression machine. ‘You stay in bed, but every hour and a half you wake up from the humming noise of this ice machine and obviously the freezing-cold ankle,’ he said. ‘It’s just like having a baby waking you up every hour and a half, which I’m perfectly used to!’

What the Welshman hopes to offer as his trump card is breakdown expertise. ‘You’ve got to bring a specialist element and I guess my one specialist element is the contact area,’ he said.

Meanwhile, Gatland revealed that the Lions are awaiting specialist advice about Stuart Hogg’s facial injury — suffered when he collided with Conor Murray’s elbow on Saturday — amid fears the Scotland full back may be ruled out of the rest of the tour.