British and Irish Lions 2017: Sam Warburton finally ready to lead tourists in bid to reach his own cup final

Sam Warburton’s résumé is not shy of a big game or two, laced with Rugby World Cup knockout matches, successful Six Nations deciders and even a victorious British and Irish Lions tour, yet on Saturday the Welshman will prepare for the most important day in his career yet.

“It’d be No 1. It’s definitely the biggest challenge of my career so far,” Warburton said on Thursday after being named captain for the Lions’ second Test against the reigning world champions, New Zealand.

Warburton replaces Peter O’Mahony as skipper, the Irishman brutally axed from the matchday squad for last weekend’s 30-15 defeat in the first Test. He does so tasked by head coach Warren Gatland to lead the breakdown intensity and, along with Maro Itoje, bring a physicality that the side lacked so clearly in the series opener.

It’s handy then that the tour captain arrives to meet the media straight from a Lions training session, his biceps bulging as he talks. Somewhat alarmingly, the weights session is not scheduled until the afternoon. Yet Warburton is not here to talk about how much he can lift, he’s here to talk about one of the things missing off his rugby CV – a victory over the All Blacks.

“It’s the one team I haven’t beaten in world rugby as well so it’s something I’m desperate to achieve,” he adds. “I have managed to beat every other nation in the world but I haven’t beaten New Zealand. For that fact put together with being away from home, starting in a Test match, it’s going to be the biggest honour in my career leading the boys on Saturday so I can’t wait for that.”

Gatland has never been one to talk down Warburton’s abilities. The pair’s relationship with Wales dates back to when the Kiwi named the Cardiff Blues flanker as his national team skipper in 2011 at the tender age of 22, and includes the successful Lions tour of Australia four years ago when Warburton skippered the touring side to a first series win since 1997.

Part of Gatland’s decision to entrust Warburton with such roles over the last six years is undoubtedly his talent that means, when fit, he has more than enough to start in a Test side, be it Wales or the Lions. But the other reason is for his personality, his honesty and the way that he always says the right thing.

That has been abundantly clear here in New Zealand. After suffering a knee injury eight weeks before the opening tour match – in which he then picked up a sore ankle – Warburton knew he was in a race against time to be fit for the first Test against the All Blacks. Following the mid-week defeat by the Highlanders two weeks ago, he knew he was undercooked having played just 135 minutes of rugby since the start of April, and so he told Gatland exactly that.

Warburton said: “To be perfectly honest, going into the tour when I had my knee injury, it was eight weeks out of action and I remember thinking ‘put a positive spin on it, it’ll be a mini-pre-season and I’ll be fresh’, but really it wasn’t great timing, it was poor timing for me.

“When I said before that I was approaching it as tour captain rather than Test captain, I spoke to Warren about it and I remember chatting a couple of weeks before, just after the Highlanders, and I said ‘I’ll be honest I don’t feel I’m at that level that I was in the Six Nations since I’ve come back from my knee injury’.

“But now I do feel ready, I’ve had a few hit-outs now and I do feel ready to get back to that level that I was in the Six Nations.”

The 28-year-old has still only played 178 minutes in three months, yet he is ready to go for broke against the best back-row in world rugby: Jerome Kaino and Kieran Read adding openside flanker Sam Cane to their dominant triumvirate since Richie McCaw’s retirement.

Warburton knows not only how good this back-row is, but also what the All Blacks can do to any side in the world. He has felt this on multiple occasions with Wales, most recently last year’s tour of New Zealand, but it was one near-miss in 2014 that taught him how the opposition cannot lose concentration for one second if they are to beat them, just as the Lions found out last Saturday.

“It was 2014, about 67 minutes, the whole game I felt we were in control of our try line,” he recalled. “And then an attacking kick, got a good bounce for the full-back and they went under the sticks. From that point then, we cascaded, went downhill and we went down pretty badly.”

If that happens again this weekend, you can expect Warburton to remain calm, but he also takes confidence in knowing that the 14 others around him in red will not panic either.

“It's very difficult to know where 15 players are at mentally. I always pride myself that I'll never quit, ever. I think in a team of 15 players, you only need two or three guys to think that, to drop their head and that could be the game gone. You need 15 guys who stay on it for the whole 80 minutes and those guys who come off the bench, exactly the same.

“I think you get that in a Lions team. It's very easy when you concede points and you're under the posts, no heads ever drop down because everyone's so competitive and they're all leaders in their own way that you don't get that in Lions teams.”

Warburton’s side will need bucket loads of that same confidence and resilience on Saturday if they are to win their “semi-final”, as Gatland put it on Thursday, but if they can pull off the mother of all upsets, Warburton will lead out the Lions next week in his own cup final.