26-year-old Warburton will match Ryan Jones’ feat of 33 caps as skipper on Saturday evening when he leads out the Welsh XV at the Stade de France. The back-row trio of Warburton, Lydiate and Taulupe Faletau have lined up alongside one-another, and Lydiate reckons we still have not seen the best of captain fantastic in a red jersey.
He said: “It’s a massive achievement for him and I think it’s testament to how he’s led the side over the last few years since the World Cup. But it doesn’t mean anything unless we get a result out there on Saturday so that’s what we’ll be focusing on.
“He came in as captain very young and he’s obviously matured as a player and as a captain as well and it’s something that he’s still growing into. Probably the best is still to come from him as skipper.”
Wales a chasing a fourth straight win over Philippe Saint-Andre’s side, who have made five changes to their side that fell to Ireland a fortnight ago. Lydiate does not have to worry about the imposing figure of Mathieu Bastareud until later in the match, after the Toulon centre was dropped top the bench.
But Wales’ top-chopper is still wary of the threats France pose, having fallen to them in the Rugby World Cup semi-final back in 2011.
He said: “France can be the best team in the world on their day, we know how dangerous and elusive they can be and you just have to hope they are not performing. We have to do everything within our powers to stop their free-flowing rugby and get stuck into them as best we can.We have to stick to our gameplan and that’s all we can do.”
