No guarantee of Test place for former Lions skippers

Warren Gatland has offered no guarantees that Ireland’s former Lions captains Paul O’Connell and Brian O’Driscoll will make his starting 15 for the opening Test against Australia on June 22.

There were nine Irish players named yesterday in Gatland’s 37-man squad charged with becoming the first Lions to win a Test series since the 1997 victory over South Africa, O’Connell and O’Driscoll two of five with previous Lions experience alongside Jamie Heaslip, Rob Kearney and Tommy Bowe while Conor Murray, Jonathan Sexton, Cian Healy and Sean O’Brien will be touring for the first time when the squad leaves these islands on May 27, bound for Hong Kong and an opening game against the Barbarians on June 1.

Gatland had watched Munster’s Heineken Cup semi-final defeat to Clermont Auvergne in Montpellier last Saturday and was impressed by O’Connell’s contribution, but when considering the captaincy he implied that his chosen skipper Sam Warburton was the only player among the leadership candidates virtually certain of a Test start in Brisbane on June 22.