Phil Vickery will break the Irish dominance of the captaincy of the 2009 British and Irish Lions when he leads the tourists against Western Province at Newlands Saturday.
Tour captain Paul O’Connell led the team into the games against the Royal XV, Free State Cheetahs and kwaZulu-Natal Sharks while Brian O’Driscoll was the man in charge when they faced the Golden Lions.
Vickery, who will be involved in his fourth match on the tour, took over as captain for a brief period when O’Driscoll was replaced against the Golden Lions, but the former England skipper will have the honour from the start for the first time on his second Lions tour.
Vickery’s London Wasps team-mate Riki Flutey gets his first start on tour after proving his fitness with a brief second-half appearance in the 39-3 midweek win over the Sharks.
”The coaching staff is very pleased with the way the squad reacted to some bad injury news this week. The players took the news on the chin, trained well, focussed on the next match and the performance against the Sharks was excellent,” said Lions head coach Ian McGeechan.
”The squad is very close as a group of players but now there is a competitive edge developing as we approach the Test series. That is how it should be.”
McGeechan has told his squad that places in the side for next week’s first Test against world champions South Afica in Durban are still up for grabs.
”I reminded the players when I told them the team to play Western Province that we were not selecting the Test side until next Tuesday following the Southern Kings match,” stressed McGeechan.
”The team for Western Province will be captained by Phil Vickery, who is one of the many leaders in the squad. It is just reward for a thoroughly professional player who will play in his 10th Lions match.
”’Vicks’ is a former captain of England and he played three Lions Tests against Australia in 2001.
”No starting players are backing up from the Sharks match as we continue our desire to see all players involved in at least two full matches prior to Test selection.
”Martyn Williams comes into the starting XV following his recovery from a shoulder knock and Riki Flutey gets his first starting role after proving his fitness off the bench against the Sharks.” — AFP
