Ambitious Warburton targets Aussie tour whitewash

BRITISH & IRISH LIONS TOUR:

The back row finally spearheads the squad he was chosen to lead when the Lions meet the Queensland Reds at Suncorp Stadium having missed the first two games of the tour with a knee injury.

Warburton, 24, takes over from Paul O’Connell and Brian O’Driscoll, skippers in the first two games, for game three and not only does he want to continue their good work with a third win but also achieve something no other tour captain managed, to whitewash their tour opponents in all 10 of their games.

“It might sound a bit disrespectful saying [we want to] go undefeated but I remember an old teacher who told me if you aim much higher that you would have and you fall short then you will still have achieved more that you might initially have thought,” Warburton said.

“So, that’s my thought process behind it all. You say you want to win every game but Australia are a top class side and I’ve found that out the hard way in the last few years, so it’s not going to be easy by any means. It’s just a goal, you’ve got to aim for it.

“That’s not to say if we lost a match we’d be disappointed because it might be a good thing in a way. You might need those experiences to bring a group closer together. You want to be put through periods of pressure when you’re playing because you don’t want to be going into Test matches undercooked.”

Warburton will make his Lions debut against the Reds along with props Gethin Jenkins and Matt Stevens, lock Geoff Parling, hooker Tom Youngs and his brother and scrum-half Ben Youngs as Gatland made good on his promise to start each of his 37-man squad, excepting the injured Rob Kearney, in the first three games.

Ben Youngs partners Owen Farrell at half-back, reprising their England roles, while there is another proven combination in the back row with an all-Welsh trio led by Warburton and also featuring Toby Faletau at eight and Dan Lydiate at six.

Elsewhere, Gatland will blood a new centre pairing in Manu Tuilagi at outside centre with Jon Davies and there’s a completely different front five as well as only one Irish starter, Tommy Bowe. Warburton, though, has waited patiently for his Lions debut although he is aware the non-Welsh back row of Tom Croft, Sean O’Brien and Jamie Heaslip sent into action against Western Force last Wednesday in Perth laid down a fairly strong marker.

“The back-row was always going to be one of the strongest positions. My first thought was ‘flippin heck, that’s strong — look who is not there’, Chris Robshaw, Stephen Ferris if fit would have been in the mix, Kelly Brown, captain of Scotland, so it was always going to be a tough ask to play for the Lions in the back-row.”

Those that have already played there on this tour, particularly those in Warburton’s favoured openside flanker position Justin Tipuric and O’Brien, have also made themselves a tough act for their captain to follow.

“Justin’s been playing well from a seven point of view for the last two or three years so I’ve been in that situation for what seems the majority of my playing career, which is what you want really.

“They’re all top-class players and I know the Welsh back rowers really well but I hope I get the opportunity to play with the other three as well because Sean O’Brien, before we entered this squad, was somebody I really wanted to play with.”