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Two-time British and Irish Lions captain Martin Johnson has said Wales lock Alun Wyn Jones could skipper the combined side on their tour of Australia later this year despite a lack of leadership experience at Test level.
Johnson, the only man to lead the Lions twice and England’s World Cup-winning captain in 2003, sees similarities between himself and the 27-year-old Jones beyond the fact they are both respected second rows.
Jones, capped 70 times by Wales, played in all three Tests of the Lions losing tour of South Africa four years ago and was a member of the Welsh side that thrashed England 30-3 in Cardiff on Saturday to retain their Six Nations title and deny their arch-rivals a Grand Slam.
“He’s played a lot of games, he’s done it, he has been out there before with the Lions in ’09, so I think he’s in the frame,” Johnson told BBC Sport.
“I hear a lot of good things about him,” added Johnson, who resigned as England manager following a poor 2011 World Cup, blighted by off-field woes, in New Zealand.
Johnson said he too did not have much in the way of leadership experience when first appointed to the Lions captaincy for the 1997 tour of South Africa – the last time a team comprising the leading players from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales won a Test series.
“I was in a pretty similar situation in 1997 (to Jones),” Johnson said. “Phil de Glanville was England captain and I’d only captained my club about 15 times.
“The Lions captaincy has this big aura about it and is a great thing to do, to do well. But ultimately I would rather just play, and win a series, than be captain in a losing series.
“(Former Wales captain) Sam Warburton wasn’t even in the Welsh team for a while (after being injured early in the Six Nations) but he handled himself pretty well in a tricky situation and came back and played well.”
Warburton has long been regarded as a potential captain for a Lions tour which starts with a warm-up match against the Barbarians in Hong Kong on June 1 and then features several fixtures in Australia before the first of three Tests against the Wallabies in Brisbane on June 22.
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