Alun Wyn Jones named as British and Irish Lions captain
Wales lock Alun Wyn Jones has been named British and Irish Lions captain for this summer’s tour of South Africa.
The 35-year-old Ospreys forward captained Wales to the Guinness Six Nations title in March.
Jones, who embarks on a fourth successive Lions tour, has clocked up a world record 157 Tests for Wales and the Lions.
He was the favourite to be appointed as Lions skipper by head coach Warren Gatland ahead of other potential contenders like England internationals Maro Itoje and Owen Farrell.
And it headlines a stellar playing career that has seen him win five Six Nations titles, three Grand Slams and play in two World Cup semi-finals.
Jones led the Lions to a Test series-clinching victory over Australia in Sydney eight years ago when fellow Welshman Sam Warburton was injured.
And he will now be in charge from the start of the tour in July and August that is highlighted by three Tests against the world champion Springboks.
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Skelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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