WARREN GATLAND IS no closer to making deciding who will captain the British and Irish Lions on next year’s tour to Australia.
The Lions will play three Test matches against the Wallabies next summer and Gatland said he is still undecided on who will captain the touring party.
Three of Gatland’s most likely candidates in Paul O’Connell, Brian O’Driscoll and Sam Warburton have been battling injury of late, while Irishman Jamie Heaslip has also been mentioned as a possible option to land the top job.
But Gatland is still weighing up his options and may even consider appointing a tour captain, who may not do the job during matches.
“You could pick an experienced player and say ‘you might be tour captain but there’s a chance you might not be good enough to be selected for the Tests’,” Gatland revealed.
We’re all well aware there have been tour captains who, in the past, weren’t good enough to be in the Test side.It’s a professional game and we’ve got to represent the Lions in the best way we can.
Maybe I should pick five captains.
Once you name one, there are two or three guys in the same position who aren’t happy because their chances have almost gone.
Gatland said he hadn’t sat down to think about possible names to make the touring party and he won’t do so until his assistant coaches are named on 12 December.
“I sat down with some key personnel to look at what a pre-autumn squad would look like and I’ll do that again post-autumn,” Gatland said.
“Then we will do a pre-Six Nations list, one in the middle and then one post-Six Nations before we pick the final squad.
“But nothing is crystallised at the moment.”
While Gatland is keeping an open mind on selection issues, he has already been impressed by what he saw on the weekend from Craig Gilroy.
Gilroy scored a try on debut for Ireland against Argentina on Saturday and Gatland said the 21-year-old was in contention to board the plane to Australia.
[Gilroy] has put himself into contention, but you aren’t going to pick a Lions team based on one performance.But he has made us sit up and take a bit of notice.
Gatland was not so forthcoming on the chances of players currently plying their trade in France and said he needs to see more from those playing on the continent.
“At the weekend Mike Phillips was blowing after 52 minutes…we had to get him off.
“So that’s something we have to look at.
“Are they physically in the best shape to compete at the highest level, even though they might be playing quite well in France?”
