I might not even start the first Test
Lions captain Sam Warburton insists his men will make history in New Zealand but, with the first game against the All Blacks just 27 days away, he claims he isn’t even sure of his place in the team
‘YOU JUST HAVE TWO TEAMS AND A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD, IT’S SPORT’
TRY telling Sam Warburton he’s about to embark on rugby’s mission impossible. Recently installed as British & Irish Lions captain for a second successive tour, the 28-year-old has 74 Wales caps to his name, the respect of his team-mates and cast-iron confidence in the tourists’ potential to claim a first series victory over the All Blacks since 1971.
A knee injury sustained playing for Cardiff against Ulster in April has hampered his tour preparation, but Warburton is fighting fit and ready for what lies ahead. History beckons, and he wants a part of it.
Four years after leading them to a series victory over Australia, the 6ft 1in, 16st 4lb flanker will become only the third man after Willie John McBride and Martin Johnson to captain the Lions in successive series when they take on the world champions next month.
Fear is not on the agenda. Just a steely determination to prove the doubters wrong.
The odds may be stacked against them, but with Ireland turning the form book on its head in Chicago last year and England doing likewise under Stuart Lancaster in 2012, the Lions captain is defiant when asked if the all-conquering All Blacks can be beaten in their own backyard.
‘You ask the Irish boys that question and they laugh because they’ve done it in the last 12 months,’ the 28-year-old told The Mail on Sunday in his first interview since being named captain. ‘England beat them in 2012 and a lot of our boys were in that team. Andy Farrell [Lions defence coach] has coached two separate teams to beat them and Warren Gatland is from there.
‘I never look at history. It’s sport. You have two teams going out there and it’s a level playing field. New Zealanders never go away from home and think about home advantage or away disadvantage. They go and play. That’s how I think. It’s two teams of 23 going head to head. There’s every chance of every team beating another team at professional level.’
Confidence oozes from every pore as Warburton enthuses about the upcoming tour. He is neither arrogant nor big headed but exudes a laid-back self-assurance and is almost disarmingly courteous. The Lions mantra is ‘stay humble’. Warburton is the epitome.
Having stood down as Wales captain this season after more games in charge than any other player to concentrate on playing for his country, he is wiser and more experienced four years after last leading the Lions Down Under.
‘I’m a lot more assured in myself than I was four years ago,’ he said. ‘I found it quite daunting in 2013. It was my first tour and everything was brand new. I didn’t know what to expect. This feels very different. There were guys who were 10 years older than me on the last tour.
‘I remember doing my first team talk and looking around seeing guys like Paul O’Connell in the huddle and thinking, “This is not right, me geeing up these boys for a game”. That was very strange. This time there’s not that gap. I’m one of the more experienced guys there now.
‘A lot of the players and backroom staff are familiar and so far it feels like the preparation is very similar to last time. For me, as captain, it feels like a much easier situation this time around.’
The numerical breakdown of any Lions squad is always closely scrutinised and this year’s vintage of 16 Englishmen, 12 Welshmen, 11 Irishmen and two Scots was a reflection of England’s recent Six Nations dominance under Eddie Jones, if not Scotland’s relative resurgence.
That dynamic has altered slightly following the withdrawal of Ben Youngs (family reasons) and Billy Vunipola (shoulder) but Warburton — with an English father and English-born mother — is more than comfortable with the blend of nations in Gatland’s squad.
‘It’s good to have those boys around because they’ve had so much success it’s going to rub off on everyone else. Their confidence around the training ground and their winning mentality is going to rub off on everybody else.’
The hostility some Welsh supporters feel towards England is lost on a man seemingly born to unite the home unions: ‘My dad was born in London, grew up there and in Birmingham for a bit and then came back home. But my dad’s family is all based up in Birmingham and Lancashire. That’s where the Warburton comes from.
‘Mum was born in Somerset but both her parents are Welsh so she considers herself Welsh. I consider myself a split down the middle. It would be disrespectful to my father to ignore his English roots.
‘My mum’s maiden name is Kennedy and she says four or five generations back that name comes from Scotland. So when I play for the Lions I tick the box of three out of the four countries. I’m always proud to represent both mum and dad.’
While one of Warburton and Gatland’s biggest jobs will be to unite four nations under one flag, sometimes factionalism on national grounds is inevitable.
Four years ago the Lions’ victory in the final Test — which Warburton missed after tearing his hamstring while producing one of the great back-row performances in the second Test in Melbourne — was overshadowed in part by an extraordinary public outcry over Gatland’s decision to drop Irish talisman Brian O’Driscoll in favour of Wales centre Jamie Roberts.
The Lions went on to win the Test 41-16 — and the series 2-1 — but Gatland was clearly stung by the fierce criticism he had received.
‘I was surprised when I heard the squad for the third Test,’ Warburton said. ‘I’d just presumed Brian was going to be captain and it would be a dream ending to one of the greatest Lions we ever had.
‘It surprised me but for Warren to leave him out was nothing personal. It just came down to game plan. He just thought he wanted the biggest, meanest team he could possibly pick. And it worked. I know there would have been a lot of Irish fans who were gutted by that but Brian was the ultimate professional when he was given the news. He still had a full part to play in helping the guys get ready and I’m sure his influence had a massive bearing on how those guys played and the result of the third Test.’
While Warburton still has sympathy for O’Driscoll not being able to end his glittering international career on the highest note, he insists every Lion selected — himself included — must face the reality of not making the Test cut.
‘Players know those risks when they go into Lions tours,’ he said. ‘I know myself there’s every chance I won’t start that first Test. You know that could happen and that drives you on to try to do as well as you can early on the tour.
‘Players are fully aware of what disappointment could face them. They will subconsciously have prepped themselves for that.’
Can he seriously envisage a scenario where he does not play in the first Test? ‘People on the outside might not believe me but I’ve always said to Warren is that the one thing I do not want as captain is to become complacent by knowing I’m playing. That was a big part of not having the Wales captaincy during the Six Nations because you need to prove yourself sometimes.
I’m not viewing this as a Test captain. I’m the tour captain. That’s how I’m perceiving it and that’s how Warren is perceiving it and all the other players will know that.
‘I’m the Lions tour captain and if I’m not playing well enough . . . I’d be disappointed if I knew I was not playing well enough and I’m in that starting team. I know as a player, and Warren knows this, I’d be ready to take that situation away from him by saying, “I know I’m not playing well enough to start this Test”.
‘If I feel I deserve to play I will say that and if I feel I don’t deserve to play then I’ll say the same thing. Warren knows that.’
With hulking centres Robbie Henshaw and Ben Te’o both selected, everything is pointing towards Gatland sticking to his tried and trusted method of preferring brawn and power over silky artistry.
‘I think the Lions want to play to their strengths and that [power] will be one of their strengths,’ Warburton said. ‘We’ve got a coach who has got a game plan and the majority of his game plan is based on that with players who have played pretty much to that game plan.
‘There are always electric players you can pick in the back line who can change a game. England have got those players, so have Ireland and Wales. Stuart Hogg. You need that excitement as well. But I think the core of the group is going to be a pretty big, physical bunch. With the core of players being from England they’ve dominated the last two years on that game plan. I think we’d be silly not to use it.’
However the Lions play, the odds were heavily stacked against them winning the series long before Billy Vunipola — a cast-iron certainty to start the Tests at No 8 — was ruled out of the tour with a shoulder problem last Monday.
Try telling that to Warburton. The Lions captain is on a mission, and he does not intend to fail.