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12th June 2019
11:48am BST

The announcement was made in London in front of a packed house of media members, Lions officials and sponsors.
The press got straight to it after Gatland, who confirmed this was definitely his last head coach stint with the Lions, was done with his opening statement. Asked if he had a captain in mind, Gatland commented:
"It’s got to be someone who has the respect of everyone in the squad. Ideally you want someone to be coming from a successful team. Alun Wyn Jones comes to mind at the moment, Owen Farrell too. "Potentially those two are players that you’d talk about. But two years is a long time and you never know what’s going to happen in the game."In the last Lions tour, Sam Warburton was captain but the Irish duo of Peter O'Mahony [Crusaders and First Test] and Rory Best led the side out. With the Premiership, in particular, and separate clubs pushing for a reduction in the Lions game schedule, Gatland was asked if he could possibly select a smaller squad for 2021. “Yeah absolutely," he said. "I know there was criticism of how we handled bringing in extra players in 2017. We’ve discussed about the potential of not having a midweek game before the first test. The scheduling hasn’t been decided. “But if you did pick a smaller squad, you may announce extra players, who could come out to cover us for a midweek fixture. We’re having discussions around that sort of thing.”
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