Wednesday 22 March 2017 09:54, UK
Eddie Jones has suggested British and Irish Lions coach Warren Gatland should name four captains for the tour of New Zealand.
The England head coach also added that Gatland should pick a captain from each of the four national teams.
England's Dylan Hartley, Scotland's Greig Laidlaw, Ireland's Rory Best and Wales' Alun Wyn Jones, all captains of their countries, are among the names in contention.
"I would take those four captains and make that the leadership group," Jones said.
"Then after the warm-up games, whoever was the leading player I would make captain for the first Test.
"You look at the last Lions tour and Sam Warburton captained the first two and Alun Wyn Jones captained the third, so I think you can separate it.
"It would be different but I would reckon you would get a great result, with those four captains running the team for you and making sure they set the standards on and off the field."
Gatland will announce his Lions squad on April 19 and he also told Sky Sports News HQ that his captain would not be a guaranteed starter.
"For me, the first thing with a Lions captain is, if you're picking a Lions starting XV tomorrow, I'd look at it and go, 'do I think that person's likely to start?' There'd be no guarantees of course but that will potentially narrow it down for the captain of the Lions," he said.
"But for some positions there's so much competition it's going to be pretty tough to narrow down a captain, and whoever captains the team, it's a great honour but two or three other people are going to have to fulfil that role during the tour anyway in other games and you're going to need leadership from all parts of the squad. That's going to be incredibly important."
All 10 games of the British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand will be shown live on Sky Sports, starting June 3.
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