The Wales openside takes over the captaincy from veteran loosehead Gethin Jenkins having already led the team on a whole host of occasions. And the 25-year-old is looking to set the standards as the European Challenge Cup winners look to push themselves on to greater heights.
“As captain, you need to have the respect from your fellow players, and you can’t do that if your performances aren’t outstanding from week-to-week in training and in games,” he said.
“As always, I’ll try to play as well as I can, train as hard as I can.
“Of course, I’ll have some decisions to make on the way, but I got a lot of trust in the boys around me to help with those decisions and make decisions themselves as well. We’ve got a lot of experience within the squad, with the likes of Gethin, Blaine Scully – Captain America – and other boys who have captained Wales and captained the Blues.
“There’s a lot of experience of leadership here and our aim will be to make sure we carry on business as usual from the back end of last season. I won’t be trying to change the record. I just need to make sure I continue to do what I do.”
Jenkins, who was match-day captain for the Challenge Cup final win over Gloucester in May, joins Gethin Jenkins, Matthew Rees, Josh Turnbull, Nick Williams, Blaine Scully, Lloyd Williams, Gareth Anscombe, Garyn Smith and Owen Lane to make up the leadership group.
But the former Wales under 20s captain faces stiff competition for a place in John Mulvihill’s starting XV with the likes of Josh Navidi, Nick Williams, Samu Manoa, Josh Turnbull and Olly Robinson fighting for a back-row place.
“Navs [Josh Navidi] has been our best player for years, and when he got injured in the Challenge Cup final last year, and Olly [Robinson] came on and had man of the match.
“That’s the challenge here, and being captain you have to make sure, first and foremost, that your performances are excellent and that will warrant you getting picked. Even if you are captain, I’ve always said, if someone is playing better then they deserve to play.
“There are plenty of other boys who could step in as match-day captains. It’s good for us to have that competition.
“I think it showed last year in our performances, the pressure we’ve put on each other and what we were learning from each other in training. It spurred us on to be better.”
