British and Irish Lions rookie Sam Warburton insists he’ll be comfortable captaining a squad featuring two former skippers on the tour of Australia.
Warburton, 24, was preferred by coach Warren Gatland to two former skippers in the squad, 2005’s Brian O’Driscoll and 2009’s Paul O’Connell.
On his first Lions tour, Warburton will become Wales’ youngest Lions tour skipper and the first since Phil Bennett took charge for the 1977 New Zealand trip.
But Warburton is not daunted by the task, and sees Irish veterans O’Driscoll, 34, and O’Connell, 33, as an important leadership resource rather than a threat to his authority.
“A similar situation happened when I was 22,” the Wales captain said.
“Back then I only had 14 or 15 caps for Wales and I was alongside guys like Ryan Jones who had captained Wales on many occasions, as well as Stephen Jones and Shane Williams, and I was like `how can I captain these guys?’
“I had reservations about doing it back then but this time around I’ve learnt that rather than being worried about it, they are the first guys you go up to when things do go a bit tough and you lean on them.”
Warburton said he would speak with the former captains when the camp assembled for the 10-match tour, starting against the Barbarians on June 1.
“It would be silly of me to ignore two ex-captains,” he said.
“You have to use them to your advantage and they’ll be hugely influential on this tour.”
Warburton’s appointment came despite him relinquishing the Wales captaincy during the recent Six Nations because of a mixture of injury and the form of fellow flanker Ryan Jones.
Some have also suggested he shouldn’t be guaranteed a starting spot in the side, and Warburton insisted he would have to fight for a place in the team like anyone else.
The openside flanker has played seven times against the Wallabies for seven defeats, and will be in for a tough test against an Australian squad featuring three of the best openside flankers in world rugby in George Smith, Liam Gill and Michael Hooper.
“I have found Australia a very tough place to go,” he said.
“But if you look at the class of the players that will be added from the other three countries and a Welsh team that came very close last year, I think that will be enough to make it a victorious Test series which we want to achieve.”
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