Warburton to captain British Lions tour of New Zealand

BEN Te’o believes his selection for the British and Irish Lions has justified his decision to leave Australia and switch codes three years ago.

Jonathan Joseph was included after Gatland decided a player who has caused Wales so much torment on his watch could not be overlooked. It’s not good for Scottish rugby at all.

The squad is made up of 16 England players, 12 from Wales, 11 from Ireland and two from Scotland.

England captain Dylan Hartley was not selected, despite leading England to back-to-back Six Nations titles, with Gatland preferring Ireland’s Rory Best, England’s Jamie George and Wales’ Ken Owens as his three hookers.

“It will be very, very tough but what an opportunity to go to one of the biggest rugby playing nations in the world and try to do something special”.

These players have impressed this season but are still and unknown quantity and will have a chance to show their class on the toughest stage of all.

Are they expected to share the same shirt?

Wales back-row Warburton, 28, who skippered the combined side on their victorious 2013 tour of Australia, becomes just the second man after England great Martin Johnson (1997 and 2001) to lead the Lions on two tours.

Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall said the club are proud to have six of their players selected for the summer tour. “How they deal with that will be interesting to see”.

Hansen says Gatland is bringing the best British and Irish Lions team to tour New Zealand for a long time, and expectations will be high. I imagine it was very hard to whittle it down. They will be aggrieved and disappointed about that. Seems a lot was given to performing away from home in 6N.

If that is the case we can expect a lot more kicking and the Lions playing a territory game.

Coming off the back of a never-ending domestic season, they will have suffered further injuries and numerous coaching teams’ best-laid plans will have been torn up.

“But that also fires myself up and hopefully gives the players and the team the motivation to go out there and perform”.

“What a game (Munster v Saracens) that is going to be. They could have been well up a bit earlier”. And probably the greatest strength that Scotland have had is probably their collective performance.

He has also Andy Farrell as defence coach, who was part of the backroom staff both times the New Zealanders were defeated. Jamie (Heaslip) and Rob (Kearney) picked up injuries at the wrong time. “It’s not about picking teams who beat us in Chicago”.

“These are the best of the best from the four countries”. To fight back and get into this squad is brilliant. We can talk about how strong our pack is or how good our defensive systems are or how we are going to hang on to the ball and pummel the Kiwis because they don’t like it up ’em. That creates character within the squad and that’s exactly what we need.

“You’re not too sure when you get that glazed look from the players if they honestly believe that”, he added.

Te’o admitted he was surprised to hear his name mentioned as a possible Lions bolter, given he only made his worldwide debut for England – for whom he qualifies for through his London-born mother – in November.