| schema:articleBody
| - In one of the worst-kept secrets in the history of the British and Irish Lions, Alun Wyn Jones was confirmed as captain on Thursday for the 2021 tour to South Africa. Across the last few weeks, the names of Maro Itoje, Owen Farrell and Stuart Hogg all garnered column inches within the debate but there was never really any doubt about who coach Warren Gatland would choose. "I had a call from Gats on Sunday evening, actually a missed call," said Jones, understating the enormity of the occasion. "Thought better give him a call back. We had a quick chat and I accepted obviously." Former Lions captain Sam Warburton said Jones was an obvious choice. "His rugby CV is complete now, he's completed rugby," said Warburton. The veteran Wales lock is the most capped player in the history of international rugby with 157 and has been on three previous Lions tours, playing in their last nine Tests and even captaining them once in 2013. And he is one of an elite band of just seven players in the history of the Lions to have won Tests against the Springboks (2009), Australia (2013) and New Zealand (2017). Yes, he is 35 and, as he himself admits, he is approaching the end of his career but Jones remains the heartbeat and benchmark for the Wales team that he led to the 2021 Six Nations title. Jones made his Wales debut as a 20-year-old 15 years ago after making just a dozen starts for his home region, the Ospreys. The Swansea University law graduate established himself in the national starting lineup by the 2007 Rugby World Cup campaign and started his maiden Lions Test in 2009 alongside captain Paul O'Connell against South Africa. He came off the bench in the following two fixtures to square up to the likes of the World Cup-winning lock pairing of Bakkies Botha and Victor Matfield. The Lions lost the series but Jones never took a backward step. Four years later in Australia he rekindled his partnership with O'Connell, who missed out on the captain's armband that was taken by Warburton. But when the flanker was ruled out of the decisive final Test, it was Jones who led Gatland's men to victory in Sydney, and a first series win since 1997. In 2017, Jones once again returned to being just a member of the starting lineup and Ireland's Peter O'Mahony was preferred as skipper when Warburton was unable to play in the first Test. Jones locked down with Maro Itoje, the other main candidate to lead the 2021 Lions, as Warburton's side won the second Test and drew the third to share the series 1-1. Jones has always been a team man, never one to take the limelight and play the 'star'. When he overtook ex-All Blacks McCaw as the player with the Test appearances, Jones brushed off the accolade. "I refuse to turn the game into a numbers game," he said before his 157th international. "Any records don't belong to the individual but to the game itself," he added. After winning his fifth Six Nations title in the spring his focus moved to regional duty and then this summer's tour when he will again meet the Webb Ellis trophy winners, as he did in 2009 and 2017. The last Lions tour to New Zealand, ended in what was ultimately a slightly unsatisfying 1-1 draw. "It's strange, particularly the way the last tour finished, things were left open to a degree with a draw," said Jones. "It's a four-year wait but four years in a rugby career goes in the blink of an eye. As a rugby player, you want to be involved in those Test matches." His ability as a forward will be tested as will his leadership skills, but with the experience garnered over the past decade and a half of Test rugby, no other player is in a better place to step up to the challenge. iwd/bsp/gj
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)